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With an authoritative, yet positive presence, Bailey Wagner kicks off a drill by serving a ball over the net and yelling, “Ball! Get to the spot! Nice high hands!” It doesn’t take long to tell that she is a competitor, almost as if she gives as much effort coaching as she would if she were playing the game.
She arranges her team into a variety of drills, harping on things like straight elbows, getting under the ball and calling the ball early. She then sets her team up for a drill where they put their hands straight up on one side of the net, block a ball, and scurry over to the other side of the net to block a second ball. To wrap-up practice, she gathers the team one last time and goes over a few sets.
Wagner is in her first year as the head coach for Team Navy’s sitting volleyball team in the Department of Defense Warrior Games. Wagner, who grew up in Chicago, has been around the game of volleyball almost all her life. After high school, she received a full scholarship to Georgia Tech for track and field, but her love for volleyball drew her back to coaching the sport. She doesn’t have any immediate military ties, but she found her way to the Navy’s sitting volleyball team through her coaching mentor, who was the head coach last year.
Wagner’s goal is for her team to place in the top three this year, after their 5th place finish in last year’s games. She is intrigued to see how this year’s team takes shape with so many new players. Her hope is that this group establishes a winning culture together and develops confidence as a unit.
“My expectation for this year is to take top three,” Wagner said. “I want us to go out there and go point for point with these teams and truly compete.”
As a coach, Wagner’s philosophy is to get to know her players as people first and understand where they’re coming from. She wants to foster an environment of teamwork and closeness for the team on and off the court. She makes it a priority to have a vested interest in their lives and make players feel like there’s an open line of communication.
“If there’s anybody that’s struggling, whether that be with something mental or physical, we’re always checking on each other and making sure everyone’s doing alright,” Wagner said. “We’re always there for each other, whether that be coach-to-athlete or athlete-to-athlete.”
Wagner believes that her success as a coach goes far beyond wins and losses.
“I want to be that person that they can call on, regardless of if it has to do with volleyball,” Wagner said. “If they’re going through anything, I want to be that sounding board that they can talk to.”
She could be considered a player’s coach. She is looking to utilize her personnel and contour her coaching strategy to her players’ strengths and weaknesses.
A true leader, Wagner sets the example through her actions and work ethic.
“My biggest thing as a coach is just making sure that I leave the gym at the end of the day knowing that I put forth 100 percent effort to my athletes because that’s what I always ask out of them,” Wagner said. “I want to make sure I give them as much knowledge as I have.”
Wagner has a genuine belief in the program as a viable rehabilitation method for her athletes.
She said she believes that getting the athletes up off the couch and back into society is vitally important. She thinks getting them back into a competitive, supportive environment is key since it’s easy to sit around and feel bad for yourself in that situation.
Wagner would be the first person to tell you that she is a fiery competitor and she wants to win as badly as anyone, but she said that her respect for the athletes and her role in their lives makes the entire experience bigger than volleyball.
“What we’re doing for the athletes I think really is a huge impact to get them out and get them active again after what they’ve been through, so I’d say it’s really rewarding for me.”
| Date Taken: | 06.26.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 06.27.2017 08:02 |
| Story ID: | 239281 |
| Location: | PORT HUENEME, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 51 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, The Unlikely Leader: Volleyball coach without a military tie finds herself coaching in the Warrior Games, by PO3 Jason Meyer, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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