By Leo Adam Biga for VolleyballMag
May this be the yr that the Bluejays break by way of?
Creighton, the perennial nationwide energy from Omaha however No. 2 within the state of Nebraska, simply may need the products to make it to the NCAA Division I Ladies’s Volleyball Championship.
“All the pieces we do is to construct for the NCAA Event,” veteran coach Kirsten Bernthal Sales space mentioned.
To wit, Creighton has its typical extraordinarily difficult early season non-conference schedule earlier than starting Huge East play.
“We’re all the time making an attempt to arrange a schedule to present us our greatest likelihood to earn that chance and hopefully host (NCAA Event matches), and to try this it’s important to play nice groups,” mentioned Bernthal Sales space, who’s getting into her twenty second yr on the helm.
“Each single match we play within the non-con goes to be robust however we recruit gamers that know that. It’s a grind but it surely’s grind. Our gamers find it irresistible. I understand how excited we’re to play a number of the high groups within the nation.”
Creighton, No. 12 within the AVCA preseason ballot, returns a formidable core and brings in a few extremely touted transfers to a staff that completed 29-5 final yr, which included profitable the Huge East, earlier than shedding to Louisville in a tricky 5 units within the third spherical of the NCAA Event.
The Bluejays are residence this weekend to open the season for matches with the ACC’s NC State, Missouri of the SEC and Drake of the Missouri Valley.
After which it ratchets up. AVCA preseason No. 21 USC and Kansas State each go to Creighton earlier than the annual battle with second-ranked Nebraska, this yr on September 10 at Nebraska. The annual battles between Creighton and Nebraska, which has been to 11 NCAA title matches and gained 5 of them, are legendary and must-see early season TV.
Earlier than the preseason ends, Creighton performs Valley favourite Northern Iowa, American Athletic favourite Rice, No. 6 Louisville, No. 8 Purdue and No. 13 Kansas,
Creighton is led by VolleyballMag.com second-team All-American Norah Sis, a 6-foot-1 exterior from Papillion, Nebraska, simply 13 miles from Omaha. Belief that Sis is primed for an enormous senior season, together with VBM third-team setter Kendra Wait, one other senior. Junior exterior Ava Martin was an VBM honorable point out and outdoors Future Ndam-Simpson, who’s from Omaha, was on the all-Huge East freshman staff.
“Norah Sis goes to the again row, you are taking a deep breath, and also you’re like oh, no, when Ava Martin involves the entrance row,” Bernthal Sales space mentioned. “I feel that’s once you develop into fairly good – a brand new participant comes up and also you go, oh no, I’ve bought one other one coming at me. That’s how we predict we could be nice – by being sturdy at each place.”
Throw in Kentucky switch center blocker Elise Goetzinger (a key cog on the Wildcats’ spring 2021 NCAA-chanmpion staff) and Penn State DS-libero Maddy Bilinovic and Creighton is precisely that.
“We’re not shying away from it. We predict we’ve got possibly essentially the most proficient staff to ever play at Creighton,” affiliate head coach Brian Rosen mentioned. “We’ve got actually lofty targets for what we are able to accomplish. We return a ton off final yr’s staff and we weren’t proud of the way in which that yr ended. We need to go farther. We’ve got final-four expectations,”
The small Jesuit college in Omaha is having fun with a golden period in athletics, spearheaded partially by volleyball. Followers sitting proper atop the motion at cozy, state-of-the-art D.J. Sokol Area (CU performed at a highschool health club earlier than Sales space arrived) present an enormous home-court benefit. Internet hosting a regional, as Creighton did final yr, could be the distinction in advancing or not. Season tickets offered out a month earlier than the primary match.
KBB, a three-time nationwide coach of the yr (together with being the VBM coach of the yr in 2016) and president-elect of the AVCA, introduced Creighton volleyball from mediocrity to superiority within the robust Missouri Valley Convention. Similar to males’s and girls’s hoops, she’s leveraged the college’s transfer to the Huge East to place her program into nationwide relevance by way of enhanced recruiting and scheduling. Creighton has gained 10 straight Huge East regular-season titles and been to the NCAA tourney 13 occasions.
