Melrose Volleyball Club 2017 Player/Parent Handbook
Introduction Welcome to an exciting season of Melrose Volleyball Club! As a club, we strive to put together the best resources for our program to grow and continue to get better. Also, we want the JO season to be a time for our players to learn, improve, and grow as athletes. The JO season is a very important time for our volleyball program; this is where we work on skills, team building, offensive/defensive systems, and game situations. It is the hope of the Melrose Volleyball Program that the JO season is a fun experience, but also an experience where each of our players can continue to gain experience and skills that will carry over into the regular volleyball season. This handbook is your guide to the JO Volleyball season. In this handbook, we will lay out guidelines, expectations, and information about playing time, teams, schedules and our philosophy. It is important that you read this handbook with your parents to fully understand what JO Volleyball is all about. We, as a coaching staff, feel that it is of utmost importance to take every opportunity afforded to us to improve and to ensure that each opportunity to play volleyball is time well spent. We are hoping to take Melrose Volleyball to the next level in the coming years, and we hope that the players share our commitment, enthusiasm, and dedication! If you have any questions about anything that is covered in this handbook, please do not hesitate to contact me! We are very happy that you have decided to make the commitment for yourself and the team, and that you have decided to participate in Melrose JO Volleyball! Sincerely, Stevan Waddell Head Volleyball Coach, Melrose Area High School 2
Table of Contents I. Expectations pg. 4 5 II. Player s Roles pg. 6 III. Coaches Roles pg. 7 IV. Parent s Roles pg. 8 IV. Tournaments pg. 9 V. Practices pg. 10 VI. Philosophy pg. 11 VI. Schedule pg. 12 VII. Contacts/Commit pg. 13 VIII. Calendar pgs. 14-16 Desire is the key to motivation, but it s determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal a commitment to excellence that will enable you to obtain the success you seek. - Mario Andretti 3
Expectations For our players to get as much out of the JO Volleyball season as possible, there have been certain expectations that have been set to ensure that this is an experience of growth, development, and improvement. We expect that all players abide by these expectations at all times to represent their school, community and team with respect and class throughout the season. Practice Expectations 1. Make an effort to attend each practice session. We understand that there are conflicts, but it is important for each player to be at practice at all times! If you will not be at practice, it is important to communicate to your coaches as soon as possible, so they can plan accordingly. 2. Come to practice ready to learn and work. We need to use all of the time that is afforded to us during this season. We only have about 10 practice sessions, so it is imperative that we make use of our time! 3. Take the direction of the coaches. We are lucky to have quality coaches in our program that have a lot of playing and coaching experience. These coaches have been around the game a lot, and they are a wealth of knowledge! It is extremely important that our players are coachable and able to take direction! 4. Work hard in every drill. Even it is the first or one-hundredth time doing the drill, it is important that you give maximum effort in every drill! At times, it is appropriate to ask questions about a particular drill, but the coach will do their best to explain the rationale behind each drill before the drill starts. Make sure that your questions are asked respectfully and at appropriate times! 5. Leave your cell phones and personal lives out of practice! Oftentimes, players will lose focus because of outside influences. Use practice as a time to clear your head from other distractions and simply focus on the skills that are being taught and worked on! Excessive cell phone use will cause you to not pay attention to what is being taught and will force the coach to re-teach many things that can be accomplished the first time. Use your time effectively! 6. Have fun! Practice is meant to be challenging but also fun! As coaches, we will do everything in our power to make each practice a time for our players to learn and grow, but also a time to enjoy playing volleyball with your teammates! 4
Tournament Expectations 1. Make an effort to attend each tournament or playdate. This is where you, as a player, and the team as a whole will be able to implement all of the things that we work on in practice. This is where the maximum growth as a player occurs, and the time when all of the hard work will pay off! 2. Use your down time effectively. There will be times during tournaments when you will not be scheduled to play or referee. This is a great time to bond with your teammates or watch other teams play. We, as a coaching staff, are firm believers in watching volleyball as much as possible. Players will often see things that they can implement into their own game by watching other players play. 3. Be respectful of your opponents, referees, opposing coaches and fans. Always remember that you are representing Melrose Volleyball! Being disrespectful not only makes you look bad, but it reflects poorly on the program! We want teams to enjoy playing us because of our abilities as players, but also because of our attitudes on the court. 