Topic 1: Coaching Background: 

Greg's start in volleyball goes all the way back to highschool when he joined the team his senior year, he tells that his team was horrible and maybe won three sets all year but he had a lot of fun doing it. From there he continued to get more and more involved with the sport, ended up volunteering coaching a highschool team then later on taking an assistant coach position at a highschool. During his time as an undergrad at CCSU he worked as an undergrad manager for the team and an undergrad assistant coach for the team. This will be Greg’s 20th year involved with the program at CCSU. 

Topic 2: Coaching Style: 

Greg describes himself as a very detail oriented coach who likes to see things done well and correctly. A lot of Greg’s coaching style has also been influenced by networking with other coaches and seeing how they relate to players. Greg believes he can learn from coaches of all different sports and does not limit himself to only learning from other volleyball coaches.

Topic 3: Tips for Staying Physically Prepared:

Greg recommends athletes do anything they can to stay active and try to get outside everyday. He also recommends players do whatever they can to keep up their volleyball skills, whether that is setting against a wall or getting a family member to go outside and throw balls at them. He also reminds athletes that watching the sport played online can be helpful as well.

Topic 4: Tips for Staying Mentally Prepared:

Greg tells athletes that the best thing they can do is set a schedule for themselves and try the best they can to keep to that schedule everyday. He also thinks it is important for everyone to set aside some time for themselves to do things they enjoy everyday. 

Topic 5: Recruiting Tips:

Greg recommends athletes communicate with everyone on the coaching staff not just the head and assistant coaches. He also encourages players to keep reaching out until they hear an answer one way or another from the coaching staff, he reminds athletes to not be afraid to reach out to a coach several times. He recommends underclassmen still reach out to coaching staff but please keep in mind they cannot reply to you at this time so you do not need to be reaching out as frequently.

Topic 6: Do’s and Don’ts of Recruitment:

Greg’s do’s of recruitment are: communicate, communicate honestly and clearly and to always make sure you're addressing your email to the correct person and school and to always include videos. Greg’s biggest don'ts are to not include video that does not show off what you do well and to not over edit your videos. 

Topic 7: Recruiting Story:

Greg tells a story of a player they were interested in recruiting who was not only an extremely talented player but also a player who was very supportive of all her other teammates. When Greg called her initially she thanked him for his interest but said she was interested in a larger school and somewhere closer to her. Greg decided to reach back out to her a few months later and she was interested. She enjoyed her years at central greatly, was a great player and is now a Division I coach herself.

Topic 8: Mount Rushmore of Volleyball Players:

Greg went with American players for this question and lists Karch Kiraly and Kerri Walsh Jennings as his first two picks. His next two picks are Logan Tom and Lloy Ball as his final two picks

There are numerous aspects to a successful recruiting process. Coach Shell's wisdom and advice offers athletes of all sports guidelines to follow moving forward.

Full Transcript:

Jess Gregory  

All right everyone. Thank you for sitting down and joining us today I am with Coach Greg shell over at the Central Connecticut State University. He's with the women's volleyball program. How are we doing today Greg?

Greg Shell  

I'm doing great Jess. How are you?

Jess Gregory  

I'm doing pretty good. Pretty good. mentioned earlier it snowed here today. So it's a little a little chilly outside had turned the heat back on how are things by you?

Greg Shell  

about a day about a day behind you guys are snow showers will come in tonight and tomorrow. So now from having some nice weather and I got to play a little bit of golf because Connecticut hasn't shut down. down yet, so I don't think I'm getting it the rest of the week though, if it's gonna be that cold, I'll pass and I'll just sit inside.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of funny how it just kind of sweeps across the country there and then you'll you guys will get it. So, enjoy. It's it's been great.

Greg Shell  

Delightful. Yeah.

Jess Gregory  

Yes, exactly. How's everything else going? How you holding up on your shelter in place?

