Net Diary: A Volleyball Club's Start-Up Story

Coaching the Parents

2012-02-24T09:39:00.000-08:00

By Chris Beerman

As a collegiate coach for 20 years, one of my strengths as a recruiter was building relationships and connections with the parents of the high school player I was recruiting. The relationship began with the recruiting process, which of course is ALWAYS positive. Just as I do now, I had a no-nonsense approach, which differed greatly from the used car salesmen style utilized by many college coaches trying to land the big star. I believe the best part of my approach was that once a player was enrolled in college and playing for my team, my relationship with that player’s parents didn’t suddenly change. I was still very honest, cordial and no-nonsense, so the parents and players would always know where they stood and what they needed to do to improve and/or play a more significant role.

I also didn’t try to hide the fact that I was an intense, demanding coach with very high expectations, so that aspect of practice was also not a shock for the now-enrolled college freshman. Players who were not into that kind of coach were not interested in my school, and I was fine with that. I encouraged those players to find a program that better met their needs. In the end, the kids who chose to play for me loved what it was all about and likewise made coaching enjoyable for me because I was working with my “kind” of kids (and parents). There were always exceptions, but that was the philosophy I lived by, and for the most part, was successful with.

The reason for this long-winded introduction is to shed light on my perception of one of the biggest issues regarding club volleyball and youth sports in general: parents. When contemplating making the move to the club world, many of my colleagues advised against it simply because I would have too much frustration dealing with the parents. I heard this warning from quite a few friends I really trusted who had been involved in club for many years, and it actually gave me cause for concern, or at least prepared me for what I would be dealing with. In addition, I have read the drumbeat of articles and blogs regarding the “millennial problem” and “helicopter parents” parenting issues that experts have stated creates entitled kids, questionable work ethics, attention deficits, a lack of leaders, and overly zealous parents micromanaging every aspect of their kids’ lives.

I believe this generation of kids is different than any other simply because they have grown up in a different world than any other generation. The world I grew up in as a child in the 70’s and 80’s was not much different than the one my parents grew up in the 50’s and 60’s. Neither of us had cable TV, internet, cell phones, or “club” sports. We were all three-sport athletes, the recruiting process started when you were a junior and youth sports was relatively unorganized and done for fun and the love of playing the game. Things have changed drastically in the last 10 to 15 years and not recognizing that fact already clouds your ability to deal with today’s youth and their parents. (Click here for an interesting article on the generation of kids today). In my short duration as a club director I have found that one thing holds true about parents that has remained true since the beginning of time: parents care and are protective of their kids. How it now manifests itself is what’s different about today.

I have had a few parent meetings, both as teams and with individuals and in both situations the thing I wanted to emphasize the most to parents was that I was there to listen. Even the most absurd parent complaint has some truth in there somewhere and it’s important that you, the Club Director, listen to their concern and attempt to resolve the issue. As a parent myself, I completely understand how parents feel about their children. Giving a parent an ability to voice their concern, listen to the problem, give your take on the situation and then remedy the problem with a compromise or resolution creates a trusting parent/director relationship that puts fires out quickly and doesn’t allow the flames to be fanned. In my first meeting with all the parents of the club, I made sure they knew that if they had a problem about anything they should come to me, not their coach. If it is a playing time issue, they are to instruct their daughter to meet with the coach and have a one on one meeting discussing what they need to do. If it is something else, I will listen.

So far I have had very little if any major issues utilizing this method of parent communication and I feel the support for the coaches has been excellent. Parents want their kids to be pushed, get better, have fun and enjoy the game. Parents love it when they see their kids smile and get back in the car after a match or practice excited and motivated for the next one. This is a customer service business and I think sometimes that aspect is lost in the egos of club directors. Pushing parents away, talking down to them, or ignoring their concerns creates a non-trusting negative vibe that can destroy a club. Club volleyball is also not for everyone and possibly our club’s philosophy is not for everyone, but our parents will always know for sure that our number one focus is their kids and making sure they have the best experience possible. Parents care about their kids’ well-being and they want their money to be well-spent. I understand these concepts and believe it’s important that you’re honest, no-nonsense and provide an ear to listen. There’s always at least an ounce of truth in every complaint, don’t be afraid to listen and constantly evaluate what you are providing for your customer; that’s the only way you grow, improve and provide a club culture that parents can trust.

How To Train Winning and Competitiveness

2012-02-09T07:37:00.000-08:00

By Chris Beerman

I am a competitive person; always have been, always will be. I am one of those guys that while driving will pull slightly ahead of the guy next to me at the stoplight just to be ahead of him! I’m an awful loser and don’t ever believe you accept mediocrity in anything. That said, now I run a youth volleyball club with close to 300 members ranging in age from 6-18 years old and my quest is to create a competitive culture that makes Lexington one of the volleyball hotspots in the country. Our neighbor to the northwest, Louisville has established an incredible record of winning, high-level training and churning out confident, big-time volleyball players. The best thing about the players from Louisville or even our partner city, Muncie, IN is how competitive they are, how hard they play the game and how well-rounded they are as volleyball players. How do we replicate that or at least start the development of that mentality in Lexington?

The answer seems easy: just train the heck out of your players and compete in practice every day. Although I believe that is the foundation of creating a playing culture as I’ve described, if it was that easy everyone would do it. Why do places like Muncie or Louisville dominate every year in national events? Are their athletes superior, are their coaches better, is it their feeder programs? Are there other factors? Each of these areas had local volleyball coaches/leaders start with small programs as start-ups and then slowly built the culture through great training and competitive kids. For the vast majority of successful club programs, the rise to the top was slow and steady and was built with a consistent philosophy, great coaching and big goals. As a few successful teams emerged within these clubs, legacies were born and then role models and new leaders emerged. Young children in these communities suddenly had heroes to aspire to. Players began training at the younger ages and the idea of attending college on a volleyball scholarship and playing the game they love, made for even more motivation.

Most of the successful club dynasties have a 25-30 year head start on Lexington United, but my competitiveness and impatience for failure, makes me want our club to aspire to greatness now. I believe setting very high standards and expectation levels is the only way, however that must be tempered somewhat by realism. Unfortunately setting the bar too high or expecting too much too early only leads to a lack of confidence and questions about procedures. So expecting greatness and continuing to build confidence is the fine line we’ll be walking with our club.

The great thing about my own team’s late practice time (8:00-10:00pm) is that I get to observe and interact with all the earlier practices. On a recent night, I thought many of the teams were not disciplined enough in how they were executing what the coaches were teaching. The players of one particular team were going through the motions of the drill, but the pace, focus and execution level was not making them better. I may be slightly different in that when I see a situation like that, my first instinct is to put the onus on the players rather than the coaches. Even the worst drill can be executed at a high level with pace and focus. I want the players to have pride in what they do and to take accountability in themselves and avoid the blame game and obviously the coach needs to have great energy and attention to detail as well. Was this isolated drill function making Lexington’s volleyball culture better at that moment or were we remaining mediocre?

