University of Georgia Athletics
Summertime Growth and Experience
August 12, 2019 | Volleyball, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Tom Black stood behind the near baseline of the Georgia volleyball team's practice gym in the Ramsey Center on Thursday morning. The Bulldogs' coach, coming off perhaps the busiest summer of his life, surveyed everything in front of him as the team played point after point.
I stood about 20 feet away, watching Black, who is entering his third season with the Bulldogs, as much as watching his players as they served and set, dove and dug. Instruction and encouragement were coming from Black and his coaching staff but no raised voices in the 45 minutes of practice I saw, so it seems that it was a good morning session, which was following several good practices since the team got started a few days before.
Of course, Black barely knew what day it was, not after a whirlwind few days before the team's first preseason practice on Monday.
"I know it's Aug. 8," he said last Thursday, "because I wrote the practice but I've got to remind myself what day it is. It's going to take me a while."
Along with coaching the Bulldogs, Black is the Canadian Women's National Team coach, and he was with the Canadian squad all summer long. And when I mean all summer long, I mean from the end of May right up until Georgia practice began last Monday.
Black texted me from JFK Airport in New York last Monday — he was still working his way back to Athens after coaching Canada in an Olympic qualifying tournament in Russia.
Along with coaching in Russia for a week, Black and the Canadian team traveled all over Canada this summer — their home base was the Canadian Training Centre in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, B.C. — as well as spending a week in Southern California and about a month in Peru for a tournament.
It was, in short, a challenging, demanding and incredible experience, Black said.
"It helped me in every way," he said.
Senior setter Meghan Donovan had her own helpful experiences this summer on the volleyball court. She spent a week in late June in Anaheim, Calif, one of 28 collegiate players named to the U.S. Women's Collegiate National Team-Anaheim roster.
The week of training with other top players and coaches was enlightening and productive, said Donovan, who led the SEC with 1,273 assists last season.
"I think it's really cool to meet different people and to see how to connect with different people on and off the court. I took that away and also just hearing coaching and teaching from other coaches; I just take it that much more objectively. I think it was cool to get some knowledge about my setting," she said.
"I definitely learned a lot, just how to set faster, having a faster offense — I think I increased that a little bit over there. That's something that I've definitely been translating these first few days of practice."
Going 1-2 in the Olympic qualifying tournament in Russia, Canada, in its first campaign with Black as the head coach, failed to earn a spot in Tokyo at the 2020 Summer Games. The team will get another chance to qualify at a tournament next year.
Black said going through everything with the Canadian team this summer has undoubtedly made him a better coach as he returns to leading the Bulldogs, who open their season Aug. 30 at Clemson.
"Anytime time you've got to teach similar concepts to different people under pressure, you've got to get better explaining it every time," Black said. "I think I'm communicating better, I think I'm explaining things better; seeing how hard it was for players at a higher level to change has helped me to come back, with my patience level. ...
"I just really had to communicate well and find better ways to explain things and get organized better and get people in better spots. I can't think of a single way it didn't help me, honestly."
Georgia will hold its annual Red & Black Scrimmage at 10 a.m. Saturday at Stegeman Coliseum.
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