Greg Shell  

I'm doing okay. You know, it's it's an adjustment to a different way of doing business in a different way of recruiting and work with a team. So that's been a little bit of a challenge. I think that learning how to do a people business when you don't get to see the people is a little surreal. But we're figuring out making it work and think up for technology because if we didn't have this stuff, I don't know how in the world would do it.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, I think it would be much harder to not be able to have these kinds of chats or or chat with your teams while they're at home and content. To get everybody together, so it is definitely nice. Sure, for sure. Now, Greg, I know you a little bit from working with you at camps. But to give the viewers watching some more information about you, I'd love for you to kind of share your coaching background and how you got started, and how that led you to where you are now.

Greg Shell  

Sure. This one's a little bit of a weird and wandering story, but it's got to go back to my senior year of high school. The high school that I was at started the team in my senior year. So that was my first real exposure to playing organized volleyball played, fell in love with the sport and we were we were beyond awful. Oh and 21 three sets that entire senior year. We stunk but I had a lot of fun doing it hanging out with the guys I was playing with and I ended up getting an all league nod. They must have needed somebody to fill a 12th spot but it got stuck in my head and I might be okay at it. So yeah, for high school I played a lot of outdoor with some guys in the area we have a pretty good grasp doubles and triples series of tournaments in The area that led to playing indoor with them that led to me getting more involved in the indoor game as I got more competent as a player. And so I started doing volunteer coaching back with high school and decided that was fun. So I went on to an assistant coaching position at another local high school did that for four years. And while I'm doing this, I'm still playing the outdoor stuff the entire time, because that was just really cool. And I love doubles and triples, I met the at the time assistant coach at Central Connecticut. Playing in the outdoor circuit, we played a reverse coed tournament together. I was transferring in central at the same time. So I decided that my high school stuff had about run its course I wanted to get involved with the collegiate game. And so I went and talked to Nancy and Heder introduced me to our head coach at Central and said, Look, I'm coming here as an undergrad next year. I'd love to volunteer in your gym and just get a sense for what the collegiate game is like. And she was she was cool with that. So I did a years and undergrad manager My final year at Central I transitioned into being an undergrad assistant coach, and then just stayed with the program afterwards, when they decided to move on and have a family then I slotted into the first assistant position and lo and behold 20 years in have been at Central for quite a while and yeah, it's just been it's been a really cool ride, but a little bit of a strange one.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah. Well, strange or unique. We'll take it, we'll take it that route. That is a cool story. And it's cool that you've kind of been so so I have it straight. You been with central the entire time that you've been coaching collegiately? Correct.

Greg Shell  

Yeah, my career. My collegiate career has been all Central. This will be my 20th year involved with the program coming up this fall. So God willing, everything opens on time and we had a good start.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, exactly. That is super cool. And also very unique as well because a lot of times people kind of move around or they they head to other programs when the head coach, you know, the head coach leaves or whatnot or so that's pretty cool that you've been with them that long and they're sticking through and helping them out.

Greg Shell  

It's One of the ones that usually gets a lot of raised eyebrows, and how did you pull that off when I'm talking with friends in the coaching world, but I've been really fortunate The university has been a great fit for me. I've worked under the same head coach the entire time. So she and I worked very well together. And it's just it's been a really nice way to help build a pretty solid, pretty stable program.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, absolutely. So it makes me wonder then what your kind of coaching style is, and how if you've learned from anyone else outside of your head coach, or if you guys have kind of just grown together since it is unique situation.

Greg Shell  

So most of the coaching style, I think is is a little bit of a combination of Linda's personality and my personality. We both have education backgrounds. So coaching is very much teaching for us. And we're similar enough in that and that we're also both a little anal retentive and detail oriented that we really like to to coach players the same way and and see things done technically well and technically correctly. So a lot of my coaching has come from that but I've also had some other influences I have a lot of friends who are coaches outside of the volleyball world and a lot of cross pollinating with them and sitting in their gyms, and just seeing the way that they relate with players, a lot of networking with other coaches, through a lot of the camps that have worked with exact and with some other people, just a chance to get to know how other people do their jobs. And to me Our volleyball business is really not a volleyball business. It's a people business that happens to revolve around volleyball. So I like to sit in with coaches who are not volleyball coaches, as well. I will routinely spend time in our basketball coaches gym are going out watching softball and baseball coaches on their practice fields and just seeing how they interact with players and teach. And so I've had a lot of influences, but the biggest one for sure has been Linda, our head coach at Central.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, well, it does sound like you can learn from other coaches outside of different sports too, because it's really just kind of understanding the player and how they learn and then taking that and running with it. So I like that you're involved with the other sports at your school and kind of, you know, learning from them too. So it's not just volleyballs over here, soccer is over there. Because I've definitely been with some, some athletic programs where it's like volleyball does their own thing. Football does their own thing. So it's kind of cool. You guys are all connected there.

