Chat with Head Volleyball Coach Shelton Collier
October 9, 1 p.m.
Hosted By Total Sports& and Ramblinwreck.com
| Fredrica Patterson Asks: When you look back to the players you first brought in to your GT volleyball program, how would you say they differ from the type girls you bring in now? I am aware that you have only had one ACC championship which was 5 years ago, so I was wondering what ‘chemistry’ made that team up, and have you been trying to pattern that somehow so you can repeat? |
| Answer: This team is a very similar in terms of talent to the 1995 championship team. that team was more experienced than this team but in terms of talent level they are similar. In 1995, many players were under recruited so they were motivated and had something to prove. That was one of the driving forces in their motivation to achieve great things. The last two seasons our teams have lacked that motivation. And at the beginning of this season I had questions about the motivations of this team. Recently, we have stepped it up significantly, and I do believe now our team is acquiring the motivation to lead us to an ACC Championship. I think you need to have a great setter which had in 1995 and now. You need strong leadership of upperclass players, we had that in 1995 and now. And very importantly you need to be able to win on the road. And we are establishing that now. That is the most important thing in winning an ACC Championship. |
| jack eveland Asks: How does a team get top 20 ranking? When will GTU hit that list? |
| Answer: This year GT had a golden opportunity to establish ourselves with a national ranking. And basically we are five points away from being ranked. We lost to Univ. Pacific by two points in the fifth game and we lost to North Carolina by three points in game three at North Carolina. Had we scored those 5 points we would be in the top 20. This year we missed our opportunity at a national ranking which is very disappointing. Next season we have five returning starters and some great recruits so you can look for us in the national rankings next year. |
| rick stubbs Asks: Is Eveland good enough to represent our team in the olympics someday? |
| Answer: First of all, Kele Eveland is quickly establishing herself as one of the top setters in the ACC even as a freshman. She is currently no. 1 in the conference in assists. Even as a freshman she is one of the top setters in the country. I think Kele will graduate from GT as one of the top setters in the country and may be one of the top setters that could be considered for the national team. |
| Bill Anderson Asks: Hi Coach, did you catch the Olympics? I thought our American women did a great job. Your thoughts? thanks and good luck this year. |
| Answer: Our women’s teams performance in the Olympics was incredible. They were certainly not expected to do that well. It is a great tribute to the American spirit that the women’s team went over and upset some many teams that were ranked ahead of them. I was one of many college volleyball coaches that were proud of the USA women for doing so well. |
| Bob Whitfield Asks: What is your most memorable moment as a coach? |
| Answer: That is a difficult question to answer but I believe it would be in 1995 when our GT team upset 7th ranked Notre Dame in O’Keefe gym and the crowd stormed the floor after the game. It was my most memorable coaching victory because of the crowds reaction and because of the No. 7 team we upset in a long 5 game match. |
| Sarah Parkin Asks: Coach Collier, what skills do you look for in young v-ball players when you recruit? |
| Answer: It is a combination of things that we look for. Physical ability is very important. Which is how high someone can jump and their physical strength. Their volleyball skills are very important. Also, I really like to recruit emotional and enthusiastic players. |
| Shirley White Asks: What have you done to take this program to where it is today? |
| Answer: Well, it has been rewarding developing a program that previously had not had a lot of success to a program which is respected nationally. It has taken recruiting, some excellent players and having a strong support staff. I believe one of the strengths of the GT volleyball program is the tremendous support staff that allows us the opportunity to play at the highest level. |
| Gary Hubbard Asks: Will this year’s team be in the NCAA Tournament? If so, how far can they go? |
| Answer: I think you can look for the GT team to be in the NCAA tournament this year. Beating Wake Forest and Duke on the road last week really positioned us well for the NCAA tournament. If we finish in the top three in the ACC we will likely get a bid. But our preference is to win the ACC tournament and receive the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. |
| Bailey Leonard Asks: What are some of the things that you work on in practice? |
| Answer: We spend half of our practice to developing specific skills in our own players and the other half is working at specific team situations that will help us defeat our upcoming opponents. |
| Barry Peterson Asks: Which players should we look out for this season? Are there any newcomers that standout? Thanks. |
| Answer: We have a couple of newcomers that are obviously making a huge impact our program. One is our new setter Kele Eveland who we already spoke about. And Eida Mabry who transfered here from Temple University also has made a significant impact in her first year. One addition player Ky Bell, who I feel is the current front runner for ACC Player of the Year. |
| Sarah Pascal Asks: Hi Coach, do you get online to do recruiting or check out the opposition? thanks, Sarah |
| Answer: We are very active, myself and the asst. coaches, in looking up information on opponents and recruits on various websites. |
| Deric Shaw Asks: Coach, Congratulations on the good start! Who’s our toughest opponent this year? |
| Answer: We played Colorado state who is ranked No. 3 in the country and Univ. of Minnesota who is ranked No. 5 in the country. They were the two best teams that we will play this year. Our main competition for the ACC Championship, I believe is North Carolina. Our final home match of the season is on Nov. 11 against North Carolina and we hope to clinch the ACC Championship on that night. |
| Billie Madison Asks: Hi Coach, the Jackets have alot of European players. Do you recruit Europe or were you lucky in finding such skilled players? |
| Answer: I would say it was a combination of us being lucky and with us having a specific recruiting effort to go to Europe. We have four players from Europe that we recruited and they are all very important players on our team. Maja Pachale, she was our first player from overseas and she had a great experience here and opened up the door for us to go back to Germany and find a couple more players that could help us. We plan to continue to recruit players from Europe in the future. |
| Jelly Michiaels Asks: Hi Coach, in recent years the ACC has been very tough in volleyball and it seems to be improving competition-wise this year. What do you attribute the rise of competition across the conference? |
| Answer: The number one factor is recruiting. The ACC coaches have really improved their national recruiting and we simply have a lot more talented players in the ACC from all over the country. Last year the ACC was ranked the No. 2 strongest conference in the country. The two reasons are the coaches are really working hard at recruiting and the ACC has academic institutions that are attractive to players all across the country |
| Happy Blake Asks: Hi Coach, how would assess the team’s progress thus far? good luck this year. |
| Answer: In the last few weeks, our players have really made the commitment to be a national caliber team. Earlier in Sept. we were practicing very inconsistent and we had many of our players were playing very inconsistent. I think our team has really come together now and I think we are really ready to make a push to win the remainder of our ACC matches and really make a run at the ACC Championship. Thanks for chatting with me today. I hope we can do it again soon. We have a very important home match against Clemson Tuesday night so all GT volleyball fans come check us out at O’Keefe gym at 7:00pm. Go RamblinWreck! |
