“Getting to see the world through other’s eyes and other’s perspectives is so interesting.”
Erin Lindsey, the head coach of women’s volleyball at Santa Clara University, sits down with us in this episode of the 35,000 feet podcast and gives us insight into her team’s past season. She shares her experiences as a player which led her to become a coach, some lesser-known facts about her, and her favorite travel locations!
In this episode, we discuss:
How this past season went for Santa Clara University Volleyball team (0:19)
How Coach Lindsey got into coaching (4:50)
Erin’s favorite travel experience (7:33)
One thing that no one knows about Erin (12:30)
Erin’s advice to athletes wanting to play in college (14:06)
Erin’s next adventure (16:23)
Peaks And Dives Of Santa Clara University Volleyball Team’s Past Season
Morgan: Hi guys. Welcome back. It's Morgan. Today, I'm sitting down with coach, Erin. Thanks so much for joining us, Erin.
Erin Lindsey: Thanks for having me, Morgan.
Morgan: Yes. We're so excited to get to know you better and hear a little bit more about your story and your team. So just to dive into it, one of the first questions I want to ask you is tell us about the highs and lows of your current season.
Erin Lindsey: Yes, well, we had quite a few highs and lows at Santa Clara this season. This was my first season with the Santa Clara Broncos. And so any time you're taking over a program or going in new, there's definitely a lot to learn, not just in getting to know the student athletes, but also in the institution and the conference. Really there's just a lot. We had a new staff as well. I had a bunch of coaches that I hadn't worked with before. And so there's a lot to figure out which can very much lead to highs and lows. I would say that one of the main highs for me was coming into a group of young women who were so motivated to want to improve and do better than they had in the past season.
And so for a new coach coming into a program, it's really a dream situation because the student athletes are, they're just so motivated and change is really hard for humans generally. And so when you're coming in new, you're bringing new ideas and new systems and new communication styles. And so it usually requires quite a bit of change and flexibility from the members of the organization. And so having that motivation to want to do better, to be open and to be bought in to making changes is really, really helpful for the leader. So that was a really big high for me, was having a group that was so invested and so motivated and wanting to improve every day.
I would say that one of the main lows that we hit were we had an injury to one of our setters in the middle of the season. And that was a big adjustment for our team to make, because we had really been on a high from the very start of the competition season and winning quite a bit more than the team had the year before. And we were really starting to get very consistent with our lineup, we were performing well, we were able to really analyze our rotations because our lineup had been so consistent. And then to have one of our setters go down with an ankle injury and she wasn't able to return for the season was a big shock to the team. Both I would say in our play, but also just emotionally. And so that was something that we needed to overcome. And I was really proud of the way our team handled it. We like to approach things very directly and say what's on our minds and be open to one another.
And so we got together and discussed what we wanted the rest of the season to look like knowing that this injury had occurred. And also at that point, we weren't in position to win the conference, but what did we want to do to finish out? How did we want things to look in our last half of conference season?
And so I would say then the next high was finishing really strong, finishing fourth in the conference after finishing last, the year before. Having the opportunity to play post-season in the NIVC Tournament and going on and going to Long Beach Day, then playing a great match there and winning in five. I would say that was definitely one of the best parts and seeing all that hard work that our team had put forth really come to fruition.
Morgan: Wow. Yeah, no, I love, I love hearing how teams keep working through adversity and I can totally see that in your team. How the girls are trying, you're trying because injuries, that's a big deal, that impacts the team. Because you recruit those players for specific reasons. And so that's awesome that you guys were able to take from that and learn and grow.
Erin Lindsey: Absolutely.
How Erin Lindsey Became A Coach
Morgan: Well, how did you get to be a coach?
Erin Lindsey: Yeah, that's a great question. My father is actually a coach and a teacher. And so I had been around a gym and also coaches for a good part of my life, for as long as I can remember really. And so coaching seemed pretty natural to me. I wasn't positive it was what I wanted to do for a living. When I was playing in college, I loved volleyball, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it for the rest of my life. And so I went into marketing and advertising. When I finished my degree at North Carolina, I worked for an ad agency in Chicago for a couple of years and then moved down to Austin, Texas, where I continued to work in advertising. When I was there, I started to get back into coaching and I was coaching college volleyball with Austin Juniors and realized that I wanted to do more or give more in my life than I was able to in the advertising industry.
