A new face is stepping onto the volleyball court this season as the Morgan girls’ volleyball team welcomes their new junior varsity girls’ coach, Shannon Robinson. With both of her daughters being away in college, Robinson is now taking the knowledge and skills acquired in year 2000 with her to the court. Robinson, the Media Specialist at Morgan, is ready to lead the team into a new segment of their history.
Robinson doesn’t have a typical coaching background– but she is proud of starting new this year.
“I don’t have a coaching background. This is my first year, actually coaching,” Robinson explained. However, she is not new to the sport of volleyball; she has been a volleyball parent since 2000, supporting her daughters throughout their high school and travel experiences.
Before becoming a coach, Mrs. Robinson learned from the sidelines to keep score.
Mrs. Robinson’s time behind the score table helped her to gain new perspectives on how the game works. “I feel like just kind of watching the game, like, I definitely have a good eye for volleyball and what needs to be done and what needs to be corrected.” However, when things become difficult, she looks up to Mathematics teacher and volleyball head coach Jessica Lynch. “I sometimes just need Coach Lynch’s help to figure out how to share that [volleyball techniques] with you guys.”
Lynch has been the girls’ volleyball coach at Morgan for 10 years and started teaching back in 2016. She appreciates the openness in dialogue, saying, “I love when she asks me for help because I think it shows and builds our collaboration as coaches. This is her first year coaching volleyball, so there are a lot of things that I think are new for her. So even though she knows the game from watching it, it’s much different from the coaching side,” Lynch shared.
When Robinson has trouble planning out her practices or has challenges coaching, she will use more resources other than Lynch. “I spent a lot of time on YouTube finding drills and new games and learning ways to approach things that, like, I don’t know.”
When looking at YouTube, she tries to find things to improve on from previous games and practices. “If there’s something in the previous game, like in a practice that I’ve seen hasn’t gone well, with serving, and I’m like, they’re not getting serves over their net, I’ve got to figure out how I can handle that with them? I’ll go home and look for YouTube videos,” said Robinson.
Peyton Vece brings up how good Coach Robinson is doing at her new drills she had learned. “Some drills have been really helpful, such as the chair one we did to make sure we are always low, the serving drills, like a flamingo she calls it.”
Head coach Lynch values their collaborative relationship, noting that while Robinson knows the game from a fan’s perspective, coaching is a different skill set. Despite being new to coaching volleyball, Robinson’s passion and willingness to learn makes her a valuable new asset to the team.