4. Be supportive of your teammates! There will be times when you will be sitting on the bench; make sure that you are using this time to support the members of your team, taking stats, looking for openings or being a cheerleader. Your teammates will appreciate your support, and this will help to build the type of program that we are striving for! 5. Take the opportunities to be a referee, line judge, or scorekeeper. These are skills that are applicable to life, so it s important that you take these opportunities as well! You will learn a lot about the game by being a part of this aspect! Take these roles seriously NO CELL PHONES WHILE WORKING AS THE REFEREEING TEAM! 6. Win with class! We all want to win, but make sure that you are not rubbing it in the other team s face when we win. If the other team has poor sportsmanship, take that opportunity to be the bigger person. 7. Lose with dignity. It is very rare that one team will win every game, and it is important to lose with respect. There will always be a better player or team, so respect their success; chances are, they have worked very hard for it! It s important not to hate your opponent; rather, love the game! 8. Have fun! We, as coaches, cannot stress this enough! Have fun competing, improving, and growing as an individual and as a team. Leave each tournament knowing that you took every opportunity to get better for the good of the program. NO REGRETS! 5
Player s Roles Every player in this program will have a specific role. It s important to understand your role and fill that particular role to the best of your ability. Each player will get opportunities to play, but the coaches will do what is best for the team as a whole. It is impossible to please everybody, but the coaches will do their best to always help the program grow, individually and as a team. If you are unhappy with your role, you must work hard to improve! Nothing is ever handed to anyone; sports take a lot of work, both mentally and physically. If you think that you will achieve your goals simply because you want to, you are mistaken! Understand that you need to work hard in each practice and tournament to make the sort of growth that we are striving for in Melrose Volleyball! It is very easy to blame other people if you are unhappy with your role as a player, especially in regards to playing time. The coaches will take a very objective view of their teams, and they will always do what is best for the overall team. That may mean that you will play all six rotations, play front row, back row, or fill in when needed. Keep in mind that this can change, but you have to be willing to commit to the change! As players, your job is to play the game and to strive to improve everyday. Players are not coaches and coaches are not players. There needs to be an understanding that whatever the coach chooses for their particular team is final. If you have questions about your role, communicate with your coach! Make sure that you are not simply asking why am I not playing? Ask things like, what can I do to play in the front row? or what can I work on to improve my serving? The more specific your question, the easier it is for a coach to answer! Finally, never blame other players on the team. It is not the fault of your teammates if they are playing more than you; it is important to celebrate their success and support them at all times! Stay positive and supportive of Melrose Volleyball! If you have questions for your coaches, please approach them individually! Do not have your parents talk to the coaches about playing time! It is important for you, as a player, to advocate for yourself! NEVER, NEVER, NEVER use social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) as a way to vent your frustrations! Any player caught bashing the club or their coach via social networking will lose playing time or be asked to leave the team! (Depending on the situation). 6
Coach s Roles Coaches have a very difficult job, and oftentimes they are criticized brutally! It is important to understand that the coaches are there to coach. They are putting in a lot of time into the program because they love the game, and they love coaching! We are extremely lucky to have as many quality coaches in our program as we do! Just as you, as a player, will rarely play a perfect game, coaches will rarely coach a perfect match. This is also a time for coaches to learn and grow, so it is important for players to understand that as well. As a club, we will do our best to prepare our players and coaches for each tournament, but understand that this is a learning experience for us, as coaches, as well. The coaches will do their best to communicate as openly and honestly throughout the season. They will always make decisions with the interest of the team at heart! It is our goal to have each coach communicate their decisions with the team, but they will not explain each decision at all times. If you have questions, ask, but make sure that you are doing so in a respectful way! The coach s job is NOT to babysit when at tournaments. It is the player s job to behave in a way that is respectful when at tournaments. This is a time for our coaches to focus on the matches, NOT make sure that the players are behaving themselves. Again, if you have a question for your coach, ask! We have coaches in the program that care about the program and the individual players, and understand that they want what is best for the team! It is very easy to claim that a coach is favoring one player over the other. It is also very easy for players to blame a coach. Understand that the coaches will see the players in each of their practices, and they will make judgment calls throughout the season. It is NEVER the intention of the coaches to make any players feel badly about themselves. We want each player to improve and grow throughout the season and more importantly to enjoy her time playing volleyball! 7