Greg Shell  

Yeah, we're very fortunate the majority of our programs share one coaching suite. So we actually get to know each other on a, on a daily basis anyway, and it just, it makes it easier to stop by games and root for people. And just if you're doing the job, right, you're always going to be a student of human behavior and seeing how people communicate with each other. Whether it's good, bad or indifferent. If there's something you can steal, stealing, yeah, borrow, we'll just borrow? Absolutely.

Jess Gregory  

You'll give it to someone else. Right. So

Greg Shell  

hopefully only the good stuff.

Jess Gregory  

Exactly. All right. Now since you have been coaching for a long time, then I'm sure you have some great tips for athletes. Obviously, everyone is stuck at home. And so I've been Kind of picking coach's brains on some tips they can give to stay physically active and then we'll kind of chat about the mental side as well as some recruiting tips down the way.

Greg Shell  

The physically active pieces a little bit tough because of depending where you are in the country right now you've got a variety of different restrictions on whether you can be in public or not. Most of the gym facilities at least around here are closed down. Speaking for myself, I'm very fortunate that our golf courses have not been closed down. And I'm a walking carry kind of guy so I am getting in more golf than I'm used to at this time of year. I've usually sequestered in the gym during during our spring season. So I've been able to play a little bit that's been nice, but you know, anything that you can do to get yourself active and if you can get a little bit of time outside every day, by yourself. There's something about sunshine and fresh air that does good for body and soul.

Jess Gregory  

This is very true of any kind of other tips and things they can maybe do inside with a ball without breaking mom and dad's TV.

Greg Shell  

You know, anything that's kind of kind of helped you find a rhythm and keep a rhythm I, I grew up setting a volleyball in my room, when once I figured out that I kind of fell in love with the game and I wanted to get the touch on the hands better, I spent a lot of time tossing and spinning ball to myself and just getting a quick contact, coming out seeing if I can take the spin off, take it from where I wanted to, if you've got that room that doesn't have the lamp damage, and you can sort of set into into a into a wall or something like that, or where you're not going to cause damage. I think that's great. For those who have room where they can do it outside as well. It's even easier. Get somebody that you live with that you're already kind of stuck with and cross pollinated with the toss and balls at you if they're not a volleyball player to pepper with you if they are and I think that's great. And, you know, watching a little bit of it online doesn't hurt either. Some of the old archive stuff that since things aren't really going right now. I think watching the sport played well. can be quite a bit too.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, for sure. That can kind of move on to the mental side to stay mental. prepared to get back out on the court when we're allowed. Do you have any tips there on how we can stay mentally, you know, mentally active?

Greg Shell  

Yeah, there's a few things you can try know the hardest one for me. And anybody who's involved with psychology is going to tell you this is you need to set yourself a schedule. And you need to kind of stay to a schedule so that you can get some semblance of a daily routine when you're outside one is removed. I didn't do that for about the first two weeks of the quarantine. And I was thoroughly unproductive and the quality of what I what I was getting done wasn't very good. So switching over and if I'm not going to put a tight schedule on myself, because with this, I'm not going to go with something narrow but blocking out an hour or two of time each day for specific tasks. And for me, the biggest thing is to make sure that I've got our administrative stuff that I am used to handling kind of done in one period of time that I'm spending another block of time working on recruits because most of our recruiting right now is done. Virtually whether I'm on the phone or or answering emails, so just getting myself into a routine and blocking out some time for myself to to just kind of decompress because this is a different version of stressful and we don't get the physical stress relievers that we're used to with, you know, exercise or competition.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, that's definitely a good one. So I've heard a lot of people say that you should stick to a routine, which is great, but not a lot of people have suggested to like, find time to just catch your breath. And that's nothing against any of the coach's suggestions. I've just heard this even from friends where they're like, if I'm not losing weight, if I'm not learning a new skill, I'm not doing quarantine, right. And I'm like, well, maybe we also need to take a step back and kind of catch our breath a little bit. 

