As the 2023-2024 school year begins, the Jesuit volleyball team faces a lot of uncertainties as many changes are occurring within the young program. The team has a new head coach who is looking to lead a group of talented athletes to a winning season.
Who is Coach Wilson?
Coach Wilson began coaching volleyball as a college student. He played basketball but his friends-who were on the volleyball team-were in need of a coach. He fell in love with the sport and decided to begin coaching as a profession. When asked about why Coach Wilson came to Jesuit, he responded with,
“The coach [at Jesuit] that I knew resigned and I thought it would be cool to [coach volleyball] on the side, and then I got to thinking about really trying to build the [Jesuit volleyball] program into something, and that’s what brought me here.”
Hopes for Jesuit
Coach Wilson came to Jesuit with hope of building a young program into something bigger, with a selfless team dynamic. As a coach, Wilson focuses on playing with devotion and maintaining a good connection within the players. He believes creating a strong, passionate team dynamic is what makes the sport fun and allows players to get the most out of their work. In response to being asked about his style of coaching, he said,
“I try to make the main thing the main thing. Are we playing passionately, are we playing assertively, are we working on the right things. A lot of things go into being a great team, but as a coach I try to communicate clearly what makes volleyball the most fun.”
Coach Wilson is drawn to versatile athleticism within his players as opposed to focusing on the niche skills of a volleyball player. This is because Wilson himself fell in love with volleyball as an athlete trying new things, as opposed to a “volleyball player”. He said,
“I didn’t learn the game as a really good player, I learned as an athlete. So I look for athletes and notice athleticism within players. This appeals to me because I wasn’t the most skilled, I was just an athlete.”
He said athletes playing multiple sports allows players to “develop in a different way,” which is why he enjoys the process of introducing athletes to the rules of volleyball and teaching them to use their athleticism in many different ways to excel in multiple sports.
He complimented Jesuit and their athletics program by saying most coaches encourage their athletes to play other sports, whereas other schools may worry about losing athletes from mainstream sports to play for smaller teams.
Preparation for This Season
In order to prepare for the spring season, the team is practicing a couple days a week. Wilson has also made efforts to get the players to play sand volleyball, and each Monday, players will work to develop their skills on the sand. Coach Wilson believes that the difficulty of movement on the sand helps to prepare them physically for the equivalent movements on a standard court.
Overall, the future of Jesuit volleyball is bright and with the help from Coach Wilson, determined athletes will strive to succeed and make a name for the volleyball program. Fans can come to watch the first game in early May, and the team hopes for a large crowd to start the season!
