A “Qualifying Life Event"
A subtle yet momentous change of scenery...
There’s an old cliché in education that I’ve come to appreciate.
“You become a teacher because you love students.
You become an administrator because you love teachers.”
I’ve spent at least the last decade as an NCAA Division I assistant coach or performance analyst. During that time, I also began studying coach learning and development. Those studies eventually gave birth to this Substack as well as to a long list of presentations and webinars. All that writing and speaking has made it clear to me that my passions are now more directed towards mentoring and teaching coaches and analysts than towards doing the actual coaching and analysis myself.
This gradual shift in my priorities, coupled with how I’ve been feeling about the future of NCAA sports, led me to begin thinking about what would be next in my career. Luckily for me, I was offered a place to go much sooner than I had expected. When you read this, I will no longer be working at a college volleyball program anymore. I’ll be working at VolleyStation as the Coordinator of Client Education.
My new job allows me to be a full-time mentor and teacher of volleyball analysts across the world. It’s exciting to have the opportunity to help beginners learn about analysis and to aid experts in their efforts to keep expanding and innovating.
I won’t make this Substack an extension of my new job. This was and continues to be a place for me to talk about coaching. But I do hope that my new job will influence how I communicate about analysis to coaches. The remainder of this summer is going to be an interesting time, as I find my footing in my new setting.
Throughout this personal transition, I expect to continue writing about interesting ideas and topics. I hope you will continue to find my messages challenging and inspirational. As always, I welcome your thoughts in the comments or via email. Thanks for being part of my explorations.