This is the kind of thought process I want my coaches to be thinking about and the kind of detail that I will continue to hammer home. I want our players to develop pride in how they perform in practice, in themselves and their teammates. Nothing is more motivating and develops more confidence than playing fast, executing at a high level and personally taking pride in how your team “looks” while practicing. This translates directly to competition. The teams that win have pride in the details and extremely high personal and team performance expectations. We are on our way there and the most exciting part for me is that when I or our coaches raise the intensity level or expect more, the kids rise immediately to the challenge; they WANT to be great! It’s hard right now for them to maintain the level on their own, so that’s why our coaches need to be 24/7 people in practice; the expectations can never stop for a second. When this aspect of training and pride is player-driven rather than coach-driven, we will have the winning culture established here in Lexington. The journey there is the fun part and the competitor in me wants and expects the journey to be a quick one!

Competition Time!

2012-01-26T06:47:00.000-08:00

By Chris Beerman

Our season is off and running and Lexington United teams are beginning their competitive seasons with tournaments all around the lower Midwest. Our 17’s and 18’s got an early start in mid-January at the Mideast Power League and our 13 Black and 15 Blue teams made the journey down to the Knoxville, TN area for a tournament hosted by K2 Volleyball. Both battled hard and our 13’s made a great run on Sunday losing in the Gold Final in 3 close games. Great competitive start and certainly room for improvement, and the greatest thing about actually playing is the results allow you to get back in the gym and train your weaknesses. I have been very pleased with the overall practice vibes of our teams and feel all of the coaches have bought into what we are trying to accomplish from a philosophical standpoint. I have been able to get around to almost every practice on every night, so I have a pretty good feel for the teams that are really getting it and likewise the teams that need a boost once in awhile.

Our coaches have had good energy, been organized and are creating learning environments and generally happy players. Although Lexington had a smattering of club attempts in the past, nothing ever stuck, so our 23 teams represent an incredibly wide and diverse experience and ability spectrum. This fact makes for a challenge when scheduling tournaments for teams. We decided our Regional teams would literally play a “regional” schedule with Louisville being their farthest trip. The fact is we have so many great tournament options within an hour of Lexington, not to mention the events we host, so it really makes for an affordable, yet competitive tournament schedule. Regional teams will play 5 or 6 tournaments and wrap up their seasons’ in late April. Our Elite teams play in 10 or 11 tournaments including AAU’s at the end, so scheduling is much more intensive and diverse. We play in the Mideast Power League as well as various tournaments locally, in Louisville, Indianapolis and Cincinnati. We will also have a few teams travel to Houston for the JVA World Challenge and of course many of our 1’s and 2’s teams will finish their seasons in Orlando at the AAU National Championships.

All in all, I believe our parents are getting a lot of bang for their buck and our competitive goals for our teams in regard to scheduling is to challenge our teams, but not overwhelm them. I’ve seen other clubs sandbag their teams by playing in lower divisions and claim easy victories and I’ve also seen clubs over-schedule, get crushed and take pride in the fact that they are playing against the best. The problem with that is if you keep getting your head beat in, you’re losing your confidence and learning to lose a lot. I think being as honest as possible in evaluating the talent-level of your team and putting them in the best position to be challenged, yet have a legitimate chance to win matches is the best approach. On the other hand, we do need our top teams to play as competitive of a schedule as possible so we have “leaders” within the club. Then our less experienced players can aspire to that level and our club, led by the leaders, can gradually make moves toward being a regional power and eventually a national power.

The other focus regarding our competitive season is we want our teams to peak at the end; to continually improve and through competitive trial and error, learn the factors in volleyball that decide winners and losers. One factor of a winning volleyball team (I’m impressed with already in our club) is the close relationships and cohesiveness of our teams, and how much fun they are having. It’s something I want to make sure I continue to see all the way into late spring/early summer.

Another really neat and important aspect of our club that we’ve been able to launch is our youth programs for both 6-9 year olds and 10 and 11 year olds. Both programs run one day a week for an hour and a half and are run by myself and two very experienced coaches who excel at fundamental training. As someone who coached at the collegiate level for 20 years and had very little experience with kids this age, I find these little ones an absolute blast to work with. The kids are so enthusiastic and excited and the improvement on a weekly basis is incredible. Introducing our great sport in a fun and fundamentally focused way to young kids and getting them hooked is the key to our community becoming the next great volleyball hotbed in this country. The cool thing I’ve discovered in working with this age group is you don’t have to skimp on volleyball. We’ve been able to run straight, modified volleyball skill training with kids as young as 6 years old, and keep them rolling for over an hour. Too me the kids that age want to be like the big girls and learn how to actually play volleyball. Kind of cool!

Thanks again for following the blog. My 16’s team will be heading up to Muncie this weekend to launch our season at the Mideast Power League, so I’m excited to start competing. As always, don’t hesitate to question or comment about anything. Best of luck to everyone competing this weekend!

LUV the Game - Establishing Your Club's Training Philosophy

2012-01-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

By Chris Beerman

Happy New Year! Now that the holidays are over, it’s back to work for everyone, especially club directors. This is the exciting time of the year as teams kick off their official practice schedules, get to know their new teammates, and prepare for the early competitions. Lexington United has 23 Girls 12-18 year old teams, the LUV Bugs program for 6-9 year olds, and a Youth Training Team for 10 and 11 year olds and all of these are off and running. Our coaches are doing a great job so far and there’s a lot of excitement, sweat and smiles at practice.

The goal early on is to establish our club training philosophy, which focuses on ball control, speed, pursuit and aggressive-intelligence and then begin the process of developing roles on teams and creating systems for the respective age groups. Constant improvement is the main foundational goal of the club: to create a positive-push in practice and make players better and more confident in their skills. Our main club motto, LUV the Game, is always the backbone to whatever we do and how we train. In that vein, I think it’s very important to have a club-wide fundamental training philosophy that all coaches adhere to and believe in.

We also have established offensive and defensive terminology and set nomenclature that is used throughout the entire club and on every team. The 12’s use the same terminology as the 18’s, which creates great uniformity and a smooth and educated transition between age groups as players get older. The best teams and most successful clubs always have an identifiable and recognizable system in place. The foundation of every successful system is a huge emphasis on controlling and targeting the ball. Many clubs, teams and coaches espouse their commitment to ball control, but very few commit to the idea of targeting the ball.

As a collegiate coach, I watched a ton of club practices over the years and saw a lot of fast moving drills with many touches that looked great, but often I saw very little regard to where the touches actually ended up! The movement was awesome and the kids were working hard, but the ball was going all over the place. The one thing I’ve really noticed about the past 5 NCAA champions is those particular teams had extraordinary ball control and tenacity, but where they separated from the other teams, was in their targeting focus, concentration and commitment. Seems like an obvious part of volleyball, but I’m always amazed at how often I witness completely unfocused, random touches. The past five NCAA champions and not to mention our 2008 Men’s Gold Medal team, seldom if ever, had a random touch. Every first touch, no matter how difficult, was literally a competition to NOT make the setter move one step. In today’s volleyball world, winners are in-system more than losers, so we will train that concept awareness more than any other starting with our 6 year-olds!