Greg Shell  

I'm just trying to make sure that I can do my job right, which is tough enough. And if I'm fortunate enough to, to come out of here in better shape than I started. Great. But yeah, more important for me that our team is in good shape and that we've you know, we've got good kids coming in.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, exactly. That'll kind of roll us then into the recruiting side of it. Can you give us some tips on what Kids can do right now, to stay in contact with coaches and keep that recruiting process going. You know, just your thoughts on that.

Greg Shell  

You know, this is it's a, it's a really interesting time for recruiting, there are a couple of different trends that are happening with it all at the same time. But all of them involve a lot of contact and a lot of a lot of time with coaches. So if you've already done your process to the point where you've narrowed your list, contact those coaches, email everybody on the staff, not just a head coach or not just an assistant, because regardless of even if you knew what the regular division of work was, things are a little bit different right now. So get your stuff off to everybody. Make sure that you're communicating with everybody on the staff. I would advise people to communicate until they've heard an answer one way or the other. If you don't hear back, you're probably overlooked in a very flooded inbox full of very confusing things. Just keep reaching out until you hear something one way or the other. And if you know what the contact rules are For your age group, that would be useful too. If you're talking to division one schools and you're not a 21 or 20, then you're not going to hear back. You know, if you graduate in 22, we can't get back to you until until the middle of June. So don't get discouraged by that. Don't expect coaches to get back to you, but stay on the email trail. If a coach is asking you to schedule a phone call, please schedule the phone call. This is a great time to do it. Lord knows we all have enough time. And we're going to be able to find something that will match with schedules, but whether it's a phone call or video call, I found that this is actually a really good time to be able to do some of the relationship building with players. You know, we we've got several players who I think are going to be looking to visit campus when things open back up. And those are all things that happened since the Korean team started. So just be attentive to your communication. Make it as clear as you can. And don't be afraid to email coaches twice.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, or you know, several times

Greg Shell  

As you need to to get an answer

Jess Gregory  

Exactly. Now, for those younger kids that aren't getting a response, where we still suggesting that they are, you know, reaching out a couple times trying to keep on the radar of the coaches,

Greg Shell  

I certainly wouldn't at least make sure that you've made yourself a little bit of a presence in the inbox. But if you're 22, or 23, Greg, I don't need to hear from you twice a week. You know, just if I if I know who you are, and I know that I need to take a look at you when things open back up, or when I can talk to you again, that's great if you are one of those 20 twos and we get a little bit closer to a period where coaches are going to be able to talk to you, you know, I would suggest upping your frequency probably in early May. If things are not lifted by then just to get five or six weeks worth of build up so people are gonna remember your name for what context you open up. You know, if you're looking at at programs that are at other levels, they're gonna have different rules. So whatever you are, you know you've got the time to do the research, find out what the contact rules are for the schools that you're reaching out to, you know, and if you can find a way to get access to your transcripts from your high school and get an unofficial copy of them electronically transmitted to you get on that early, if you can get all that stuff so that you have access to it on your computer so that when a coach asks, you can send it out. We don't have to spend two weeks hoping your guidance counselor checks an email. That would be delightful.

Jess Gregory  

Mm hmm. Oh, that's a good tip. I haven't heard that one yet. So that's a good one. Um, now do you have any fun like do's and don'ts for recruiting some things that you've seen over the last 20 years? That maybe you can share with us?

