Ohio coach Geoff Carlston carries a black notebook around with him everywhere.
The contents of that notebook, which has been stepped on, thrown against locker room walls, lost and recovered, contain the thoughts and strategy of a coach that has had success beyond his wildest dreams.
In his first season as head coach, Carlston took Ohio volleyball where the program had not gone before -the NCAA Tournament and the forefront of national volleyball. Combine that with the Mid-American Conference regular season and tournament titles and a national listing at No. 27, and it is easy to see why Carlston was voted The Post's Coach of the Year.
Last year was sort of an out of the blue
unexpected year that you might have once or twice in your college career if you're lucky -some people won't ever have it Carlston said. I think the big thing was that as long as we stick with foundational things that helped us -a lot of the things that we implemented and that the team bought into -we're going to have success here.
Notice the phrase last year. Carlston has not forgotten about the accomplishments of the 2003 team, but has moved forward in thinking about the upcoming 2004 season. Much of that mentality came from years spent under Mike Hebert from Minnesota's club volleyball team.
I think he's one of the best coaches in the country and was in the Final Four this year. In terms of how to lay out a season and looking at conditioning and training I got it from him.
Carlston has transferred over some of that knowledge to Ohio assistant coach Anne Botica and graduate assistant Leah Mercer, who will be taking the assistant coaching position at Loyola (Chicago) next season.
I think the one thing that I've learned from him was the importance of taking care of the team off the court
Botica said. He did a really nice job of bringing in group dynamics where the team got to know each other really well. I think a lot of coaches get caught up in collegiate sports and forget that these kids are really students
and I think he did a nice job getting to know them personally.
Carlston became someone who consolidated the team's motivations, which was different than anything they had experienced before. He incorporated team-building exercises such as rock climbing, goal-setting meetings and a preseason retreat.
He focused a lot on communication with everyone around you
not just on the court
but off the court too
and I think that made the team stronger as a unit
outside hitter Katie Smith said.
After getting a degree in speech communication and becoming a member of the Peace Corps, Carlston saw the importance of group dynamics and how cohesion could work to a team's advantage.
Those types of things came from my life experience in the Peace Corps and trying to build community in villages and working with youth gangs
Carlston said. It does transfer over in coaching females
and I always joke about how amazing the similarities between working with gang members and female volleyball members are. The dynamics of a group are very important. Certain roles don't change whether you're in New York City