I am also a firm believer in competitive fun vs. goofy fun. We need to teach our players that the most fun they can have is when they are competing as a team and giving their best effort to win. In referring back to my years watching practices, the teams that got most excited, with the biggest smiles when they began keeping score, I knew were going to be successful winning teams. The teams that suddenly stopped smiling and laughing when the competition and expectation actually began I knew were going to struggle. Loving, respecting and embracing competition is one of the key components of “LUV-ing” the Game. That attitude is a top-down model; don’t expect your team to compete with fun intensity if they don’t feel that intensity or expectation in practice. Coaches that run loosey-goosey practices and then get angry at their teams when they freeze up, fold or don’t compete at tournaments, don’t really have anyone to blame but themselves. There is a commitment to competing and it starts at the top. I’m looking forward to seeing all my volleyball friends again at upcoming tournaments. Good luck to everyone as they get started on the 2012 club season journey.

Scheduling, Training and Why JVA Works

2011-12-21T06:22:00.000-08:00

By Chris Beerman

As a newbie club director I am constantly amazed at the multitude of responsibilities that are a part of this job. As a former collegiate coach, scheduling was always a part of the job, but in comparison to making schedules for 23 different teams with different competitive levels, collegiate scheduling is a walk in the park! As a JVA program, Lexington United cannot enter tournaments that are “USAV”-only and in the past that was definitely an issue, but with the emergence of club programs either starting as new JVA members or long-time USAV clubs making the switch to JVA, the number of JVA tournament options for all levels of teams has increased substantially. The best part about being a JVA member and hosting a tournament is that you can accept all teams and that includes AAU teams and USAV teams, and this maximizes the size and competitive potential for your tournaments. It also allows for a much broader scope of club participation and ability to play a wide variety of teams within your region or out of region.

Since our 13 elite teams are committed to playing in approximately 10 tournaments, including competing at AAU’s in June, their scheduling goals are much different than our regional program which is committed to 5 or 6 tournaments and a season ending in April. All of our top elite teams will play in the Mideast Power League which includes four rotating competition weekends for 12’s, 13/14’s, 15/16’s and 17/18’s in the cities of Louisville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Muncie. This power league includes the best club teams in the Midwest and offers great competition for our top teams. It also allows us to use these four tournaments as a hub to revolve the rest of the schedule around. As is the philosophy of JVA, our goal as a club is to provide the best possible competition and recruiting exposure while keeping travel costs as low as possible. To me that is the best part of the power league concept and JVA in general.

The farthest our families will travel from Lexington is Muncie, Indiana, a 3 ½ hour drive and for our regional teams, the longest trip is to Louisville. Of course many of our elite parents also want to travel a couple weekends and for those teams, we will attend the JVA World Challenge in Houston, as well as the AAU’s in Orlando. Our parent groups have already begun fundraising for those trips and in most cases, will be able to raise enough money to cover all travel costs! We do all of our financial planning up front for our schedules and the parents know before the holiday season exactly how much their tournament fees will be and what the approximate coaches’ travel fees will be based on a set of travel criteria that we set for meals, hotels and mileage. Knowing these amounts at the beginning of season allows for better budgeting and a more fair and balanced monthly payment plan.

Our teams have been able to have a few practices together before the holiday season and I think that’s very important. Traditionally in Lexington, club teams were picked and then didn’t start practicing until early January, and that lack of practice time definitely showed when the teams played in their first few tournaments. Our teams will start the New Year knowing their coaches, teammates, what practices are like, competitive expectations and the offensive and defensive systems that they will be utilizing. I feel like our teams will be much better prepared for the beginning part of the schedule. During these December practices, I’ve been able to observe the teams and our coaches in action and I have been very impressed with the energy, intensity and focus early on.

The numerous coaches meetings have been great for understanding the type of practice environment we want to establish early on. We want our players to be taught, trained and to continually show improved skill level and confidence on and off the court. I will be at every practice to make sure as a coaching group we continually strive to positively impact the growth of our players. To that effect, our most recent coaches meeting discussed how we will teach skills, offensive and defensive terminology/systems, and how these will be modified for each age group. The best part of these types of discussions is they really make for some great dialogue about why we teach what we teach. Having your entire club on the same page fundamentally and philosophically is something I really think is a key element to long-term success and age-group continuity.

As someone who puts a huge emphasis on ball control, quality targeted reps, aggressive-intelligent attacking and a groveling defensive mind-set, I love to make the point that even though Penn State and UCLA (the past five national college champions) had terrific offensive teams, the reason they won was their overall toughness, superior targeted ball control, tough serving, groveling defense and aggressive, but low error attacking. No need to reinvent the wheel; great volleyball teams have always had these attributes and that will never change. Lexington United’s players and teams will also the play the game this way and I couldn’t be more excited to get our season started! Have a wonderful Holiday season and I’ll be back again in January!

Great Start - Hindsight is 20/20

2011-12-01T09:09:00.000-08:00

By Chris Beerman

Tryouts were very successful for us, but since hindsight is 20/20, it can be used as an evaluative tool to make the process better and more efficient in the future. I have a few thoughts on how I’ll attack our tryout format in 2012. Number one, how to handle the players trying out for Elite teams vs players trying out for Regional-only. Next year I will divide the age group tryouts into the following nights: all 12’s (Regional or Elite), Elite 13’s-14’s, 15-16’s and 17-18’s age groups will tryout by themselves and, just like this year, will also get a second tryout night. After the Elite teams are chosen, we will then have one more night of tryouts for the Elite players who did not make a team and the Regional-only players. This way the Regional coaches can have a fair and more thorough evaluation of the players and can form their teams in the same way as our Elite teams. Making these changes may drag out the tryout phase a little longer than this year, but I think the end result will be better and the evaluation process will improve for everyone.

Second change I will make is once the elite teams are picked, we will immediately post the players’ tryout numbers on our website and those players will then have 24 hours to accept. This year I had the coaches call their players to announce they made a team, and although it was a nice personal touch and was exciting for the players receiving the call, it was very inefficient for me in monitoring the timeline of the coaches making their calls; some were much more aggressive than others and some waited a couples days. This created a headache for me as parents began calling me to see if their daughter’s had made a team. Also, the players not receiving a call didn’t know if it was because they didn’t make a team, or they just had made a team with a slow moving coach who hadn’t gotten to calling yet.

