Almost every morning, Dr. Willette sports a chic tie and suit as he greets students as they walk through the gates. He carries the same spirit to the volleyball court as the new head coach. With co-coach Marchan behind his back, they set their sights on a four-peat at SKAIS.
Coach Bergan resigned from his role due to his athletic director duties, which began from the 23-24 school year.
While excited for his first season as head coach, Willette keeps the heightened responsibility and pressure in mind. “I still don’t feel 100% ready for the expectations that I have for myself and for the team because I have an expectation for a championship team. I don’t inquire. I don’t exactly have the confidence in my understanding of all of the ins and outs of all the strategies to be able to coach a championship team to where we need to go.”
Thankfully, assistant coach Marchan’s prior experience in competitive volleyball supports their development. “I have understood the support of Coach Marchan who does have more competition volleyball experience than I do, and she has brought in some valuable insights into some areas that we need to work on and how we can work on them,” he said. I think together we make a pretty solid base for our team to learn from.”
After intensive research, the two coaches bring new drills to the playing field. “I think we’ve already kind of changed the structure of the practices, as we include more conditioning to increase your physicality and endurance to maintain a high level of play for a longer time,” Willette said. “We’ve worked that into the practice routine more explicitly. Last year, we went to the gym at least once. I think this year we’re making a habit of finishing strong.”
In addition to conditioning, they plan to maintain the foundational ideas from past years. “I think the big things we’re going to keep, such as the 6 2 rotation strategy, defensive and offensive strategies,” he said. “Those things are going to say those fundamentals are going to be the same.”
Aside from drills, Coach Willette must compensate for the smaller squad and the loss of veteran players. “We’re in a good spot because we have great players with skillsets and we have lots of backup positions. However, we did lose some height from last year. We also lost some experience, especially because we don’t have the same senior group we had from last year,” he said.
Willette aims to do so through efficient time allocation between the varsity and junior varsity teams. “Students will get to play more because we had two JV teams last year, and we didn’t get to utilize practices as fully and completely. We’ve been able to structure it to get students more playing time, and also get in those Saturday practices,” he said.
For upcoming tournaments, Coach Willette aspires to place athletes in strategic positions. “For my short-term goal, I want to focus on solidifying which player is playing what position because I think there’s still some confusion about what students are going to or what players are going to play,” he said. “Everybody wants to be a left-side hitter, but we can only have two left-side hitters, and it’s really important to figure out who plays in what position.”
With only two practices left before the DMHS (Daegu Middle High School) friendly game on Sept. 16 at the Jetnasium, Coach Willette invites all the DIS community to come and cheer. “I hope people come out and watch the game, it’s on our campus, watch both the girls and boys games and cheer us up. It’s an opportunity to come and watch some really good volleyball,” Willette said.
