Paul Dill is the head coach for women’s volleyball with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). MIT is a NCAA Division III institution located in Cambridge, MA. MIT is a member of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference alongside other schools such as: Babson, Wellesley, and Emerson. 

Dill has worked with the MIT volleyball program since 1992. He served as an assistant coach for three years for both the MIT men’s and women’s varsity programs. Paul was named head women’s coach in 1996 and has guided MIT to 11 NCAA postseason bids, three NEWMAC Championships, and two ECAC titles. Dill is currently ranked 12th out of over 400 active Division III coaches in the nation in overall winning percentage (.762), averaging 27 wins and single-digit losses per season during his career.

Paul has been with MIT volleyball for over forty seasons and had an abundance amount of experience coaching college athletes. In this interview he gives his best tips for staying active during this time, his recruiting tips and rules for coach communication in division III, and tells us some of his favorite stories from all his years of coaching. This is an interview you do not want to miss! Enjoy!

Coach

Paul Dill: Head Coach of Women’s Volleyball at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Topic 2: Tips for Staying Mentally Prepared

Paul’s biggest tip is to stay in touch with people and to not put too much pressure on yourself. He asks students to not be too hard on themselves and remember that everyone is in the same boat, so don't panic. He recommends people reach out to friends during this time and check in on each other's well being. 

Topic 3: Recruiting Tips & Contact Rules ​

Paul's biggest tip is to stay in touch with coaches and make sure they are aware of your interests, how you are staying active during this time, and where you are in relation to your school work and test scores. Paul recommends reaching out every few weeks just to touch base and keep that relationship. He also recommends setting up phone calls every so often. He explains the contact rules for Division III and reminds athletes that they can communicate with coaches at any age. 

Topic 4: Do’s and Don'ts - Coach Communication

Paul recommends to include your graduation year, name, position you play, and height in the subject line of the email. He also reminds students to include their full name in each email so he does not have to attempt to look you up just by a first name. He also encourages students to read the information the coaches send to them, and look into the academic requirements of the schools they are interested in. 

Topic 5: Favorite Team Story ​

Paul tells a story about a team he coached a few years ago, Paul says all the guys on this team we're just excited for every opportunity to play. It did not matter to this team who they were playing; they were just glad another team showed up in the gym and they got to play. Paul says that one player in specific on this team really played every point like it was his last. 

Topic 6: Success: Mental Toughness or Talent?

Paul says he thinks it is a combination of both, but the mental side of the game is what gives you an edge. He says that if you have a mentally tough team who is going to keep battling through the entire match, that will always beat talent for him.  

Topic 7: Favorite Facility Played In

Paul would have to say his home gym at MIT. Not just because it is an amazing gym, but because he has been coaching there over forty seasons. He has so much love for the crowd, and the atmosphere they bring each time. 

Topic 8: Top 5 Moment

Paul tells a story about a team he coached that was one of the most mentally tough teams he's ever had. They were playing in the NCAA tournament in the second round against a team they had lost to earlier in the season. Paul says they were losing again to this team 2 sets to 1, and the team had 6 match points on them in the fourth set. They ended up winning that set, the fifth set, and the whole game. Paul says it was also against a team who was coached by one of his best friends. 

Topic 9: Not Top 5 Moments ​

Paul tells a story from the late 90s when they had a match point against them, the other team had ran out of subs and had their middle hitter was serving who typically never served. The girl makes the serve over the net barely. He says his player received the serve and her pass barely went two feet above the court, the other team was celebrating their ‘win’ when his middle hitter stuck her fist out and hit the ball over the net and into the back corner. They ended up winning that point, the next two, and the match. 

We are all in the same boat when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic, but if we keep our goals in mind, motivate one another, and use our resources we will achieve nothing but success! 

Full Transcript:

Jess Gregory  

Alright, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me today. Today I'm with the head women's volleyball coach over at MIT, coach Paul Dill. How are we doing today, Paul?

Paul Dill  

Oh, we're doing pretty well. doing pretty well. Okay, good day so far.

Jess Gregory  

That's a plus it is a Monday, even though all the days kind of meld into one now. But it is start to the week.