Her 470-189 report at Creighton interprets to a .713 profitable proportion. Her total collegiate teaching report is 582-230 (.717).
Which isn’t dangerous for a coach that nobody at Creighton wished aside from now-retired CU Corridor of Fame athletic director Bruce Rasmussen. She did include sturdy suggestions from Norm Nielsen, then-president of Kirkwood Neighborhood Faculty, the place she coached three years, and Terry Pettit, the architect of Nebraska volleyball and the Johnny Appleseed for the game within the state, whose Huskers camps she labored.
Creighton’s tradition of caring
Rasmussen, a former school basketball coach, appreciates not solely the turnaround Bernthal Sales space engineered – the staff she inherited gained solely three matches the yr earlier than her arrival – however the tradition she’s instilled and cultivated. He mentioned that by way of all of it she reveals “a pleasure within the course of.”
KBB additionally constructed this system whereas elevating three daughters with lawyer husband Erik Sales space. She speaks of her gamers in maternal phrases and treats them like extensions of her household and quips that when she began in 2003 she was their massive sister, now she’s their second mom, and if she stays for much longer she’ll be their proxy grandmother.
Present and former gamers reward her unconditional caring, an open-door coverage that goes past the workplace to her residence, and excessive expectations that make them need to do properly on and off the courtroom in order to not elicit her motherly disappointment.
“You’ll be able to inform by the way in which our children play in competitors that they not solely love the sport, they love what they’re doing, they love who they’re doing it with, they’re keen to play a task for the betterment of the staff,” Rasmussen mentioned. “That’s engaging and addictive to followers however I additionally assume to children. You generally is a nice recruiter and you may commit loads of assets to a sport, but when your product isn’t good then there’s issue in sustaining what you’re making an attempt to do.
“While you speak to our juniors and seniors and when recruits see our product, they see we didn’t over promise and underneath ship. They discover we’re a household they usually make lifetime relationships. That’s the tradition we’d prefer to have with all of our sports activities however definitely Kirsten and her employees have accomplished a fantastic job creating that.”
Mentioned present Creighton athletic director Marcus Blossom, “She has a manner of connecting with individuals.”
Added former assistant Paul Giesselmann:
“Kirsten is not only a fantastic recruiter of student-athletes however a fantastic recruiter of individuals. She doesn’t promote a factor. She’s real. After sitting down with Kirsten student-athletes know she’s going to care about them as individuals. In case you spend 4 years in Kirsten’s program, neglect the volleyball half, you’re going to be a greater individual and also you’re going to be ready for all times.”
Creighton has 19 gamers on its roster.
“It’s children extra centered on the staff than themselves,” KBB mentioned. “What that manifests as is children who’re going to work onerous day-after-day, even once they’re drained or they fail a take a look at. There’s the expectation in our health club that I’m going to work my tail off to hopefully get the function I need on the courtroom. But when I don’t I’m not going to destroy issues within the locker room and be an power suck. That’s actually onerous and we spend loads of time speaking about that as a result of that destroys so many groups.”
Prime to backside, they will all play, which suggests onerous choices.
“Once I was a youthful coach I assumed children can purchase into any function they’ve, even when it’s on the bench,” she mentioned. “It bought reframed for me. You could be dissatisfied within the function you have got and that doesn’t imply it’s best to quit, however there are expectations of the way you deal with it. Disappointment’s OK however that doesn’t imply you don’t nonetheless work your tail off within the health club day-after-day and also you’re not superior on the bench and within the locker room – all this stuff which might be a part of being a staff.
“My massive mantra with my staff currently is let’s do the onerous, properly. It’s straightforward to do the nice issues when every little thing’s going your manner. However what sort of teammate are you when it’s not good. Are you going to have the ability to keep these stuff you think about your values in these moments.”
The youngsters took over at Creighton
Sales space was solely 27 and Angie Oxley Behrens, whom she calls this system’s “glue,” was simply 23 when the 2 began at Creighton.
“We have been children,” Sales space mentioned.
Rasmussen allow them to take the reins over a program that bought a late begin and was mired in mediocrity earlier than their arrival.
“It was a gutsy transfer,” Behrens mentioned. “We have been each very younger coaches. We each beloved the sport and we have been each tremendous desirous to see if we may make Creighton a reputation within the volleyball world.”