Greg Shell  

Okay, I'll give you two do's first, communicate, communicate, honestly. communicate clearly. If you're using a form email, make very sure that you have the correct school with the correct coach's name on it. My job as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator is to be the filter between everybody else and my boss. And I'm going to say no to 90% That's kind of a basic number. If you have my name wrong, you have our school's name wrong, you're probably in the no pile you might not even get to me opening your video, I would advise you to always include video, especially in introductory emails. You know after those introductory things, your conversations will grow however they need to with your relationship with a coach but get video in it should probably be highlighting that first email and make sure that it highlights what you're talking about. If you're telling me you want to be recruited as a middle, and your film starts off with 45 seconds of you serving and there's not a devastating topspin, jump serve, that's going to impress me with your athleticism. Don't send it your you're not going to get past the coaches filter if they've got a quick one. You know stuff that's relevant, make sure that your communication is good. And then just when somebody's asking for a phone call, get one

Jess Gregory  

Yeah. Nice. Now outside of the don't send the middle email of serving so i i personally We'd love those. Those videos. I think they're hilarious because middles are most likely not going to be serving most of the time. But do you have any other adults that you've seen throughout the years?

Greg Shell  

You know, it's the biggest, the biggest ones are just kind of a sloppy. If it's if it's bad video, that's not going to help you out very much. If it's video that doesn't show off what you do well, that's not gonna help very much. I personally would prefer something that is not over edited. I don't need it to stop every four seconds and circle you and flashing lights. Give me strange musical interludes. It's nice to know what some of your tastes are. But it's not as important as the volleyball is. I'm assuming if you're sending me a highlight video that it's basically cut to you. If you want to highlight yourself the first time or two just so I've got your jersey number. I know what I'm looking at. That's delightful. You can do it, but you don't need to do it all the way through. If you want to do an intro clip of yourself at the beginning talking, that's fine. You don't necessarily need to I know it's from you. You sent it to me. Make sure that contact Information is in there, whether it's in the video or in the email, make sure that your coach's contact information is in there. Probably better in the email than it is in the video. But wherever you're going to put it, get it so that I can, you know, I can check up on you. I'm not going to recruit you just based off of you. I'm also going to talk to people who've worked with you and find out what kind of a person you are and what kind of a teammate you are, what your work ethic is, like, what you're like as a student, all that stuff matters to me. So, give me the information so I can find it on the front end. And so I don't have to chase you for it.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, that's that's definitely a big plus there. You want to give all the information that you guys need? right up front, grad year, I think two, definitely important so that you guys know how to filter those those emails through.

Greg Shell  

For sure.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah. Also sounds like being detailed in what you're sending and paying attention to what you're sending is like the number one, do make sure that you know who you're writing.

Greg Shell  

For sure. It's there's not a whole lot of ways to get You know, tossed out of an inbox faster than something that has Fairfield his name on it. I know we're gonna recruit some of the same players, but I really don't need their email.

Jess Gregory  

Right. Make sense? Now, can you share a fun recruiting story with us of like your favorite player out of these years and how they kind of went through the process?

Greg Shell  

Okay, I've got I have an unusual one for you. And this is this is someone that we recruited to Central. She ended up being a great player for us. I'm not going to share her name because I haven't talked with her about sharing her recruiting story. But I was at the final for quite a while ago with my boss, and we decided to go down to the recruiting showcase that was being held there. And some of those showcases are of greater value than others that this particular one, the player that we're talking about, really stood out from an athletic standpoint. You know, she she was just hurt. She was built a little differently than a lot of players who were there, but she was on also incredibly supportive of the people that she was with. She was very vocal. A lot of Pat's on backs and backsides getting people organized, being very aggressive going through. So she got our head coaches attention. She went over, she sat there and she watched her for quite a while and said, I want her she's a good player. I want her on the team. And what I went over to take a look at her and said, she's a little undersized, and she's goofy footed as a middle. Boy, she aggressive and she's strong. She's fast, and I was totally, totally on board with the boss. So we are coming home from the Final Four. And she says you need to give her a call. So I called her from the car on the ride from the airport. So I knew the showcase was done. And this is I think, the next day, and we had a nice conversation. But she initially told us, you know, thank you for your interest, but I want to look at a bigger school, and I want to look at something a little closer to where I am now. She was not actually a freshman she was in her first year to a junior college and when transfer out to something a little bit closer. Okay, I can respect that you've gone through this process a little bit as a as a high school senior. So, uh, you know what you want. Thanks. And good luck with what you're looking for. So we're still recruiting for this middle position. And I decided about a month later to circle back to her. And I throw her an email and say, Hey, just wanted to check up and see how things were going with you see if you'd found that right fit yet. And if not, if you were interested in a closer look at us up in Central, and she gets back to me five minutes after I send the email and said, I'd actually love to have another conversation, things have changed a little bit. So I pick up the phone and call her. Turns out the schools that she's looking for closer to her aren't interested. She's not quite a big enough physical prospect for them. And so that reach back into her. Even though she'd given us a note on the front end that we had such a good conversation. The first time I think established a little bit of a A relationship and a little bit of trust. And I think it's my favorite recruiting story because I got to know first, but then going back through it, we ended up we ended up getting her she came to Central had a wonderful career for us and is now actually a division one coach herself. So just really nice to see the story that doesn't always start with a yes. Yeah, and end up with a pretty good one and can be a pretty good situation for everybody involved.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, exactly. But again, it sounds like you have that open communication. And so did she and kind of told you, you know what she was thinking right from the beginning, instead of like one side sort of dragging it out. So I'm sure that helped as well.