I liked our tryout registration format, won’t change much there, but next year I will allow for about 15 minutes of slack time between the end of check-in to the beginning of the tryout to allow the evaluation sheets to be finished and printed up for our coaches to have at the very beginning of each session. I will also make sure that the on-court coaches know exactly what the drills are and how they work. I did have a 15 minute meeting before we got started, but as it turned out, it still took awhile for the coaches to get the drills up and running at the pace and intensity I was looking for. Regarding the check-in process, I love the fact that the players got sized for apparel at the tryout. I was dubious about how that would work, but the folks from Munciana pulled it off flawlessly and now every player’s sizes are on record and it makes the apparel / uniform side of things much smoother and less complicated going forward. I will also give more time for the actual check-in process for each age group, moving from sixty minutes to 90 minutes prior to the tryout starting to give more time for the whole process to finish. We also need to make sure we have multiple check-in lines and many samples of apparel to avoid the long lines. All in all, for a first year club I felt it was a fair and efficient tryout and we got kids on the teams they should be on, but of course can be improved on.

But enough about the tryout! Once our teams were formed, our coaches got to the business of setting up parent meetings to discuss everything from practice, playing schedules and club expectations, to the financial aspects of participating. Our elite teams will expect to play in about 10 tournaments or more with our 1’s teams playing at AAU’s to finish the year at a national championship event. The 2’s and 3’s teams will play in 8-10 tournaments and decide as a parent group if participating at AAU’s is an option they want to pursue. Our regional teams will play in 5 to 6 tournaments and conclude their seasons’ at our home tournament on April 28-29. Our financial commitment is divided into four categories: participation fees (court rental, insurance, apparel, coach’s salaries, etc), personal transportation costs (how parents travel), tournament fees (the total costs of entering tournaments) and coaches travel costs (mileage, meals and hotel). Once the schedule is determined at the parent meeting, the actual costs for the entire club season can be calculated. We have a payment plan for each of the different costs and also fundraising options for the teams choosing to go to AAU’s in June.

I believe the parents appreciate knowing exactly how much they can expect to pay for the entire club season in late November and specifically where those expenses are directly going. I like this format better than a lump sum payment due to the drastic financial cost differences between the different teams depending on their schedules and how they choose to travel. I have attended all 23 team parent meetings (except two) and felt our coaches did an exceptional job being organized, confident and high energy as a great first impression to their parents. The vibe at the meetings was positive and all the teams are eager to get in the gym and start their training.

Going to be a fun year! Hope everyone reading this had a great Thanksgiving and I’ll be back again soon!

Tryouts & Teams...Check!

2011-11-17T09:39:00.000-08:00

By Chris Beerman

It’s been a little longer than usual since my last blog but that’s because this morning I’m literally taking my first breath in about two weeks! All Club Directors are probably feeling the same way, although some are still in the midst of holding tryouts and making offers to players. Our tryouts were conducted, our players evaluated, and our teams have been formed. Our two-day tryout brought out 270 enthusiastic, hopeful players attempting to make either an elite team or a regional team. Going into the tryout, I had the ability to house 15 Elite teams and 10 Regional teams as a maximum in Year 1 for our club. Our experienced friends from Munciana came down to Lexington to help with registration and apparel sizing and legendary Munciana coach, Mike Lingenfelter got our first tryout in Lexington United history off to a rousing start with a motivational speech to the approximately one hundred players trying out for 15s and 16s, which was by far our biggest age group.

We made all of our players pre-register with a deadline being the Friday prior to the Tuesday tryout day, and for the most part, our players adhered to the deadline, but we did have a number miss that date. I made the late players email me their tryout form then bring their information and tryout fee to check-in. We pre-printed 250 tryout t-shirts (so, unfortunately came up about 20 short!) with numbers on the back of the shirt, and assigned them to the players at check-in. The registration process was broke down into two parts. Part 1: Players reported to the check-in desk, turned in a copy of their birth certificate, made sure their JVA paperwork was up-to-date, paid any fees they still owed, and received their numbered tryout shirt. Part 2: Apparel sizing. Our facility, KBA, has a mezzanine which served as a perfect sizing area and also separated the incoming check-in crowd. We sized them for uniforms and shoe sizes and got all the numbers down on paper. Doing this at tryouts allowed us to get a big head start on getting players their apparel packages accurately and on time.

After Mike’s rousing kick-off speech, the 15/16s age group went to work for 90 minutes running through position appropriate skill work then competitive team drills. Knowing that coaches would have two days to evaluate each player, allowed for a very comprehensive tryout format. Our 15/16s age group coaches evaluated players by giving a 1, 2 or 3 grade which indicated the level of team the evaluator deemed appropriate for each player. The plan was for the evaluator’s to receive their numbered sheets right at the conclusion of check-in. Unfortunately the wifi in the building was not working properly and our computers could not get the evaluation lists printed out right away. Eventually (and thank goodness!) after about a 30 minute delay, we all got our sheets and went to work at indentifying the strengths and weaknesses of each player.

The next group (the 12-14’s) began checking in while the 15/16’s were still on the court. We had to obviously set aside separate courts for the 12’s due to their different net height and ball size and weight. The last tryout group was our 17’s/18’s and like most clubs, this was a much smaller group. After the last group concluded their tryout, the coaches got together and did some initial groupings, mainly identifying the obvious ends of the spectrum and then working towards making the tough calls on the kids in middle-high or middle-low.

On Day 2 of tryouts we grouped the players at the beginning based on where they feel at the end of Day 1. The format included much more competitive, game-like drills to maximize looks at each player performing at their position, while also being able to see the other intangibles such as attitude, competitiveness, “want-to”, and effort. A long coaches meeting followed the second night of tryouts at a local restaurant and we hammered out the rosters for each elite team. Based on the talent level and depth of each age-group, we formed 13 elite teams, including three teams at the 14’s and 16’s age groups. The players picked for teams were immediately notified by their coaches with a phone call, and we gave them 24 hours to accept the roster spot.

Out of 130 elite team players, only a couple declined their spots, so we were able to post the teams and players’ names very quickly on the website. Following the elite teams’ formation, we had a regional coaches meeting to form those teams. We ended up having two kinds of regional team members: 1) those who wanted to play at the regional level from the very beginning and 2) those who tried out for elite, but did not make a team. We had a pool of about 140 players, but only court space and coaches for 10 teams or approximately 110 players. The regional coaches had done an excellent job of evaluating their players and with the help of the elite team coaches and their opinions of the kids who had not made elite teams, we were able to confidently form our teams. Those players were notified in the same way the elite players were and were given 24 hours to accept. Once all coaches received their commitments, we posted those rosters on our website as well. The last step was to return the tryout deposit to the players who were either not picked for teams or had declined a roster spot.

Now that teams are formed, coaches have scheduled their team’s parent meeting to go over scheduling, practice, payments, travel guidelines, team expectations, etc. They also have the opportunity to hold a few practices before the holidays prior to the actual season starting in January. I am very proud of the effort and professionalism of our coaches in getting these teams formed and how quickly we have moved through the process with incredible diligence. In year one, Lexington United is able to support 23 teams and that is a strong testament to the excitement, interest and potential for Central Kentucky volleyball. Next blog I will talk about what I will do differently next year in regards to tryouts and the specific topics of the initial parent meeting. Don’t forget to ask questions or make comments!