Paul Dill  

Yes, for sure. For sure. And my kids this morning, do a little learning time with them. And now they're they're kind of entertaining themselves a little bit for hopefully a little while anyway.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah. Well, we'll find out if they come busting in. I know exactly. How is everything else going on? While you're at home? things going? Well,

Paul Dill  

yeah, everything's good here. Everybody's safe and sound and we have you know, all our supplies and you know, we're keeping in contact with people at work and our student athletes and things like that and friends, so we're worse and the kids are certainly keeping us busy here. And So, yeah, so we're doing well though.

Jess Gregory  

That's good. Never a dull moment, I guess is better than being bored.

Paul Dill  

Right. Fair enough.

Jess Gregory  

Already Well, let's kind of talk about what's tips you can give kids that they can do to stay active while they're at home. Since we're all still still on lockdown for at least it seems like another month.

Paul Dill  

Yeah, I think it's, there's a lot, there's a lot there's a lot to unload with that. I think, you know, as part of what what's going on at MIT, you know, all the faculty across campus have been assigned students that they're staying in contact with weekly and checking in and making sure that they're, they're acclimating well to kind of remote learning and that they're staying active and that they're just doing well mentally and emotionally and all those kinds of things and a lot of those conversations with student athletes as well as just the regular students, you know, they're finding the biggest part biggest hurdle is kind of keeping a schedule during the day and Since then they don't have to go to class, they just have to do work. Sometimes they kind of have to keep their own schedule and keep a routine to their day. So we've been talking a lot about really kind of being intentional about having a routine and getting into good habits health wise as far as activity goes, especially, and really kind of being intentional about getting in some kind of workouts or exercise. And there's so many resources online now for those types of things, whether it's sports specific, or whether it's just to keep in shape. And I think it's, it's to have a weekly routine and have a schedule for your entire weeks laid out whether it's academics, whether it's activities, whether it's you know, physical fitness types of things or training, I think it's really important that you have a schedule and that you can stick to that during the week. And then you know, that's that's going to help you well being as far as your health, your mental your mental well being your health and wellness, and all those good things. So that's just really important.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, absolutely. That's pretty cool that you guys have little groups that you keep in contact with, because I think a lot of these kids just didn't know what to expect just being sent home and having to do online learning, it kind of makes it tough for them to know. And, you know, that's nice that they have someone to reach out to if they have questions.

Paul Dill  

Yeah. And you know, we want to make sure everybody's staying engaged socially and saying, and you know, not because it can get real easy just to disconnect. Yeah, especially if you're kind of home and you're an only child, by yourself with parents. And so we're really trying to make sure everybody's, you know, doing well, just basically.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, that's awesome. Now, that'll kind of lead me into the next question. Do you have any kind of tips for them and how they can stay mentally engaged outside of just keeping that schedule? Are there any other like tips you guys have given students at the same?

Paul Dill  

No, I think it's really about keeping in touch and not putting too much pressure on themselves. I think a lot of people are feeling pressure academically to because now when was it going to be passed on record or is it Am I gonna get a grade and I have that Am I gonna do these assignments? And so I think it's about a lot of talking about self compassion, and really, you know, taking it easy on yourself and understanding that everybody's kind of in the same boat and not to panic, and making sure that everybody you know, you're reaching out to friends to, especially now and making sure that you're giving support to them because other people might need support. And that's going to help, you know, get support for yourself as well. So I think it's about staying engaged socially, and making sure you're reaching out to friends or old friends or reconnecting with people or those types of things. And really being intentional about that.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, it's nice that we have these kinds of technology now because I think it would be super fun if all you had was just a landline like we had grown up. So this is kind of nice that you can at least put a face out there and, and not just chatting here voice so

Paul Dill  

yeah, it's interesting. I actually had a couple of columns, three columns from men's team that I coached back in 2003. They were they were chatting together and they just decided out of the blue to text me and say, Hey, get online with us. Yeah, and it just made me it just made my day it just made completely made my day just talk to those guys who haven't talked to in years, and that they were thinking of me. And it was just it was hilarious. And, you know, that kind of connection. You know, reconnecting has been has been great. And everybody has the power to do that and reach out to somebody and connect.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. That's it. That's a good suggestion and to you know, to reach out to some kids, maybe they haven't talked to you since high school, or college kids or, you know, reach out to relatives, maybe they haven't talked to in a long time and be able to sit and chat for a bit. So it's great tip. Yeah. Now, let's kind of talk about recruiting a little bit. It seems like this could either be a great time to jump in or a slower time. So let's get your take on you know what some kids can do during this time to to get the recruiting process rolling or Keep it rolling.

