“We try to live where we are. Not just get to the hotel and gym.”
In this episode of the 35,000 Feet podcast, we talk to Josh Steinbach, the head coach of women’s volleyball at Villanova University located in Villanova, Pennsylvania. In our time together we talk about the highs and lows that he experienced during his 2019 season, how big of a thing travel is to collegiate teams, some great advice for college recruits, and even an interesting fact that not many people know about him!
In this episode, we discuss:
The highs and lows of Josh’s 13th season coaching Villanova volleyball (0:17)
How the athletes keep focused on academics as well as sports (1:49)
How Josh ended up at Villanova (2:48)
How travel has played a part in Josh’s coaching experience (4:08)
What Josh is looking forward in the upcoming volleyball season (6:28)
What advice would you give to athletes who want to play at university? (7:04)
One thing that no one knows about Josh (8:56)
Josh’s next adventure (9:47)
2019 Overview of Villanova’s Volleyball Season
Shianne: You just completed your 13th season with Villanova. Can you tell us a little bit about that season, the highs and the lows?
Josh: Well, 13 doesn't... It seems like it's gone by pretty quickly. I feel like I just got here. We had a really fun season. We had a good group that I really enjoyed being around. I think we competed at a level we liked and we just kind of missed out on some of our big goals for the year, but finished third in the Big East. For us, that's been around what was expected. I think we were running. Might have been picked fourth. So, I think we just missed. I think we were just probably a win or two away from an at large bid in the NCA tournament, which was a little disappointing because I think we had some losses that were ones that we kind of expected to have.
We lost at La Salle and at DePaul, which were teams I think we should... we felt like we were better than, but that's the way those things go. And I had a big win here at home against Creighton who was top 10 in the country at the time. And so we had a couple of nice wins like that as well. It's one of those things that you have in the ups and downs in almost every season, and this one was no different for us.
Shianne: Yeah, I saw you swept them, actually, at home, right. It was 3-0?
Josh: Yeah. We played incredibly well. I think they weren't having their best night and everything kind of fell. It clicked in and we had a lot closer matches and some other, against some other teams where we had to squeeze things out to win. But that particular night, I think everything that really could have gone well for us went well for us.
Shianne: That's awesome. I also see that you are really big on academics. You guys usually always win a team academic award every year. Can you tell me a little bit about that and how you expect your girls to do good on the court and also in the classroom?
Josh: I think that's part of the culture of our university. First off, when you're at Villanova you're at the high-end academic place and the student-athletes that we tend to attract are ones that have academic ambitions. And so that trends towards academic success to start with. But certainly, we talk about what it means to set yourselves up for life after volleyball. And we've been enough to have kids that have bought in over the years. And you're right, we've been three or better in the majority of my seasons here, and the group has been really motivated and that's not been hard for me to manage.
I say a thing or two here or there, and mainly it's the kids that are self-motivated towards some of those goals. So that's really an easy fix for us. I don't really have to do a whole lot of work to motivate our group academically.
How Josh Became the Volleyball Coach at Villanova
Shianne: How did you get into volleyball? What's your history and how did you end up at Villanova?
Josh: You know, circuitously. My career path was certainly not a straight line to college head coaching. I played a little volleyball in high school and kind of got the bug late in my high school career. My junior, senior year, and then try to walk on at George Mason, went to school there for my freshman year, but I just wasn't that talented. So, my college career there ended quickly and my academics went with it. I dropped out and then I ended up in Southern California where I played junior college volleyball, San Diego Mesa College and got my associate's degree there and began coaching and I coached junior varsity team at the Bishop School in La Jolla and then started coaching club.
And through that got in touch with some of my old roots back in Pennsylvania, where I grew up. And Coach Rose at Penn State was recruiting one of the kids on my club team and offered me a spot to be a volunteer there. And so I went back to Penn State, which was home for me. I finished my degree and got into college coaching. And then from there to University of Cincinnati as an assistant and then Wright State as an assistant and then the stars kind of aligned, and I fell into a spot here at Villanova. And I've been here since.
Villanova’s Volleyball Travel Experiences
Shianne: I’d love to hear your stories on how travel has played a part in your role as a coach and if you have any cool travel experiences you want to share with us.
Josh: Travel is a huge part of what you do in collegiate athletics. One of the things that we do simply is we try and play near where our kids are from. And at Villanova, we recruit nationally. If you've looked through our roster at all, we've got kids from all over the country. It's not a very regional recruiting for us. One of the great experiences for us is trying to get towards where know where kids call home. So in the last year, we were down to TCU in Dallas area, Fort Worth, and we have several players from Texas. So, it was good to get down there and do that. And then we were also able to get out to Southern California and play at USC and I had some kids from out there. And we'll be in Arizona this coming fall for one of our players from out there.
So that's an important piece for us. And then, we're trying to do the things that people do when they go to places. Athletics is the biggest part of what we do, but we try and make sure that our kids have good life experiences. A couple of years ago we were in New York and playing St. John's. It was over our fall break. So we had some days off school and we went a couple of days early and took in a little bit in New York City. Walk the high line and got into Chelsea Market and let the kids meander around Central Park for a while and get a little bit of New York City.
And we tend to do that with wherever we go. We're in DC every year. This year, we got into the Capitol and did a Capitol tour. Those things are a huge piece of what we do. Trying to live where we are, not just get to the hotel and to the gym.
Villanova Volleyball and Their Upcoming Adventures
Josh: One of the things is we're getting out to Arizona. I think that's a fun trip, but we're going to be out there for a long weekend. We've got a kid from Phoenix. We'll just get to her house, which will be fun. But try and do some things out there and see if we can see. Every season from a volleyball standpoint, it's just super exciting. We spend all year working towards what happens from August to November. There's a ton of excitement around that time of year.
Josh’s Advice to Athletic College Recruits
Shianne: If we have athletes listening in and they want to play for your university, what advice would you give them?
Josh: I think recruiting is one of the hardest things to manage. We were just talking about it. One of my coach friends the other day, about how tenuous it is because the things that college coaches might be looking for have to match up with what student-athletes are. First off, there's that. What I usually tell our prospective student-athletes, if it's at camp or... I've done a number of recruiting talks is you got to make sure you get on a list. And most of us as college coaches have lists that we put together from a number of different ways. If it's just word of mouth or players that we just happen to see it in events. But mainly it's the kids that write to us. The simplest and easiest is just send me an email or send my assistant an email and say, "Hey, this is who I am and this is what I'm interested in and this is where I'm playing."
You'd give us an opportunity to get out and see you play, hopefully playing club volleyball somewhere so we can get out during our club season. We do most of our recruiting in the spring at club tournaments. That's season's starting now. Get in touch with us and let us know where to go. I know you're talking about travel. My assistant coaches and I do most of our travel in the spring, getting out to see prospective student-athletes. So it will be all over the US all spring, starting up in the middle of February, through the first of May and then back out again in June, July.
Something Unique About Josh
Shianne: What is one thing that no one knows about you that you can share? I know you're probably on the spot with that one.
Josh: I think that probably not a lot of people know, I like to read and write a lot. My college degree is in English lit, so I tend to read a lot and then I don't know that I have submitted very much, but I an extensive writing collection of little things I've written over the years. That's kind of my self-therapy, is to sit down and write a little bit and short stories and things of that nature. There's not a whole lot of people that probably know that about me, but I do a lot of that. And that's one of the things that lets me relax.
The Next Adventure for Josh Steinbach
Shianne: That's awesome. The last question. I know we already talked about your points coming up for the new season, but what would you say is your next adventure? Where are you going to next?
Josh: My next personal trip is I've got a little New Orleans vacation scheduled coming up here at the end of February, so I'm looking forward to a long weekend down there. And New Orleans is one of my favorite cities to get to, just because I love to eat, and Cajun cuisine calls out to me very often. So I'll get down there. And we're staying in the French Quarter and get around and see some of the things that are to see down there.
Shianne: Cool. And then you said your team's just heading to Arizona next year, right?
Josh: Yeah, that's the big... That'll be our first big trip. So we, we open up at home the first weekend, which is the last weekend in August, and then I think the next weekend is Labor Day. We'll be out in Arizona and then we'll be here locally for the next two weekends, and then we'll start our conference season, which is the trips that we are normally on that we kind of do every year.
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Podcast made in partnership with Acanela Expeditions
Theme Song - I’ll Just Be Me by Gravity Castle