Financing a Facility

2011-11-10T08:44:00.000-08:00

By Tim Kuzma
From May 2010 Issue of VolleyBiz

The Munciana Volleyball Club has a long and proud history dating back to 1977 when Steve Shondell formed the first club team comprised of girls from Muncie Northside High School. Presently, the club is comprised of over 300 young ladies ranging in age from 8 to 18. The club is located in Muncie, Indiana, a town of 65,000 located in East Central Indiana between

Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. With such a small population base it is surprising to most people in the volleyball community to learn that Munciana has won seventeen national championships competing in the USAV and, most recently, the JVA national tournaments.

Wes Lyon, who has been the club director for over twenty years, was joined by Michael Lingenfelter as co-director seven years ago when David Shondell left the club to become the head volleyball coach at Purdue University. Lingenfelter's 18-1's team won both the JVA and AAU national championships last year. Since Title IX was enacted, over 300 Munciana graduates have gone on to play volleyball at the collegiate level. The long list of distinguished alumni has performed at the highest levels including on the U.S.A. National teams. Moreover, dozens of coaches have matriculated to head and assistant coaching jobs at every level.

In 2008, local businessman Tim Kuzma joined Wes Lyon and Mike Lingenfelter who, together, began to formulate a business plan that would serve as a roadmap for Munciana as it embarked on it's plans to become a full service club that including an apparel arm, an expanded camp schedule and a new facility that would permit them to hold practices, conduct tournaments and provide a concession service. Upon surveying the community for potential sites, Kuzma learned of a multi-sports park being built in Yorktown, IN., a suburb of Muncie. A meeting was set up with the town officials who were well aware of the tremendous reputation that Munciana enjoyed in the community. They offered that if we would locate our new facility on their site between the baseball and soccer fields that they would lease us the land for $1 a year for 99 years. We would also have access to the vast parking lot that they had planned for the project.

As plans progressed, Yorktown incented us to add 10,000 square feet to our footprint so that a community YMCA could co-occupy our building. This made an eminent amount of sense to us as we had been looking for a partner to provide our girls with a physical workout regimen to supplement their volleyball training. The final product has been a building containing six volleyball courts on 27,500 square feet, a 10,000 square ft. YMCA and a 5,000 square foot common area housing our apparel shop, concession area and rest rooms along with space where people can relax between matches. Plans call for a walking trail through a seven acre woods located on the property and a bike trail connecting the complex to the town park a half mile away.

To finance the project, Munciana applied for a loan through a local bank which partnered with the Small Business Administration 504 Program to provide the necessary funding. Basically, Munciana contributed 10% of the capital, the bank 50% and the SBA 40% at a fixed rate for 20 years. These loans are available on a national basis for credit worthy projects such as ours. Banks are amenable to making these loans because the SBA provides them with a government guaranteed margin of safety. For more information you can google the 'SBA 504 Loan Program', consult your local banker or give me, Tim Kuzma, a call at 765-748-4071.

Junior Volleyball Association

All communities are looking for ways to attract jobs, enhance their quality of life and bring in overnight visitors who stay in their hotels and frequent their establishments. The Munciana Volleyball Club accomplished all three objectives for Yorktown and Delaware County. We are huge advocates of the JVA organization and look forward to rapid growth in partnership with their programs.

About the Author, Tim Kuzma

I read over my email and realized that I was remiss in mentioning anything about myself. have been in the financial services business for nine years and am currently employed as a registered Certified Financial Planner at Raymond James and Associates, Inc. In my former life I owned a manufacturing company which I grew from nine to one hundred and twenty employees and sold to Knape and Vogt Mfg. Co., Inc. in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 1996 I co-founded the Indiana Basketball Academy in Indianapolis with Tom Abernethy. That was a successful business and afforded me the opportunity to learn the sports business before I sold my interest in 2001. In 2008 I joined Wes Lyon, Mike Lingenfelter and Steve Shondell as part owner of the Munciana Volleyball Club.

We have four children including three girls all of whom were fortunate enough to participate in the Munciana Volleyball Club program. My eldest, Kristi, was the libero at Eastern Kentucky University. Kimberly is currently the starting libero at The University of Wisconsin and previously played on the U.S.A. National team for two years in Puerto Rico and China. Our youngest daughter, Karyn, is a current member of the Munciana 16-1's team. She played libero for Wes Lyon's state champion Muncie Central Bearcat volleyball team last fall as a sophomore. My son, Tim, did not play volleyball, but he played several sports, including basketball through high school. He graduated from Albion College and went on to get his Masters Degree in Accounting at The University of Michigan.

It's The Final Countdown... da da da DAAA

2011-10-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

By Chris Beerman

Hi everyone! Thanks for continuing to follow my blog describing my process of building a club from the ground up. The past few blogs have outlined my journey to the present, and going forward, the rest of the blog entries will be in real time; which I’m excited about. The past couple of weeks have been about preparing for tryouts and making sure everything is ready to go, hence, The Final Countdown. After the parent meeting I opened up tryout registration, and within a few days, began receiving the forms in the mail. As we’ve gotten closer to the tryout dates of November 8-10, the mail has steadily increased, and I’m getting a clearer picture of the kinds of numbers we can expect in the specific age groups. I’m sure, like with most clubs, my most popular age groups at this point are my 13-16 year olds, but I’m beginning to see an increase in the registrations from the older and younger ends of the age-group spectrum. My Munciana pros tell me that almost 80% of registrations are returned in the last week before the deadline so we’ll see what happens within the week.

In order to make sure players feel they are prepared for tryouts rather than rusty from a long layoff, our tryouts will occur the week after the state champion in Kentucky is crowned. In addition, we will also be conducting a pre-tryout camp the week before tryouts called, quite simply, the Rustbuster Camp. Tryouts will occur at KBA, which is a five-court facility, and we will run three different 90 minute sessions divided by age groups (12-14’s, 15-16’s and 17-18’s). The first day of tryouts: (1) players will check-in at their allotted times, (2) we'll make sure their paperwork is in order and they are trying out for the appropriate age group, (3) players will get sized for apparel and finally (4) begin their tryout session. Players will be trying out for our Elite teams or Regional teams. Players not chosen for an Elite team will then decide to play on a Regional team. Due to practice court space limitations, we will be able to offer 15 total Elite teams or approximately 2 teams per age group. Elite teams will have a longer season and play in more tournaments.

