CAP II CLIPB O ARD
The extra mile by Vedat Yuce Piedmont VBC | Carolina Region
A COMMON CRITICISM THAT IS MADE ABOUT COACHES WHO do not have any children is that he or she would be a better coach with personal parenting experience. Others think that if coaches have children, especially those who play for the same club, the coach cannot give proper training because of favoritism.
From my personal experience, I believe that having this parenting experience has helped me think of different ways to help my own players improve.
When my daughter started playing vol- leyball, I was a parent first and later became a coach. During my last 10 years of coaching while my daughter was playing, I worked with different coaches as their assistant, and also served as the head coach. Additionally, I sat on the bench of my daughters’ team when some- one coached her. During that time, I had minimal com- munication from my daughters’ coaches, which made me wonder why we coaches avoid parents. If I had not been part of the coaching
staff, I would have had no idea about the phi- losophy of my daughters’ coaches, expectations and what to do when problems were raised. While sitting next to other club coaches on their benches during games, I would sometimes hear how either a non-performing player was lazy or that his/her parent was the problem par- ent in their team. There was no consideration for what was going on in their players’ lives, how aggressive or passive their parents were regarding their playing time or if they were having some other issues at school. The kids were labeled without knowing anything about them. Some coaches evaluate the kids in tryouts, directors make decisions about which players end up on teams and we
58 | VOLLEYBALLUSA • Digital Issue at
usavolleyball.org/mag
work with kids without knowing anything about them. When I started being a head coach, I
remembered one thing that my daughters’ kindergarten, elementary school and middle school principal did that left a lifetime mark in our lives. My daughter was two and a half years old when she started attending Greens- boro Montessori School (GMS) in Greensboro, North Carolina. After a couple of weeks of her attendance, the principal reached out to us and wanted to visit our home to get to know our family. Dur- ing that time he learned that both my wife and I were music teachers in Turkey and found out which instruments we played. My dad was an elementary school principal for many years, and I remembered his approach to his students and parents was very similar; however, he never went to his students’ homes to get to know the parents. My daughter at- tended Greensboro Montessori School for 12 years, and during that time the principal
PHOTO: BILL KAUFFMAN/USAV
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