Parent s Roles We are extremely lucky to have supportive parents in the Melrose Volleyball Program! We do understand that each of the parents want what is best for their own children, and we as coaches want what is best for the team! With that in mind, it is NEVER the intention of the coach or the program to make the players feel badly about their performance. The coaches will do their best to stay as objective about each decision as possible. It has become the nature of team sports over the past few years for parents to become more and more involved. We welcome the parents to be involved in the program as supporters and advocates for the program! The more support we can get from parents, the more enjoyable our job becomes! With that being said, we also want to teach our players to become self-advocates. If there are issues with things that are happening in the club, the players should feel confident approaching their coaches in a respectful and appropriate way. Parents should not approach any coach about playing time. If a player feels that they are not getting the playing time that they feel they should be getting, the player, to help resolve the issue, should address questions, to the coach. If the player does not feel that adequate resolution is being made, then the player should approach either Coach Waddell or Coach Traeger for a solution. There will be time to discuss these issues with the Club Directors, if needed, but this should be used for issues that cannot be worked out with the coach. If, after meeting with the Club Directors, the player still doesn t feel that there has been resolution, then a parent and Club Directors meeting can be established. This should be a last resort option for parents! Understand that we will not be at every practice or tournament, so we may not be able to resolve all of the issues. Suggestions are welcomed if they are made respectfully and to the correct parties. Please make any suggestions to the Club Directors, rather than the coaches. 8
Tournaments As a club, we will do our best to enroll our teams into the best quality tournaments that we can find. It is our goal to have each team play in 5 tournaments throughout the season for 12s-17s teams and 4 tournaments for 10-s-11s.. The tournaments will be played in our geographic region, so that the travel time will be as minimal as possible. Our #1 goal is to play in the best possible tournaments that will help our teams to grow as much as possible throughout the season. Overall, we want to play as much as possible without causing any conflicts with families, Spring Sports, or school sanctioned activities. As far as playing time at tournaments, the individual coach will have the final say. The following guidelines will be used for each team: Each player will play during pool play. This does not mean that each player will play all six rotations, but they will have the opportunity to play in a role that the coach feels is appropriate for the player with the teams best interest in mind. Tournament play will not be equal playing. We will go into tournament play with the idea that we will put the line-up on the floor that the coach feels will give his/her team the best opportunity to be successful. Unexcused absences from practices will result in loss of playing time at tournaments. The more touches on the ball each player gets, the more improvement they will acquire throughout the season. Excessive absences will result in loss of playing time. The goal of each team is to put the best possible line-up together as possible to become successful. This will help Melrose Volleyball to grow as a program and the individual players to become comfortable in their positions. We want to use JO Volleyball as a catalyst for the regular season, so there may be some adjustments to the line up made throughout the season. This will give the coaches insight into what certain players can do, and where they may be most beneficial to the program during the regular season. 9