Greg Shell  

I absolutely loved it. It's one of the things that since that happened, I've been very direct with recruits. When we're finishing up that first conversation, one of the things that I asked for and I was like, if we're not the right fit for you, that's fine. Tell me if you don't want to tell me on the phone because it's hard to email me. But if we are the right fit, let me know right away and I'll try and do the same thing to you. I will be as honest and straightforward and as blunt with you as I can in this process, because I think it's the right way to do it. And that has really actually helped her my recruiting. Over the years. I think it's gotten a little bit better as I've gotten better at being direct with that. But asking for it now, I think, helps establish a little bit more trust and honesty in the dialogue with the players recruiting.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, for sure. It also kind of gives kids that option to like never close the door when they're unsure. kind of look at other schools that maybe they hadn't thought about in the past to you know, if you get a message from a school, they definitely know you don't want but if it's someone you know, that you hadn't really heard of, and you want to give it a little bit more time to look into it. I think that's okay, too, to say hey, you know, I hadn't really thought about it. Let me look into it more.

Greg Shell  

Definitely recruiting. It's it's more marathon than it is sprint and even even the quick ones are taking a couple of months to do and it's not unusual to have a four or five month long recruiting relationship at least You know, especially if you're starting young.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, well, it is a relationship, right? It can't be just a one off call and all of a sudden, now you're going to Central, you know, it's got to be relationship,

Greg Shell  

it would have to be I can't think of, I can't think of a situation where we would recruit a player just off of a off of a single call, that would be really, really unusual for us. Right.

Jess Gregory  

I think that's unusual for everyone. But I know how stories go around the club world where they're like, Oh, she got seen once and that was a done deal. I've had kids come up to me and say that, like, how did Sally get that scholarship off of one look, and I'm like, it wasn't it was definitely a relationship building. So for sure, long as they understand that. Now I have one more question for you, Greg. I am curious about your Mount Rushmore of volleyball players. So I would love to hear your top four all time favorite volleyball players.

Greg Shell  

All right. These are since its Mount Rushmore, and that's an American thing. I went with American players. I think the top two are pretty easy for me. I don't know how courage cry and Kerri Walsh Jennings can't be on there. They've been fantastic, the collegiate level at the professional level at the Olympic level, indoor and outdoor success as players So I think those were really easy. And then for me, Logan Tom, and volleyball for the length of their careers and how much they were able to do professionally, internationally on the Olympic level. over a length of time. Those were those were the four for me that really stuck out if, if she hadn't been taken from so early flow, Hyman might have gone on there instead. But I think Carson and Carrie, and loi and Logan were really pretty good.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, yeah, that's definitely a solid Mount Rushmore I'm, I'm excited to see how some other coaches, pick theirs and then kind of look at No look at your guys's and see if anyone picks the same. I'm gonna say that Kerri Walsh is probably on there a couple times for people, but yeah, we'll see. Yeah. Awesome. All right, Greg. Well, I've really enjoyed sitting down chatting with you learning more about you and kind of offering up those tips for players. So I appreciate you sit down chat with us today. Anytime,

Greg Shell  

Jess. I enjoyed it. And hope to see you again soon.

Jess Gregory  

Yes, let's get back out on the court when it's safe, of course. Absolutely.

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