Lessons from a post-match interview

Last week I went to cover the MPSF Men’s Volleyball Tournament at Stanford University. And by cover I mean I got a media pass and did media things: I live-tweeted the event, took some videos and photos, and interviewed players after the match. Trust me when I say that it sounds much more impressive than it actually is: very few people care about men’s volleyball, so all you need to “be media” is to care and to know who to ask for a media pass.

My favorite part of covering these matches are the post-match player interviews, which is ironic because it is also the most stressful. What if I stutter and don’t know what to ask? What if I ask a dumb question? What if I freeze or run out of questions? What if the players don’t have much to say and it’s super short? If it’s one thing I’ve learned from being media, it’s that sports interviews, like most things in life, are hard and takes skill. Even though I’ve been covering Stanford Men’s Volleyball off and on since 2015, I still feel like an anxious newbie every time I do it.

I felt especially rusty last week because I had abandoned my media “duties” the last couple of years, owing to Covid and Stanford almost canceling their program (thankfully it was reinstated). As part of my interview prep, I try to anticipate who I’m going to interview, and if there are any notable storylines I should ask about. Typically I also only interview players or coaches from the winning team, as it’s no fun for the losing team to have to answer questions afterwards.

One player I thought would make for a good interview was the freshman setter from UCLA (seeded #1 in the upcoming NCAA Tournament). Andrew Rowan was supposed to be the backup setter entering the season, but starting setter Miles Partain abruptly left the team towards the beginning of the season (likely to pursue his beach volleyball career). I was curious what his expectations were entering the season and how they measured up to how UCLA had performed (only 2 losses in 31 matches thus far).

His response surprised me: “I expected us to be undefeated. Obviously we lost 2 games which isn’t a dealbreaker, but we’re right on track to where we want to be.”

While I loved his confidence, it also seemed completely foreign to me. What is it like, I wonder, to be so confident in your team’s ability to perform even before you’ve played as a team? And more generally, what is it like to go through life with that kind of confidence and expectation? Clearly he had spent years and years training and competing at the highest levels so his confidence wasn’t unfounded, but it’s fascinating how different that was from my own life experience. You can even hear it in the way I framed my question — I assumed that his season exceeded his expectations, but it sounds like they actually underperformed.

Of course, I don’t mean to suggest I always have low confidence and expectations in life…just more than I care to admit. 🙂 It’s easy to get caught up in self-doubt and the fear of failure, but seeing someone like Rowan approach every game with the expectation of winning was truly eye-opening. I couldn’t help but wonder if we might accomplish more in our own lives if we approached every challenge with that level of confidence and expectation. Or maybe we just need more training and discipline in whichever area we want to accomplish more in.