My tryout evaluation philosophy is very simple: judge the players while they are actually playing volleyball. We (the coaches who are evaluating players) need to see the players perform the skills appropriate for their intended position and age group the best we can while giving them enough reps to show their true skill level. I think it’s very important to have at least two days of tryouts for each age group since many times I didn’t notice a player on day one, but saw her on day two and took notice. Or vice-versa, I was very high on a kid day one, but my initial evaluation changed the more I watched her. Having two days of tryouts is also the best way to make sure you are forming your teams in the fairest way possible. My main goal is to place the right kids on the right teams. Each team is of high importance; I will be invested in every single team and age group. I literally want no mistakes.

Our tryout format will include evaluating overall skill level, position-specific skill level, athletic ability, focus, attitude, and competitiveness Every one of those facets should be a part of the evaluation, because many times a player is picked for a team based on their strength in one of those areas, but they fall short in the others and the team experience is not what it should be. Our coaches will be divided up into (1) evaluators and (2) court coaches. Coaches will be “evaluators” during their own age group’s tryout session and “court coaches” during the other age group sessions. Objectively, the “evaluators” will judge players on the physical and mental characteristics I listed above on a 1-5 scale.

My role as Club Director will be to evaluate everyone to make sure the coaches are seeing the same things I am seeing, and to add a subjective aspect to the process. We will also get input from the court coaches running the drills. On Day 2 of tryouts “evaluators” and I will either finalize our initial evaluations from day one, or change our initial thoughts based on a more thorough review of the players. I’m looking forward to the coaches meetings that will follow tryouts and “talking out” each team to make sure we are all on the same page. It’s extremely important that the parents and players feel the tryout process was fair, unbiased, and their daughters are placed on the appropriate team. Thanks again for reading the blog and be back again soon with more “real time” discussion.

Also don’t hesitate to pose a question or comment on the blog in the comment section; I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Face to Face Q & A

2011-10-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

By Chris Beerman

After spending 4 months getting the club up and running and making the foundational decisions about how we would operate, it was time to present our club in person to the general public in the form of a parent informational meeting. In Lexington, our middle school and high school matches occur on different nights, so I decided to hold two separate meetings to accommodate both groups. The meetings would be held at KBA (the basketball facility we are using as our home base) on a Monday and Thursday night in late September. To advertise the meetings, I posted the days and times on the club website and Facebook page, and sent numerous email blasts to every high school and middle school coach within 50 miles of Lexington.

Up to this point, I had released very little specific information about the program structure and cost of the club, so these meetings would be the parents’ first chance to hear for themselves the specifics of Lexington United. Obviously, the first parent meeting in a club’s history is extremely important and can either create a ton of excitement and momentum or be a big flop. First impressions are so important in every aspect of life, but maybe even more so when parents are trying to decide if this activity is where they want to invest money for their child. Lexington club volleyball had experienced a very inconsistent history with no club really lasting longer than a few years. Organizational issues, coaching problems, charges of politics in picking teams, and finding adequate practice space were some of the issues that plagued previous attempts to bring a big tent club idea to Lexington. The parents in town were obviously going to be somewhat cynical and possibly even skeptical at my new attempt to create a long-lasting club that could meet the needs of every family.

I knew I had one chance to make a great first impression and create a buzz and excitement that would create momentum moving forward. Being organized and completely prepared with my presentation would be the key to success. I wanted to present the club’s details, followed by a long question and answer session. I was determined to be so prepared as to be able to answer any or all questions that might be asked, no matter how obscure. Using Munciana’s long history with parent meetings as a template, I prepared a five-page handout that would detail the following topics: Tryout dates and times, registration procedure, age-group classifications, competitive programs offered, participation fees, coaches/transportation fees, when and how teams will be selected, where and when will teams practice, apparel packages, coaches and travel distances. With these subject areas as topics, I needed to make sure I was ironclad organizationally. While creating the handout, it actually forced me to finalize a lot of loose ends in the club structure and at the completion and printing of the handouts, I felt more than ready to go.

A couple of areas I knew would be of most concern for parents were: how much is this going to cost, how many teams will you have, and who will coach them? Using the Munciana brain-trust as advisors regarding cost structure and pricing was incredibly valuable for me. I knew how much Lexington parents had paid for club volleyball in the past, so I certainly did not want to set a price that would be met with scorn or the appearance of price-gouging. After much haggling, we came to a fee structure that we felt was adequate for us to meet our expenses, and hopefully was fair and affordable for our parents. Our fees were also set much lower than other elite clubs in Kentucky and the near Midwest.

As far as the coaching staff, the best part of being able to unite the club situation in Lexington is that it allowed me to have access to all the best coaches, and being able to present that fact to the parents was very reassuring. The other fact about the coaches was that I would be coaching the coaches: mentoring the younger ones, and designing a training system and fundamental teaching style that would be consistently coached throughout the club and with each individual team. Coaching accountability would be a huge part of what our club was about.

I went to the printing company and had 300 copies of my handout made and at the time, thought that would be way too many, but decided it would be good to have extra copies on-hand. The night of the first meeting arrived and at about 7:45 pm, approximately 40 people were seated and I was getting a bit nervous that our turnout would be a lot less than what I had envisioned. That quickly changed as a late arriving crowd pushed the total number of potential players to over 170. I had all the parents sign in and we began the meeting. In my time as a head collegiate coach I had been in front of big crowds before and done numerous presentations at clinics and camps, so I felt very comfortable, enthusiastic and engaged with my parent crowd. As I reached the time to talk pricing, I tried to notice any squirming, bad facial expressions and/or negative body language that would lead me to believe we had missed our mark. To my great relief, however, I didn’t see any of those things and as the presentation continued I felt more and more positive energy in the room.

Following the handout material, I offered time for any questions and I spent the next 45 minutes answering what I thought, were excellent questions regarding everything from tryout logistics to fundraising options. At the conclusion of the Q & A session, I ended the meeting and spent another hour meeting individually with parents who had additional, more specific questions. I left the facility feeling great about the turnout, the positive energy, the questions and response from parents. The middle school meeting that Thursday brought in about 130 more people, and so to my huge surprise, I actually ran out of my 300 copies of handouts. It was a great problem to have and made me even more excited about the potential for long-term club volleyball in Central Kentucky. The parent meetings had been a success, the specific information about the club was out in the open and the word of mouth was excited and positive and I felt great about the direction Lexington United was headed.

Coaches: The Lifeblood of a Successful Club

2011-10-14T06:12:00.000-07:00

By Chris Beerman

Another important aspect of a new club is who will comprise your coaching staff. The personnel helps determine how big your club can be and what kind of programs you can offer. Quality, caring coaches are the lifeblood of a successful club and Lexington is lucky in that it has many colleges and universities within a 20-30 mile radius with very solid volleyball programs; this creates a big group of potential coaches for LUV. In my two previous years of coaching club in Lexington I was able to meet and observe some very talented, enthusiastic young coaches and watched them put their heart and soul into their teams, so I was confident I could construct a quality staff.

