My First Time Covering College Men’s Volleyball

If you had told me ten years ago that I would have the opportunity to be media for Stanford Men’s Volleyball, I would have said you’re crazy. I don’t think I ever touched a volleyball outside of PE class until after college. The only reason I started playing was because my church organized recreational volleyball after service, and I decided to go one Sunday afternoon after seeing it in the bulletin. I gradually started playing more and more, and even though I’m terrible I grew to really love and enjoy the sport. I feel blessed to have met many friends (who are way better than me) through playing volleyball, some of which I’ve known for more than a decade.

Fast-forward to last April, when I went to Chicago to see the NCAA Men’s Volleyball championships. I bought my ticket prior to knowing who would be playing in the tournament (which, by the way, consists of just 6 teams, compared to 68 for NCAA basketball), but I rooted for Stanford all the way. That was a conflicted decision for me since I graduated from Cal, but I told myself it’s okay since Cal doesn’t have a men’s volleyball team (unfortunately, the Cal women’s team isn’t great either).

It was there that I met Vinnie Lopes, blogger extraordinaire who runs Off the Block, THE blog for college men’s volleyball. I had been closely following his blog in Stanford’s run-up to the NCAA championships, so it was a privilege to meet the man himself. I offered to help cover some Stanford games the following season (while having no idea what that meant), and Vinnie agreed and said we can touch base the next season.

When the schedule came out for Stanford’s 2015 season, I was excited to see that the Cardinal would be playing the Ramblers early on in a rematch of the NCAA championship game. I followed up with Vinnie to see if he wanted me to help cover the match, and to my surprise, he said yes, and would see about getting me a media pass so I can sit in the press row.

I still had no idea what it meant to be media, and I was nervous since I had zero experience covering…well, anything, really. What I did have, though, was a passion for volleyball and a desire and willingness to try something I had never done before. Anyway, Vinnie did let me know that he would like video highlights from the matches and video post-match interviews with the coaches.

Truth be told, it sounded both awesome and nerve-wracking. I had no problem shooting video of the matches, but interviewing coaches about the game? I had watched sports interviews and heard Vinnie’s interviews online before, but it’s one thing to see it and another thing to actually do it. In retrospect I suppose I’m glad there were 4 matches over 2 days, so I could get some practice in.

In the end I interviewed one coach after each match, and also got one player interview in, for a total of 5 people interviewed. My interviews on Friday were terrible: I stuttered, talked too fast, didn’t prepare my questions well enough, and was only able to get ~1.5 minutes of video before I ran out of things to ask and say (Vinnie had requested ~3 minutes of video for each interview).

Thankfully, I came away from Friday knowing what I needed to do better, and was able to make some adjustments for the Saturday interviews. There’s still plenty of room for improvement, but I was happy with how Saturday’s interviews turned out, especially considering it was my first outing as “official media” for college men’s volleyball.

One accidental change between Friday and Saturday was a simple one that also contributed to the improvement in interview quality: recording-wise, I had the coaches and player stand on Friday, but on Saturday the coaches sat behind a desk. (There were no repeat interviews.) I think that having the coaches stand made them seem more stiff, and sitting is probably a more relaxing and conducive position for an interview.

Overall, I had a great time and I can’t wait to do it again, even though I’m feeling nervous just thinking about it. It was a good learning experience and my goal will be to get better as an interviewer. Thanks to Vinnie and Off the Block for the opportunity!

Notes:

• My first and second Saturday interviews. Not linking the Friday ones since I’m embarrassed by them, but you can easily find them on the same Youtube channel.
• I used the Media Room for all the interviews…it was funny because the BYU coach had to show me where it was, since I basically didn’t know where I was going.
• My first media pass. They even printed my name and assigned a seat for me in the press row!

• This whole topic reminded me of the following comic, titled “Every Sports Interview Ever.” I love it, and I hope to not sound like that in future interviews. Or, if I do sound like that, to at least do it articulately.