I grew up living on the beach in Daytona. Since the beach was my backyard, I started surfing competitively at 11. And played competitive beach volleyball daily. I entered every local surfing and volleyball competition I could. Being vertically challenged I could never get to that elite level in volleyball but still loved the game. My love of coaching began in the late 80s early 90s with helping my old high-school coaches with the wrestling and surfing teams. In 2005 I started coaching youth sports at Holiday Park in Fort Lauderdale. I coached the soccer, flag football, volleyball, and basketball teams in multiple age groups. It’s my way of giving back to the community. I still coach there and plan on continuing for years to come. I was the assistant volleyball coach for Fort Lauderdale high for 2 years. Volleyball and soccer coach for Parkway Middle for 3 years and most recently volleyball and soccer coach at New River middle. I helped the volleyball team get to the playoffs all 3 years with an undefeated regular season in 2 of those 3 years.
My coaching goal/mission statement is to:
“Help athletes advance their skill level through providing a solid foundation in fundamentals and technical skill sets. As well as developing a team with good sportsmanship and core values.”
As a parent of 2 volleyball players, a coach of multiple teams in multiple sports, years of volleyball coaching experience, and graduate of multiple coaching courses and clinics (many taught by pro coaches); I’ve learned to understand and respect the goals, motivations, and needs of the youth athlete. I take great pride in my ability to assess what motivates the athletes, provide an enriching environment to cultivate thier life skills, and creating practice plans that will advance their volleyball skills and knowledge as individuals and as a team. I want to teach them not to look to the coach for what to do next but to learn to make the right choices themselves while in the moment. I hope to be a positive mentor to the athletes while instilling life lessons that will impact them for the rest of their life journey.
1 of my favorite quote went something like this:
“The difference between a good coach and a great coach is a great coach inspires, motivates and empowers players to be successful on and off the court.”
I’m not sure who said it but I’ve governed my coaching style with it for years.