“I don’t know why Ras took the danger on us,” Sales space mentioned. “It was a head-scratching rent, there’s no query.”
Rasmussen mentioned every little thing he was informed about Sales space proved true. Nice instructor of the sport. Transformational. Makes the method satisfying. Addicted learner who desires to be higher day-after-day. Excessive character.
He additionally admired how strategic Sales space was in deliberately hiring somebody extra skilled than her in elite NAIA coach Giesselmann and a former Husker nationwide champion in Behrens as her high assistants.
“I’m actually diligent on who I encompass myself with,” Sales space mentioned, “and I feel that’s helped a fantastic deal. I didn’t have a ton of expertise and so I went and bought an skilled, older male coach who was very totally different from me in Paul. He was far more certified and a significantly better coach than I used to be. He was humble sufficient to be my assistant. I’d say to a level we co-coached. Finally we had some fights as a result of some choices needed to be made that he didn’t all the time agree with. However I deferred to him rather a lot. And Angie gave us avenue cred. She was simply out of school coming off a nationwide championship for one of many premier packages within the nation.”
Mentioned Giesselman, “She has all the time been in a position to recruit and retain nice employees round her, particularly Angie Behrens. Angie’s been there together with her from the very starting and remains to be there 22 years later. That doesn’t occur anyplace lately.”
Particular assist from a Nebraska legend
“One of many causes we had success is that Ras paid Terry Pettit to mentor me,” Sales space mentioned. “That’s exceptional. It was transformational for me as a younger coach as a result of I can inform you I wasn’t ready and didn’t actually know methods to rebuild a program. However I used to be a learner and given the chance to be taught I used to be keen to try this.”
Pettit nonetheless mentors her to this present day.
“My relationship with Terry has one hundred percent developed. Once I began if Terry mentioned spin round I’d have accomplished it, and now I feel I frustrate Terry as a result of I argue with him on a regular basis. Terry’s been so nice as a result of we see issues in another way. He’s so exterior the field in loads of his considering. I’m most likely just a little extra typical with my considering and so he challenges me.
“One yr I went with a distinct mentor who was fabulous – a extremely nationally acclaimed coach who’s gained a number of nationwide championships. However his strengths are my strengths and so I used to be simply getting the stuff I already knew innately, like connection and emotional IQ, so he and I have been telling one another the identical issues.”
Apart from Pettit giving her a distinct perspective, she mentioned, “I feel the actual fact there was cash behind it was essential as a result of it made Terry invested. So it wasn’t simply me being keen to name. He adopted up with me and at totally different occasions throughout my 20-plus years he’s come to campus. Typically my greatest conversations with Coach Pettit have been when there weren’t issues. We’d simply speak about issues. If a disaster would happen, then you definately’d speak concerning the disaster, and that’s when lots of people will name their mentors – when some main difficulty is occurring and also you ask what ought to I do. However actually that mentorship ought to be issues are going properly, how do I proceed to make it go properly.
“I’m an enormous advocate for mentorship. Within the scope of what we’re placing into school athletics these days to not be keen to spend just a few thousand extra for mentorship is shortsighted.”
Quid professional quo
Assist is available in numerous methods.
“We’ve simply had nice management through the years, mentioned Sales space, “not solely in athletic administrators however I’ve had some phenomenal senior directors that have been actually supportive by way of ups and downs. If I ever had a disaster I by no means felt like I couldn’t be trustworthy with the administration of what was happening. I wasn’t afraid of them taking it out on me. I knew they might assist me and attempt to assist me. I most likely took with no consideration that feeling that I may all the time be weak and never need to be ashamed about it. I do know a few of my friends don’t all the time have that.”
Rasmussen mentioned Sales space’s potential to attach has gained the hearts, minds and pocketbooks of supporters.
“She’s reached out locally and established sturdy relationships with a number of the extra highly effective ladies locally and in consequence we’ve made a commensurate dedication to volleyball.”
No marvel she’s been recruited by different faculties.
“I’ve had others say you’ve allow us to down as a result of we’d like extra feminine coaches at bigger-name faculties. So some have mentioned you should go away, you should go to a faculty that has a legit shot to win a nationwide championship. There’s selfishness in that.”
