By Zach Weinberg, Tennessee Tech Women’s Volleyball Assistant Coach & Recruiting Coordinator

As coaches, we know the importance of continuing to grow in our volleyball coaching skills. Whether we are attending convention, watching new training videos, or reading coaching books, the resources are readily available to improve in our craft. But, once we leave the court, how do we continue to grow as resources for our student athletes, and which of those skills do administrators see as valuable? For the answer to that, I turned to three of the brightest minds in our athletic department here at Tennessee Tech.

Director of Athletics Mark Wilson, Assistant AD for Academics and Student-Athlete Welfare Dr. Leveda Birdwell, and Assistant AD for Compliance/Senior Women’s Administrator Mandy Thatcher sat down with me to discuss what, in their eyes, coaches should be doing to become the best resources they can be for their student athletes. The best part about their advice is that it is applicable for all coaches; none of it is exclusive to just head coaches, assistant coaches, or directors of operations. All advice is paraphrased for the sake of this blog, but all ideas belong to the person who spoke them.

Mark Wilson: The most important thing coaches can do, outside of their day to day responsibilities, is to make themselves invaluable to the athletic department. Coming from someone who runs a small department, coaches volunteering what time they do have shows how much they care about the success of our athletic department. The more they are active and engaged in the athletic department as well as their community, the more unique situations they will encounter, which will help with problem solving. As coaches and administrators, isn’t solving problems what we do? The more experience you have with it, the better you will become.

Dr. Leveda Birdwell: During season, coaches (rightfully so) get tunnel vision on the task at hand of winning, and student athlete welfare may not be top of mind. Out of season, I think it would be great for coaches to grow by spending a day in each administrative office, almost like a job shadow, to see how each office deals with different non-sport specific student-athlete issues and their day to day operations. Each department deals with student athletes differently, but the end goal is the same-to provide the best student-athlete experience during their time at the school. Spending some time in other offices, even if that time is as brief as just a day, would open some coach’s eyes and make them more well-rounded in thinking about the balance student-athletes go through between sports, academics, and the stresses of being 18-22 years old.

Mandy Thatcher: In this COVID time, the mental health of our student-athletes is more important than it has ever been. Between the pandemic and the social injustice/race relation issues that have presented themselves, our student athletes also have more on their mind than they ever have. As their coaches and their “parents away from home”, it is so important to grow in the amount of vulnerable topics you are able to talk to them about. The student-athletes may have nowhere to turn other than their coaches…while almost all schools have some sort of counseling center, they might not have a sport psychologist who can help discuss with them how their sport ties into all of the issues and stresses they may be feeling. I’m not saying the coach needs to be a sport psychologist, but learning what they can and knowing how to talk to and help these athletes is as important to a coach’s job as ever.