Paul Dill  

Well, I think it's just you know, it's about contact and Scott irrelevant content. I think some kids are panicking a little bit, and what do I do and getting coaches can't see me play? And what should I do? Should I send you this video? And it's like, well, is it? If it's not, if it's not you playing? I'm not sure what what how helpful it's going to be. And so I think it's a little bit of a holding pattern as far as being able to evaluate a little bit unless you have, you know, video that you can put more highlights together for more recent things. But I think it's about staying in touch and making sure you know, the coaches are aware of your interest and what's what, you know, what's going on with you with during this time, and how are you staying active? And where are you with, you know, your classes and your grades and with school and, you know, testing and things like that. I think it's just keeping everybody in, you know, in touch. staying in touch with coaches, I think is it's kind of the biggest thing and not to know not to panic about it and not to feel like you have to, oh, I've got to reach out every every five days, you know, make sure you know, every couple of weeks is fine and just touching base and then maybe, you know, setting up phone calls once in a while as well, I think is a great way to, you know, stay in touch. But again, it you don't want to, you know, over saturate it because it's at some point, there's only so much you can talk about because there's not much, you know, going on with with volleyball right now. There's no tournaments to talk about. There's no upcoming camps to talk about things like that. But I think it's it's, it's important to stay in touch for sure.

Jess Gregory  

So if kids haven't reached out recently, they probably should just check in and say, Yeah, I know, we don't have any tournaments. I just wanted to check in on chat, something like that. For sure. Yeah. So now in Division Three, what are your kind of contact rules? I know them but to share with the athletes. You know, how can they get in contact with you and when can you contact them back?

Paul Dill  

Well, they can. They can They can reach out to us anytime and we're allowed to respond. So we can respond no matter when there's there's no issue with that. So yeah, if they want to reach out we can we can get back to them. And and, and, you know, get information in their hands if they're if they're looking for information. Awesome.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, I know it's different from division one and Division Two. So just so athletes know there's not bat contact block, I guess they don't have to wait a certain age to reach out to you guys. So that's helpful information for them. Um, can you now give us some kind of like fun do's and don'ts about communicating with coaches I'm sure you've gotten lots of emails throughout the years. So anything that you kind of share with them to maybe do or maybe stay away from?

Paul Dill  

Yeah, I think I do is to in in the subject line, put your your year. Um, and and make sure you know your full name at the end of email. Sometimes people that have been in contact with Once but it was six months ago, send me an email and just they sign it with just their first and their email addresses nothing recognizable with their name in it. So now I've got a, I have no idea who this person is and try to look them up in my database to try to find out who they are based on a first name only. And maybe that's a shortened first name that they signed with. So you know, sign with your full name, you know, the, I think the subject should have a lot of information in it. As far as you know that your your name, your year, your graduation year, your position, maybe your height, things like that. And then in the same thing and your signature should be full name, your year, your position, you know, maybe what club team you play for, you know that your high school that that type of information should be in there. You know, that's kind of key as far as making our job easier to figure out who we're talking to, and then we're going to respond to i think that's that's big and I think keep it short, keep it short and sweet, but have all the relevant information in there. If you send an essay t score, have a breakdown of that as a T score, what was the math? What was the verbal, not just the score, because at some schools, one is more important than the other. Those types of things, I'd say another big do is to read the information that coaches send to you. Because every school is different as far as the requirements and the test scores needed and things like that, and tests that need to be taken. And I think some kids don't don't read the information that you sent to them. And then you know, then then at the end of the day, they don't, they don't have the right requirements when they should have known, you know, months and months ago, because that information was sent out a few times. So I think making sure you're reading things thoroughly and taking care of and taking charge of their own recruiting processes is really important. And then, you know, make sure in highlights that they're hiring. lights that there actually if it's a video highlight that that's actually highlights. If you're if you're want to be my libero and you send me highlights of your service, even the first three passives are at the 10 foot line. That's out of system already. I'm not I'm not going to be that interested. So I think make sure your highlights are of all your skills and and that you're making sure that you're putting your best foot forward with that. Mm hmm.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, that definitely makes sense. And I think now's a pretty good time for them to be proactive. And if they haven't already looked up the school and what is expected to get in maybe they should reach out to admissions, things like that while they have the time to do it.