The “United” idea of our club was in full effect and with other local clubs deciding to join with LUV, our pool of coaches was outstanding. Knowing that I had 15 Elite teams, I knew I needed to first identify 15 coaches who would be running those teams. I made contact with every coach in the area to gauge their interest in our club, what competitive level they wanted to coach, times they would be available, and what age group they were interested in working with. I got very positive responses from about 30 coaches and I decided to have a coaches meeting to introduce my concepts and answer their questions. At that meeting, I went over the basics of the club: Luv’s mission, structure, time lines, expectations and we had an awesome Q and A session at the end.

Once I had a good indication of which coaches were in, I went to work on identifying my 1’s team coaches (top team in each age group) and securing their age-group commitment. Next, I moved on to our 2’s coaches and regional coaches. The process of matching strengths and skill-sets of coaches with the appropriate age groups is very interesting, and I found that all of the decisions I made on personnel were met by great enthusiasm. Once I got full confirmation from the coaches, I posted their names and which age-groups they would be coaching on the LUV website. I wanted to make sure the parents knew who their potential coaches would be and who would be evaluating their daughters at tryouts.

I had a bit of trepidation about the response that parents would have once the list of coaches was revealed and I was prepared to hear complaints about this coach or that coach, but instead the response I received was nothing but positive! The fact that our city was “united” into one club allowed all the best coaches to coach under one roof and that was a tremendous advantage for the parents. With coaching positions and practice sites secured, it was now time to present our club vision to the community in the form of a public parent meeting. Parents were eager to hear what we were all about and I knew first impressions would be critical.

The House that LUV Built

2011-10-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

By Chris Beerman

In my case, the facility question was by far the most important issue that needed to be resolved before moving forward with Lexington United Volleyball. Reality is, basketball is the #1 sport in Lexington. When I began researching potential practice sights, I soon discovered that literally every available high school or church gym in the city is used for that sport from January through March. The local club I had worked for the past two years had rented court space from the best basketball facility in Lexington and the other clubs had used the other multi-purpose facility in Lexington. As I continued to research court space, I quickly realized I would somehow have to also use these facilities as a home base or it would be extremely difficult to even have a club.

The other facility option that was often discussed was to lease or buy our own building. In analyzing the current national club landscape, the number of volleyball facilities in this country has exploded in the past 5-7 years. Munciana, who is our partner in this club venture, had opened their facility in 2010 and had seen their entire operation go through the roof. Of course Munciana had a 30 year head start on developing their brand and has been one of the most successful clubs in the nation, so keeping a realistic notion of expectation and costs involved was very important. Ideally having your own courts and being able to schedule practices, tournaments, lessons, camps and other events at any time is a dream situation, but the reality is there are huge costs and aggravations in deciding to own verse rent court space.

It was decided that in our situation, with the unknowns of a new club and potential number of players Lexington could support, a building at this time wasn’t financially feasible. Once the facility option had been exhausted, I decided to meet with the owners of the basketball facility and discuss my vision for the club: camp, practice, lessons, hosting tournaments, and if they were open to a volleyball partnership. I was very sensitive to the fact that the other club had been using the facility and the owners and I wanted to make sure that club had the right of first refusal, and was not to be “kicked to the curb”. In the end, the other club decided not to pursue another year with the basketball facility and that left our club as the sole volleyball entity within the building.

This development was a real coup and allowed us to set a schedule and visualize our club’s size based on the practice space that would be available. It also allowed us to be housed in THE nicest and most well-known facility in Central Kentucky. As it turned out, the other multi-purpose facility also lost it’s primary court renter and that stroke of luck allowed me to reserve valuable court space for my regional program, opening up even more playing opportunities for the Lexington volleyball players. Finally, my short season program found a home at a local high school who would rent me their court space after their basketball season ended. After much negotiating and hustling for court space, I had a home for all of my competitive programs and that was a huge relief moving forward! Once I had secured a place to practice, the next issue was forming my coaching staff.

The Foundation

2011-10-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

By Chris Beerman

The organizational foundation was in place for Lexington United and now I needed to answer the bricks and mortar questions of what, where, who, and when as it related to the structure of the club. Number one on the list was determining what kind of programs we would offer. As I mentioned in the last blog, I wanted to have something for everyone and make sure that an emphasis was placed on the grassroots youth, beginner level. I had an overall generic idea of what I wanted to present to Lexington, but now I needed to get specific.

As the hub of the club, I wanted to offer an elite program for the kids who have really big goals and all share similar competitive attitudes about playing volleyball after high school. As part of the “United” idea, I wanted all of the elite players with similar goals playing together; that is exciting to me, as I feel there is a high probability to be immediately competitive at a high level if that concept can be realized. I also wanted a regional program that allows kids to play with less of a time and financial commitment, and for players who are new to the sport and need to develop. There would be a competitive training program for 10 and 11 year olds called the LUV Birds, and finally a beginner program for children 6-9 years old, called the LUV Bugs. These competitive programs offer an option for almost every girl at any age and commitment level who is interested in playing club volleyball.

There was still one group, that traditionally never has an opportunity for club volleyball and that’s the multi-sport athlete. I’ve always wondered how many basketball players, if given the opportunity and time, would also play club volleyball in the spring. I decided to not even try to compete with their basketball season and instead offer what I call a Short Season program that would begin in March and conclude at the end of May. Basketball players who finish their season could then play volleyball until their AAU season begins. I felt this eclectic approach to club volleyball programming allows for the maximum amount of participation.

Next, I tackled pricing for each program. Pricing would be determined by what the clientele in the region has been used to paying, the length of the program, coaching salaries, apparel packaging and court rental fees. Pricing is critical when introducing a new club to a region. I believe it’s very important that after reviewing what’s being offered, parents feel that the price makes sense financially and they are confident they will get what they pay for. This is first and foremost a customer service business, and that needs to be a front and center vibe that the parents feel upon first impression.

Besides the club programs, another focus that could begin immediately were camps and satellite camps. They could help launch the club name, and if run well, could spread positive word of mouth. I decided in late spring to advertise satellite camps under the Lexington United name and the response was great. In the summer I was able to schedule 7 camps and get the Lexington United ball rolling. That exposure was invaluable and led to a public perception of legitimacy prior to the beginning our first club season! I was also able to run an in-house camp in Lexington to start introducing the club’s style of training and generate excitement about the new club to local players. The best part of running this many camps so early in the process was handing out Lexington United t-shirts to the over 250 total campers who then began wearing them to other volleyball events...free marketing! The best advertising to this day is those proud kids wearing Lexington United’s new logo around town.

Positive word of mouth is absolutely the best advertising! I felt we had a great club launch and an awesome summer of volleyball camps. I was getting to know every high school and middle school coach throughout Eastern Kentucky and Lexington, and they were getting to know me and what I am about. The next step was figuring out where our club would practice and who would be coaching…

What's in a Name?