And I enjoyed advertising, I really liked working with my teams and it was a creative process and there were a lot of relationships you had to develop with the client and with your creative team. And I liked all of that, but I didn't really feel like I was doing something that was important and using my time to give as much as I could. And because I had been in sport and in volleyball, I felt like the most efficient way for me to get back into a position, a job or industry that allowed me to give back was to go into coaching. And so I decided to reach out to my college coach, Joe Sagula from the University of North Carolina and see if he would help me in a search to get into college coaching because I thought that would be a great way to give back and to be able to mentor young women through sport.
Morgan: Wow. I love that story. I love seeing where you came from and where you are now because of the effort that you've put in. So I think that's awesome. Your team's lucky to have you.
Erin Lindsey: Thanks. I'm lucky to have them.
The Most Memorable Travel Experience For Coach Erin Lindsey
Morgan: Yeah. I think that's awesome. I love that. Team family. What's one of the most memorable travel experiences you've had with your team and individually?
Erin Lindsey: Oh, that's a good question. This team is new to me. So we've only traveled so much together, but I would say one of the most memorable ... There are a couple. First would have been my first spring at Santa Clara. It was with the beach team, which is pretty much the same as the indoor team right now. We have the same athletes, but we traveled down to Santa Cruz, which is about 40 minutes from us, really easy drive. And we had a WCC West Coast Conference, mid-season invitational tournament down at Santa Cruz, which was awesome. And we decided to stay down at one of our student athletes' family's homes instead of driving back and forth. And I was so happy we did because it was such an amazing for me to get to know our student athletes and because we weren't in a hotel and because we were in a house, we were all planning meals and cooking together, and everyone was taking turns, helping out and taking on different jobs.
And it gave me such a great perspective on personalities and team dynamics and all the kinds of things that as a coach, you want to know so that you can do your best for your team. And I really enjoyed that trip because we were able to take some walks on the beach and do a bonfire and all of this in addition to getting to play and compete. And so I would say that was one of my favorite trips. It wasn't to anywhere like that spectacular, although Santa Cruz is very nice, but it's just down the road from us. But I think that trip specifically meant a lot to me in getting to know this new group.
And then I would say also traveling down to Long Beach State for our NIVC match. We were a little short, as far as we didn't have our whole team. Like I said, we suffered some injuries, we had our starting middle blocker happened against strep the week before. So she wasn't traveling with us. So it was a smaller group of our team, but what was so interesting to me and what was so fun was the team really pulling together and picking up slack because we kind of knew we were short certain players. And so it was just interesting to see everybody step up and just bring everything they had. And so that was one of my favorite trips as well. I've gotten the opportunity to travel quite a bit with other teams around the country, with Stanford, the year before I left, we were able to go overseas for a foreign tour, which was amazing. We were in Slovenia and Croatia for a day. And then we were in Italy. Yeah.
My family got to come with me, which I think was one of the best experiences and having my children and my husband get to be a part of what I get to experience all the time and traveling with a team and a bunch of people that you love being around. But then having my family get to travel with us as well. And Kevin’s family was on the trip, obviously, being the head coach, but his kids joined as well and our children are really close. And so not only did we get to travel with the team and experience all that but also having our families get to travel together, it was something that was really special.
Morgan: Oh, that's fun. Traveling's so fun because you get to experience the world, but it's fun when you go with the team because you get to experience it all together, like as your team family. And especially because your actual family was there, that's even better.
Erin Lindsey: For sure. For sure. And getting to see the world and seeing things through other's eyes and other's perspectives as well, I think is so interesting. Since when you have a team, you all come from different backgrounds and different families and people have different levels of experience and how much they've traveled and maybe what they've seen. And so I always think it's interesting to speak to the people I'm traveling with about how different it is, what they find interesting. I definitely love traveling.
Morgan: I love that. Yeah. You get to see so much and learn so much. So I'm glad we share a mutual love of travel.