Paul Dill  

Yeah, I think that's an IT that's important is that you do your due diligence and do your research ahead of time. And know you know, that all that information is out there. All the majors at the school, whether the average test scores that the school, what's the cost of the school, all that's there and you know, and knowing and looking up a little bit about the team that you're interested in You know, what's been the record over the last five years? How long is the coach been there? What? How successful is it? Is it a revolving door of coaches? What's the attrition rates? You know, things like that. That's there. It's just it's there for you to look up though.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I think it'll help them not waste their time either. If they're looking for a specific program, and that school doesn't have it, there's really no point in reaching out to that coach, when you're not going to go to that school. You kind of have to have that degree available. You know, school is important, I think, than the athletic side elite. For the most part, so. Alrighty, well, let's kind of talk a little bit about we're switch gears a little bit and talk about some success that you've had over the years. kind of have a fun story that you can share about a successful team and then we'll kind of go into the mental toughness versus talent side of things.

Paul Dill  

I'm sure you know, I think one of my one of my favorite teams An example that I have is I had a team where they were just so excited about just volleyball in general and they were just excited to play anytime that they could play. And so you know, they never got caught up in Who are we playing? What are we supposed to win? Are we supposed to lose they were just excited that another team showed up in the gym and was there to play them and it didn't matter how good they were who they were supposed to be. We our guy our guys just played and played their guts out and enjoyed every second of it. And that kind of was spearheaded by a libero that we had who's now who's now a doctor at a hospital in New York City, no less. But But he, he was Oberto and he was he was our MVP that year as a libero and we had some, you know, six seven guys on the team that were just huge and but he just, he just was playing every every point like it was his last and he's enjoying everything. Second of it, he was always high five, and everybody and Pat and everybody on the back. And it didn't matter whether we were losing or winning, he always had a smile on his face. And when, when we were done with that season, he just broke down in tears because he just given everything he had. And he loved every second of it. And he knew how much he was going to miss it. So no, that was just a fun, fun team to coach. They just had a blast. Nice.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, I mean, if you think back on the last time that you played, not knowing that it was your last time you were playing, you know what I mean? So like, play like every game is, is it because you just never know. Um, so that's definitely fun. Yeah. When you think about the most successful teams that you've had, can you kind of talk about whether you thought it was the mental side of the game, or it was the talent of the players?

Paul Dill  

Yeah, I think it's it's always been kind of a combination, but I think it's always kind of the mental side of it. That gives you the edge. If you have a great team culture and A bunch of really confident players who are just mentally tough and are going to keep keep battling throughout. That's always going to Trump Tower for me. And I've had some pretty successful teams like that I had a team where we had we had a 30 match win streak and everybody and was throwing everything at us but the kitchen sink to try to beat us so we were playing the teams for like a second and third time that year and they were just so desperate to beat us. And somehow that team whenever we needed a big point, somehow we found a way to get it. And it just it just you know went our way obviously it was some luck there but it was just this this tenacity and toughness that when they just were just going to play every point like it was their last like I said, and just give everything they had and just really mentally tough.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, anytime I think back on a really successful team, it wasn't that we have the tallest players are could, you know hit them out of the gym. It was basically they worked forever. point. And it came from the team. It didn't necessarily have to come from the sidelines as far as just telling them how to do it. So yeah. awesome story. Love it. So let's kind of talk about some some fun things here. Well, we we were deep into it, it was a little somber, everyone's at home and we're giving them tips. So let's kind of make it a little bit more fun here. Can you have the favorite facility you've ever played in? And kind of Why?