2011-09-28T09:43:00.000-07:00

By Chris Beerman

The excitement of making the jump to the club world was quickly met with the task of figuring out my first moves and getting organized. The most interesting, and in some ways difficult aspect to this career change, was working out of a home office for the first time in my adult life. No longer was I waking up, driving into the office at a university, working all day, then heading into the gym around 3pm to train my team. That had been my life for 20 years and for the first couple weeks that sudden change was a huge and scary adjustment. In addition, I also needed to convert one of the rooms in my house into working office space and buy new office equipment. Once the office a.k.a my dining room (who really uses that room anyway?!) was set-up and I settled into a new daily working routine, I felt much more prepared to go to work and tackle the initial tasks of the start-up.

One of the most interesting aspects of this venture was that I was in the middle of club season coaching for a different club! I was very upfront and respectful with the club director and with the other club directors in town and made sure they knew this was not some kind of hostile takeover. I wanted to offer an Elite level club and hoped we could all respect each other’s situation. I did however want to begin the process of developing the club as soon as possible, so I made a very long to-do list and with the help and wisdom of the Munciana guys, set out to begin laying the foundation for the club.

At the top of the list and seemingly a simple thing, but yet very important, was naming the club. The name of your club is something you cannot change once it’s announced, so getting it right the first time is paramount. Being a subsidiary branch of Munciana, some form of the name Munciana was considered, but in the end I wanted the club name to represent what I believe our mission and philosophy represented. I believed that Lexington had tons of potential, but needed to be united in our club cause. Uniting became a recurring theme for me and hence, "Lexington United Volleyball" became the name. The letters "LUV" also ironically had great personal meaning for me because one of my main philosophies and teaching points as a coach is love for the game, teaching kids to respect the soul and history of the sport and appreciate how it’s played. It takes a tremendous amount of technical skill, cooperation, discipline and mental toughness to play this game at a high level, and the players need to embrace that fact and “LUV the Game”!

Once the name and philosophy was in place, I set out to lay the foundation. Some questions I asked were: What kind of programs will we offer? Where will we practice? Who will our coaches be? What kind of pricing will be established? How will I begin the process of spreading the word about the club? Munciana is famous for being an all-encompassing club model, offering a variety of volleyball programs and we wanted to share those same ideals with the Central Kentucky region. I decided we would have an Elite team program as the foundation, with a Regional 10 and 11 year old program, and a grassroots program for 6-9 year olds. In addition we would offer in-house camps, satellite camps, clinics, tournaments, private lessons and recruiting education.

Before the next step however, I needed to have a way to disseminate information to the masses. The great thing about our modern culture in regards to a start-up like LUV is the inexpensive social media and website opportunities. I created a Facebook page and used free online software to create a website, and with those outlets, as well as mass email blasts to coaches, I was able to post immediate club information to everyone and on a massive scale. I was off and running, but now I needed to get to work on answering the where, who, what, and how of my long to-do list to make sure we would be a successful and viable club in year one.

From the beginning...

2011-09-23T08:45:00.000-07:00

By Chris Beerman

My name is Chris Beerman and in late February of this year, I received a call from Tim Kuzma, the business manager with Munciana Volleyball Club inquiring if I’d be interested in a club expansion concept that their ownership group was considering. I had just completed my 3^rd year as Assistant Coach at University of Kentucky and my 20^th year overall as a collegiate coach. My time at Kentucky was very successful and a lot of fun. The ability to work with my friend Craig Skinner at a great institution and coach incredibly gifted athletes made for a dream coaching situation. But after 20 years, my head and my heart told me I was ready for a new challenge.

I have never been a fan of “easy”. Instead, I prefer to challenge myself. I’ve always felt that an individual grows grow so much more as a person by taking the hard road and pushing yourself to be better. Since I played at Ball State and my wife, Marybeth, was an alumnus of Munciana, I have been longtime friends with Mike Lingenfelter and Wes Lyon and greatly respect their success and the excellence Munciana represents in training volleyball players on and off the court. The proposal was for Munciana to expand its’ club to Kentucky, and they targeted me to direct the start-up and run the club in Lexington. Why Lexington? Well, Mike Lingenfelter grew up there and Tim’s daughter played at Eastern Kentucky University right down the road in Richmond, so both were very familiar with the area and felt a new, all-encompassing club could work in this city. Why me? Wes, Mike and Tim felt that after three years of coaching in the Lexington, I had the right mixture of local knowledge, coaching experience and respect within the community. They were also very familiar with my personality and felt I would be on a mission to make the club a success from day one, matching their competitive goals.

I always believe things happen for a reason and this opportunity just felt right for many reasons. I would be able to direct a club and promote my philosophies in coaching, training, developing, and mentoring young people. I would also be able to coach the coaches and establish a more organized grassroots method of introducing the great sport of volleyball to the youth and their parents in Central Kentucky. In addition, I would be able to continue to coach and be around for my daughter Kendall, who is currently a freshman, and my son, Jackson who is in the 7^th grade. Spending time with my children and watching them compete in their respective sports through their teenage years is very important to me and something that was becoming more and more difficult for me to achieve as a collegiate coach.

Obviously the hardest part of a life decision like this is putting an end to what had been my career throughout my entire adult life. I have so many wonderful memories of winning championships, working with incredible, young adults, competing every day to make my program better, and establishing meaningful, lifelong relationships. The other factor that was critically important in this decision was whether I would be able to financially support my family. I was taking a leap into the unknown. Fortunately, I have never been motivated by money, and after examining the situation my wife and I felt we were positioned to make this career move work. I also knew the club’s success or failure would hinge on my expertise and work ethic, and I felt confident that my competitive nature would lead me through this venture as it had in my previous career. You’re either standing still or moving forward, so after much consultation with my wife, family and coaching colleagues, I decided to become a full-time club director in the city of Lexington, KY. I was excited and nervous, but completely energized and ready to learn.

A Prelude to the Blog

2011-09-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

By Junior Volleyball Association

This blog is entirely designed to share the personal experience of Chris Beerman in his first year as Club Director of Lexington United Volleyball. LUV (Lexington United Volleyball) is currently in it's first year of operation.

Prior to entering the realm of club volleyball, Chris was a 20 year DI collegiate coach, most recently an Assistant Coach at Kentucky, and prior to that he was the Head Coach at University of Pittsburgh and James Madison University.

In collaboration with Munciana volleyball, LUV (Lexington United Volleyball) will be an all-encompassing volleyball club for girls in the Lexington, KY area. It will provide team volleyball opportunities for all ages (4-18) and competitive levels as well as lessons, camps, tournaments and college recruiting education.

Through a series of posts, Chris will depict his experience as Club Director of a brand new volleyball club in hopes that it may educate others looking to do the same, while sparking dialogue to share ideas, challenges, and successes along the way.

Chris shares the same vision as Junior Volleyball Association which is to promote the growth of youth and junior volleyball. This blog is one channel that JVA hopes will serve as a resource to all club directors, aspiring club directors, and passionate educators in youth and junior volleyball. To view more resources and education provided by JVA click here.