Apart from, Sales space believes she will get it accomplished at Creighton.
“From the surface it’d appear to be the journey’s been about getting higher yearly, however there have been ups and downs and errors and triumphs,” she mentioned. “Yearly has a narrative. Yeah, we’ve gained 10 straight Huge East titles however yearly’s been onerous, yearly has had challenges (final yr Creighton survived accidents to 6 gamers in-season).
“I really like that puzzle of making an attempt to place it collectively, getting individuals on board, navigating these hurdles and advancing ladies. One of many issues I’m pleased with is that even by way of these ups and downs we tried to do it the precise manner. We by no means got here in and mentioned we’re going to burn down the home, run everybody out, and begin over. I say this to new coaches on a regular basis: The gamers at present in your program did nothing improper so don’t deal with ‘em like crap simply since you’re a brand new coach.
“One thing essential for us as a employees was if we have been going to be doing this proper for the lengthy haul we’d not be good for just a few years. However we have been. From 3-23 earlier than getting right here we have been about .500 by the second yr. So we did make some strides, which allowed us to recruit – to have the ability to say, we’re getting higher, now you could be part of this and take us to new heights. That’s what we nonetheless say to recruits.”
The 2011 turning level
In 2010, Creighton made its first NCAA Event, beating Iowa State within the first spherical.
However Sales space mentioned her crucible at Creighton got here the subsequent season. The Bluejays went 17-14 that yr, 12-6 within the Valley, and misplaced within the first spherical of the convention match.
“I misplaced the staff. It’s most likely the yr I discovered essentially the most in teaching. I feel you be taught essentially the most in dangerous conditions. I simply didn’t deal with some conditions properly. I wasn’t able to make some onerous choices. I’ll always remember, we have been enjoying within the convention match and at a timeout we have been struggling and I may see eyes trying away from me and I may inform they weren’t purchased into what I’m saying. It’s an terrible feeling.”
She satisfied Rasmussen to rent two efficiency sports activities psychologists, Larry Widman and Jack Stark. Widman nonetheless works with the staff in the present day.
“One takeaway I inform coaches,” Sales space mentioned, “is that gamers will forgive you. However you want to have the ability to self-reflect and say I made some errors, I’m going to personal them and attempt to do higher. Similar to they (gamers) make errors. However personal it and attempt to do higher and we are able to transfer ahead. That’s what that staff did. Mended loads of relationships. I discovered it’s important to cope with robust conditions head-on. You’ll be able to’t keep away from it. I feel that was possibly the largest turning level for this system.”
The following yr Creighton went 29-4, together with 17-1 within the Valley. Creighton not solely gained its first league-tourney title, however an NCAA Event match.
And since becoming a member of the Huge East in 2013 it’s been driving a virtually unbroken string of success.
“I’m not saying our tradition’s all the time good,” Sales space mentioned, “however I feel we all know methods to navigate the bumps. We actually do loads of proactive stuff.”
She labored with Widman, together with Behrens and others, to create the NeuroFuel high-performance and psychological coaching app her program and plenty of groups now use. Its conscious affirmations and visualizations are as particular as particular person positions and staff targets. Remaining 4?
“Proper now the subsequent step for Creighton is to get to the ultimate 4,” Giesselmann mentioned. “They’ll get this accomplished. They’ve had great success and once they take that subsequent step of their development the assist for Creighton volleyball is just going to develop.”
None of that’s misplaced on Sales space.
“In case you are at some extent the place you’re feeling you’ve completed all you’ll be able to accomplish it’s best to most likely do one thing else. Yeah, there’s positively issues I need to do this we haven’t accomplished but. However I need the staff to steer that. The extra I coach the extra I need them to drive that stuff. That’s me supporting what they’re going to do, and I feel that’s the easiest way that we are able to get there. They need to drive the automobile – I’m simply there to information them.
“I’m excited, I feel we’ve bought loads of good items. So hopefully the coaches gained’t mess it up. Numerous issues need to occur within the fall – we’ve bought to proceed to play for one another, not for ourselves, we’ve bought to remain wholesome, we’ve started working onerous day-after-day.”