Paul Dill  

Well, I think it's our own gym. I just I you know, and it's not that it's this great facility or this great gym. I just, you know, I've been coaching there so long. I've coached you know, the women's team now for, you know, 25 years and I've coached the men's team. I did 14 years in there. So it's a lot of seasons, you know, 40 some seasons spent in that gym. And I just love our crowd that we get and I love the atmospheres as far as being being in there and we've been various we probably have like an 80% Win win percentage in that gym as well. So it's just always really comfortable for me to be there. And I just, you know, and I never know who's gonna walk in the gym, whether it's you know, an alum that I haven't seen in several years or some volleyball connection that just, you know happen to be in town and there's going to come watch that I haven't seen in years, you know, that type of thing. Yeah. Or former assistant coach, and it just it just makes me happy when that stuff happens. And yeah, yeah, I just really, really love our own our own gym.

Jess Gregory  

Nice. Yeah, you gotta love a nice home court advantage, too. Yeah, exactly. All right. Now let's kind of talk about one of your most memorable moments of all your years coaching, this would be your nomination for your top five. So if you can think of a just one moment that was the greatest and kind of why.

Paul Dill  

Yeah, there's there's a lot of them. There are a lot of them. I think. One of the one of the greatest teams I've ever coached. We were playing in the NCAA tournament in the, in the third in the in the second round. And we were playing a team that we had lost to earlier in the season pretty badly like they they were they were, you know, they were a tough team and we kind of dissected them a little bit with with game film. And we really wanted another shot out of and, and we got another shot and they were beating us again. And we were, we were down two games to one, two sets to one. And they had six match points on us in that fourth set. And we we fought off every match point and one that set. And then they they didn't they just kind of fell apart in the fifth and we won. And it was just one of the greatest performances I've ever seen by a team and it was and we were like continuing we're getting better in that match. Like the team was continuing to improve in that time. And that to me is a mark of a great team and how much fun they had doing that and one of the previous teams previous performances I've ever been a part of as a coach, and it was, it was against a coach. That's one of my best friends and coaching too. So, which made it hard at the end of the day, but but it was it was just it was brilliant.

Jess Gregory  

Nice. Also a little sweeter too, right? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure. tournament. Now where'd you guys end up that year,

Paul Dill  

we ended up losing in the next round. And the sweet 16 round in five sets of five again the next day by two points. 1513 in the fifth set. Oh, man. And in that one, we were again, we were down to one and we were down I think 2022 to 17 in the fourth set, came back on that and took it to a fifth and, you know, a bad balance a bad call. And yeah, it happens and it was fantastic. That was a great match.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, you got to feel good about that though that you may be far and it's been really killed it so

Paul Dill  

yeah, for sure.

Jess Gregory  

Not sure. All right. Now lastly, question we're going to go on the flip side of that. What is he? One moment that you remember that was just like off the wall doesn't happen very often. Maybe it made everyone laugh kind of stop the game. You're not top five.

Paul Dill  

So this is a kind of still a top five but a funny one in that we shouldn't have won the point. We had a match point against us and this is back in probably the late 90s that match point against us and the other team had run out of subs and they had a middle hitter back there serving who never ever got to serve and you can see and it was match point and they this team had never beaten us either at that point. And so she was just you could see how nervous she was. And on the serve. She actually miss hits to serve and kind of you know pancakes it and kind of comes off off her hand with backspin because she Miss hits it so badly and it's barely making it over the net. So my right side is flying up to try and pass this ball. She's like, Oh no, right so she comes up here, say it and she's, she's flying up, she dives to try to pass this ball and she completely Shanks it sideways across the court at about two feet above the court. So about two feet above the cord, it just shoots straight sideways all the way across, the other team starts to celebrate. And my little outside hitter of five four outside hitter comes flying out of nowhere and you know, dives and hits it with their fist and the ball flies over the net and lands in the back corner while the other team is huddled up in you know, celebrating the big win. And then we won the next two points and won the match. And then that was that but it was it was it was an unbelievable play. That was sheer luck, but it was fantastic.

Jess Gregory  

That'll teach her to cheer before the whistle was blown.

Paul Dill  

Yeah, for sure.

Jess Gregory  

Exactly. Awesome. All right, well, we're going to share those with our viewers. online and kind of have them, you know, take the nominations and vote for them. So we'll see where that But yeah, I love it. That's great. But all right, well, I really appreciate you sitting down and chatting with me today. I had fun kind of learning more about the tips that you've given and some of the teams that you've coached. Um, hopefully we can see out in the court soon, but if not, you know, we'll see how the summer goes, I guess.

Paul Dill  

All right. All right. My pleasure. All right.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai