Esai Velez-Perez, the head coach of women’s volleyball at Iona College, sits down with us in this episode of the 35,000 feet podcast and gives us insight into his journey as a volleyball coach. He talks about how his team has grown, how he became a volleyball coach, and some of his favorite travel experiences from volleyball!

In this episode, we discuss:

• How this past season went for Iona College Women’s Volleyball team (0:18)

• How Coach Velez-Perez got into coaching (4:34)

• Esai’s advice to athletes wanting to play in college (8:04)

• Esai’s favorite travel experience (9:56)

• One thing that no one knows about Esai (13:12)

• Esai’s next adventure (14:38)

The Highs And Lows of the 2019 Season for Iona College Women’s Volleyball Team

Shianne: I'm excited to dive in and kind of learn more about your season and everything. You just completed your first year as a head coach there. Can you kind of tell us about how it went?

Coach Esai: Sure. I can say my first semester because it's a fall sport, so we only finished a few things and now with the spring... But I will let you know it was very nerve-wracking. I was very nervous when I got the opportunity and I got the chance. I wasn't expecting to be a head coach, being honest to you. I always wanted to be a teacher, professor and that's something that I will look forward one day in the future. But going back to the question, it was very exciting, very exciting to learn. This year I just learned. That was all I did. I didn't do anything else, just learning the process, learning from the staff, learning from the administration, learning from the players [inaudible 00:01:29] the athletes. I think that was the most important part was just the learning process, how I can be a better person, how I can help the student-athletes to be better leaders in the future. I think that was the most important part.

Shianne: Yeah, I think that's awesome. I think that it's really cool that you acknowledge that you still have a lot to learn, especially as just completing your last fall season. It's cool as you're going into the spring ball that you can kind of just keep learning and growing with your team. I really like that.

Coach Esai: Exactly. I took it that way because I knew I was going to be challenged because around five to six seniors finished the school, so it was going to be from scratch. I took it, I took the challenge. I wasn't scared for that. At the end of the day, I'm happy with my decision.

Shianne: Yeah. Can you tell us about how your spring ball is going and what you're looking forward to with your new incoming players?

Coach Esai: Right now I have eight players, seven returning players, and one transfer from a university around Arizona. Right now I've been a lot of knowing them, knowing the players, knowing what sort of athletes, what they think, what they want. It's more about one on one with me. At the beginning it was like the individual section, a lot of repetition, trying to get the most repetition on the pads. The most repetition on the attack. No rush on comparing what's more... It's... had to be more like a challenge to know the game, to be aggressive.

I think one of the things that we're trying to build is a lot of the culture. We have two great upcoming seniors and her name is Jamie and Taylor, and we're trying to build the team around them. I think they... the culture was going to be great because we have a great family environment as a family team, everyone gets along together. I think that's a great challenge that we're doing right now, but the spring tournament and the spring offseason has been a lot of growing and a lot of learning at the same time. It's my first spring season with them and a lot of learning. I can tell you that right now.

Shianne: I think everybody's learning. I mean, it's never... you never stop learning. You could be coaching for 50 years and you still have stuff that you learn every day.

Coach Esai: That's true. I say that the day that I get bored or I don't learn anything else, I think I'm done. I'm learning every day. I'm having fun. I'm very excited to be a head coach right now.

Shianne: Yeah. I love that you recognize the value of having a really good culture because I looked back at my experiences and the different teams I played for, whether it was in college or high school and the culture, it really made a huge difference to me.

Coach Esai: I will let you know. I will tell you, culture for me is the most important part... because with the family, I come from a very strong family, very strong culture. I'm Puerto Rican, born and raised in Puerto Rico. We have a big, strong connection with the family. At the same time, I'm not... it's not that I'm trying to do that, we're doing that because as soon as I get to Iona, the culture was great. And we're trying to keep that culture as a family environment, and competition and being great leaders.

Esai Valez-Perez’s Start in Coaching

Shianne: Yeah. I love that. I think that's awesome. How did you get into volleyball?

Coach Esai: Good question because everyone always think I'm going to... I was going to be a baseball player because that's all we do in Puerto Rico most of the time is baseball, basketball and boxing, and then volleyball. Long story short, my brother played volleyball and then I decided to be a volleyball player because he was a great athlete. He stopped playing volleyball. He was a little bit lazy, but he stopped playing volleyball. And then my other brother started working with the national team in Puerto Rico. He was the first person to teach me and at the same time, I was playing in college, in Puerto Rico. I was into learning the volleyball system, the volleyball software, the calls, and everything. It was like playing and learning at the same time.

That was a great challenge. That's how I get because I saw my brother loving that so much. And having that opportunity to be already working with my brother, close to him, watching the videos, already learning those things before even being in a team, before even in a club before even being a pro-league team. I was already learning from my brother being on a national team. That's how I get all the way to be part of the Puerto Rican National Team with a lot of learning process. I will say that my brother, the... [inaudible 00:06:48] teacher, teaching me everything and then I keep going over and up.

Shianne: That's awesome. And then how did you make that transition from kind of playing to wanting to be a coach?

Coach Esai: That transition was always there because I... When I went to school for college, I did my BA and my Master's in Education. I'm a history teacher. So I always have been in that learning process to try to teach or explain or help. I will say help is a great word. And even when I was a player, I wasn't the best player in the world. No way. I was just a very, very competitive player, but my old coach told me I was the captain. I didn't know why, but then I knew it was because the part of the leadership that part of helping other people was in my... in me. That's how I get to the coaching part because I'm like, "You know what. I think I have something here." And having the coaching at the same time, was very challenging. That moment that I will say none or few people knew how to deal with coaching at the same time.

Shianne: Yeah. That's really cool that you have always just kind of had that coaching inside of you, even as a player. I feel that's super valuable and your coaches even saw that's why they picked you as a captain, as a captain. That's really cool that you kind of always just had that in your blood.

Coach Esai: Yeah. Being honest with you, I didn't even know until they told me, but I was very excited and very happy with that.

Coach Velez-Perez’s Advice to Future Collegiate Athletes

Shianne: Yeah. That's awesome. If you're an athlete wanting to play for a team in a university or college setting, what would your advice be to them?

Coach Esai: My advice right now, it's... I will say it's about academics first, right? To get the academic part in you. You don't have to be a 4.0, but if you're a responsible person and you are a person who knows how to manage your time, I think that's very important and networking. I will say networking is so important right now in this year. I've been seeing that the school... my college is big in business and every time I hear like a professor or a Dean, they always say about networking. They always say about networking. They look more the networking part than the resume most of the time. It's getting out of the comfort zone, getting out of being shy because that's what you need to do is start talking and start talking to people and communicate. I think communication, networking and with the academics.

Shianne: Yeah. Do you recommend them just emailing you or if we have any athletes listening, what do you advise them to do?

Coach Esai: The first time email it's always a great progress depending on the school. In my school, we don't have a lot of personal, but email is great. I will say the first option, always going to be email. And then through email is going to be escalating a little bit with texting and calling.

Shianne: Yeah. Cool. Well, thanks for sharing your advice because I know it's super helpful. If we have any athletes wanting to move on to the next level.

Coach Esai: That's all it is. Don't be shy. That's all, don't be shy. Send the email and...

Shianne: Love it.

Coach Esai: Maybe you're going to have a reply.

Esai’s Most Memorable Travel Experiences

Shianne: Yeah. I love that. I know you grew up in Puerto Rico and stuff. Can you kind of tell us how travel has played a part in your life, whether it was traveling to the U.S. or traveling back to Puerto Rico? What are some of your favorite memories?

Coach Esai: Wow. I have a lot of memories. And again, this is thanks to the Puerto Rico National Team and my brother putting me there and then working. I would say I've been in more than 30 countries.

Shianne: How cool.

Coach Esai: Yes. It's... I don't want to brag about that, but yeah, I've been in a lot of countries. And Middle East, I've been in Asia, been South America. I will say... they're all great. Knowing... to travel, to learn about other cultures, other people, what they think, what they eat. I think that would be my greatest dream is to travel around the world. And especially places that I never thought about it, like Qatar in the Middle East. I went to Poland, Argentina, a lot of places that I admired a culture. I admired a volleyball and most of the places that I went, we sit, have a cup of coffee and talk about life, talk about volleyball, talk about anything.

That's how you learn from other cultures. It's all about listening to other people and what they need to say, what they need to ask and have been great. I think the opportunity of me traveling for like six, seven years in a national team was great. And I will... I'm so happy and blessed about that decision when I started with my... with the national team. Even I missed my graduation, my BA, and my Masters. I know that was more for my mom and dad, but were very sad about it. But I received... I remember, my BA, I was in Poland and my Masters I was in China.

Shianne: You missed both graduations?

Coach Esai: Yeah. I'm not regretting anything. It's just more for my mom and dad but yeah.

Shianne: What were some of your favorite places? I know that's probably a hard question, but...

Coach Esai: It's a hard question. If I go about eating, that's my favorite parts to do.

Shianne: Yeah, mine too.

Coach Esai: I would say... Argentina have a great, great food. I mean, if you like meat, of course, Argentina is one of the greatest place. If you like everything else, Japan was great. I went to a different part of Japan, not only Tokyo. I went to Sendai, I went to Hamamatsu. They have great... and yes, they have great sushi of course, but everything was great. I will say Poland. I mean, the meat too. It's... I don't know. That's a great question. Everywhere I've been, I don't have any complain, honestly. It's just different. It's not better than the other one. It's just different places, different cultures and you get adapted and it's awesome. It's awesome to learn from other people.

Shianne: Yeah, for sure. And like you said, everywhere you go is different, but they all have really cool things about them that you can't get anywhere else.

Coach Esai: That's true. I always thought that Puerto Rico is the greatest country in the world. And then you start traveling like, "Oh-oh, no. We have a lot of competition."

A Lesser-Known Fact About Coach Esai

Shianne: You have competition now. Funny. What is one thing that no one knows about you that you could share with us?

Coach Esai: I think my family knows, but one of the things that I don't think people knows about is I always want to be a dance teacher.

Shianne: Oh, okay. How did that come about?

Coach Esai: I always have been fascinated with dance because I always wanted to be dancing. And in any part, any team that I have been, I try to put this as a cardio... as a conditioning. My past school, at work, we did that every month. Now at Iona, we try to do that too. That came from my parents. My parents loved to dance when I was a little child. I saw always dancing and we have 24/7 music in Puerto Rico. There's never a time that there's no music, so you just move your hips and you start dancing.

Shianne: How fun. I love that you're still incorporating that into your team. Conditioning classes at dancing and stuff. That's awesome, I love it.

Coach Esai: Yes. It's a mixed feeling. Or they love it or they just need to get better.

Shianne: In my opinion, it's way better than running. I'd rather dance than run.

Coach Esai: Exactly. You see? It's that or running. I like that. I like that way of thinking.

Coach Esai’s Next Adventure

Shianne: Yep, exactly. What are you most excited about this upcoming season? I know you were in the spring ball, but what's up next. What's your next adventure?

Coach Esai: My first... I will say the first time I'm going to have kids that I'm bringing to school. Student-athletes that they... we have the process to talk. We have the process of communication and for now we have six players coming. I think that's very exciting right now, having for real, my first, first time that I'm going to be for a long time at Iona, knowing everything. I'm looking forward for that. I'm looking forward to bring the new players and have that culture with the old players. I think I'm looking forward for that. I'm so excited and nervous right now. I'm just... I just want to be fall right now. I'm ready for the preseason.

Shianne: Yeah. That looks like fun.

Coach Esai: That's one of my things. I'm just looking forward for that and going forward for that moment to start to get again on track, to be a better team.

Cheyenne: Yeah. That'll be fun to have your recruits to actually be on your campus now and that they're your players and to start just building a team with them, that's really fun.

Coach Esai: I'm very excited and very nervous at the same time, so we'll see.

Shianne: Yeah, no, that's awesome though. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. It was great to kind of learn more about you and your team and we wish you have the best of luck.

Coach Esai: I appreciate it for a time and I appreciate everything. And of course, I'm looking forward for the 2020 fall season and I'm very excited to be at Iona college.

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