Practices Practice is an extremely important aspect of JO Volleyball. In my experience, I have had players that think that they can simply show up to tournaments to play without putting the time in at practice. This is not true! First, it is not fair to your teammates or your coaches, and you, as a player, will not make the improvements that we are looking for in this program! We are continuing a solid program here, and that starts with practice. Although attendance at practice is important, it s equally important that you come to practice ready and willing to learn and grow as a volleyball player. Having a positive attitude towards practice, taking direction from your coach and being coachable, and treating each practice like a game situation are ways that you will improve as a player. It is important that you take practice seriously and use it as a time to learn! JO Volleyball will be a secondary activity for many players. We want athletes at Melrose that play more than one sport. If you are involved in a school sport during the JO season, your commitment to that sport will come first! DO NOT MISS A GAME OR PRACTICE FOR A JO COMMITMENT! Think about your priorities in this way: 1. Family/Personal 2. School (Academics) 3. School-Sanctioned Activities 4. JO Volleyball With that being said, there does need to be a level of commitment if you truly want to get as much out of this volleyball season as possible. There will be members of your team putting in a lot of time to this club. If you want to improve your playing time, you should improve your skills, and that means coming to practice. If a player misses practice for an unexcused absence, then they will sit out for one set at the following tournament. Two practices missed for an unexcused absence will equal two sets missed, and so on. Excessive absences will lead to removal from the team. We need to have committed players in this club! We will do our best scheduling practices during times that have little conflicts with other activities, but understand that there is not a lot of open gym time! 10
Club Philosophy We, as a club, want JO Volleyball to be an enjoyable experience for everyone involved: players, coaches and parents. For this to work, I think it s important for everyone to have an understanding about what this club is intended for, and what our goals are for the JO Volleyball season. This club will be used as a learning experience for all of our volleyball players. We would like each of our players to grow throughout the season and become more skilled in volleyball. This will also be an opportunity for the players in our club to develop skills that they will need to be successful players for the school season. Some players may be asked to play positions that they are not familiar with or comfortable playing. The JO season is a great time for this! We can use our practice and tournament time as a way to work with line-ups and try players at different positions than what they are used to playing. For the younger teams (10s, 11s, and 12s), the coaches will start to implement skills that will help prepare them to play Junior High volleyball. For most of our younger players, JO will be their first experience with volleyball, and we want to make it a positive one. The coaches will emphasize skills in passing, serving, setting, hitting and team play. Along with skill development, we also want the JO experience to be a place where our younger players can gain a love of the game! For our older teams (13s-17s), the coaches will emphasize skills to bring Melrose Volleyball to a higher level. We will be introducing different defensive and offensive systems, work on higher level skills in serving, passing, setting, hitting and defense, and also look at preparing our teams for the fall season. It is our goal to keep all of the players playing with their own grade level. Because the numbers in some of our age groups are a bit smaller than others, there may need to be a little bit of shuffling. Some players may need to play up. We will never ask players to play in a grade level lower than their own grade. Again, we will do our best to keep all of the grades together as much as possible. Moving up of players will often be dependent on position. Please do not read too much into any shuffling of players; oftentimes players will feel discouraged if they don t move up. Remember, decisions are made that will be the best for the TEAM, not the INDIVIDUAL! 11
Schedule Practice Schedule Practices will be on Sunday afternoons and one night during the week beginning on March 5 th. Each team will coordinate their practice schedules within this range, and it may change. We would like to give teams flexibility in their scheduling, so all of the members of the teams have the opportunity to attend. Practice schedules will be emailed and updated on the website when they become available. The first day of practice will be Sunday, March 5 th 4:00-6:00 (13s, 14s, 15s, 16s, 17s). Tournament Schedule Once the final schedule has been solidified, each player will receive a copy of the tournament schedule. Please understand that tournaments fill up quickly, and we will try to update all players and parents of any changes as soon as possible. Contacts If you should have any questions or comments throughout the season, feel free to contact the Melrose Volleyball Club board at: coachcoordinator1@melrosevolleyball.com We look forward to a great season, and we hope that you do as well! Finally, we ask that the parents and players sign the bottom portion of this page and return it to Coach Waddell. This shows that you have read this handbook and you understand the policies of Melrose Volleyball Club. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I, (Player s Name), along with my parents or guardians, have read and understand the policies of Melrose Volleyball Club. (Player s Signature) (Parent s/guardian s Signature) 12
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