Erin Lindsey: Yes, absolutely.
One Thing No One Knows About Coach Erin Lindsey
Morgan: What's one thing that no one knows about you that you can share with us?
Erin Lindsey: So this, I don't know, this is kind of embarrassing, but I still like to build Legos. So I guess my family, my immediate family, my children, and my husband know this about me, but I would say my team doesn't even know that about me. I have not shared that with them, but I don't know. I love doing it. It's so relaxing. I think it's a little bit like jigsaw puzzles for me. Like I like putting together jigsaw puzzles as well, but in a job where you're interacting so much and talking and we just constantly have something else to do as a coach. And so I just feel like there's so much peace in just having the time to sit down and build a Lego. So I don't think many people know that about me.
Morgan: I think that's awesome. No. Hey when they listen to it, they'll get to hear it.
Erin Lindsey: There we go. The cat's out of the bag.
Morgan: Okay. That's awesome though. I'm like, I want to start building Legos.
Erin Lindsey: Oh, it's fun. It can be kind of expensive. I need to probably just start building things, creating things on my own as opposed to the sets, but I really like the sets because I just get to like follow directions, and everything is complete and it's beautiful.
Morgan: Okay. Well I think that's awesome.
Erin Lindsey: Thanks.
Coach Erin Lindsey’s Athletic Advice
Morgan: That's unique. So thank you. Yes. If you're an athlete wanting to play for a team or university, what would your advice be to them?
Erin Lindsey: My advice would be to reach out directly to the coach depending on your age and then CA rules, either via email or if you're old enough that a coach can take a call, go ahead and call them and let them know of your interest and why you're interested specifically in their program and their school. I would say that we get a lot of emails and correspondence from student athletes, or prospective student athletes. But it's often just very generic and clear that they're emailing a lot of people. And I understand that you definitely need to cast a wide net to figure it out the best fit for you. But I think that once you start to narrow down and realize what you're looking for in an experience and an institution and in the coaching staff to make the communication a bit more personal and direct. Because those are the communications that make me really click on the link to watch your video or to make sure I get to see you play in a tournament because I know that you're specifically interested in what our program or our institution has to offer.
And it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be a fit. For all coaches, we're all looking for someone who is going to be able to bring value to the program and the team and that usually requires a certain level of skill and talent. That's just the reality of playing high level division one sports. But I do think that reaching out directly and showing who you are and what you're looking for is a great first step in starting to develop a relationship with the program that you're interested in joining.
Morgan: I couldn't have said it better myself. That is great advice to future athletes. And I hope they listen to this so they can have ideas because no, that's awesome information. So thank you for giving that.
Erin Lindsey: For sure. No problem.
Where is Coach Erin Lindsey Traveling Next?
Morgan: Yeah. And I guess what's your next adventure?
Erin Lindsey: Oh goodness. I don't know my, my kids and my husband, we like to travel quite a bit. And so we save up. That's definitely where we like to spend our money as opposed to buying things, we like to save up so that we can have great experiences. So we've been talking about hopefully being able to go to Africa in a couple of years. So we'll see. It would be such a big trip and so far away, but we feel like it could be a great experience for us all. And so that's definitely something we're planning for and hoping will happen soon or maybe not really soon but in the next couple of years. I grew up in Hawaii and my grandma is turning 100 this year in November, which is amazing. And so we're hoping to get home towards the end of the year to be able to celebrate with her and our family. So we're hoping this Coronavirus gets under control so we can all start seeing our family and traveling a little bit more again.
Morgan: Oh yes. What part of Hawaii?
Erin Lindsey: I grew up in Honolulu, so right in Oahu, right near the university.
Morgan: Oh really?
Erin Lindsey: So yeah, the university's right in Manoa Valley, which, yeah, it's about ten minutes up from the ocean into the mountains and I live like five minutes from UH.
Morgan: Oh, that is so cool. That's so cool. I love it there. So you lived the dream.
Erin Lindsey: I did. I did. I was very, very lucky to grow up in Hawaii. I definitely think it has shaped a lot of who I am and yeah, it's a very special place.
Morgan: I love that. And what are you most excited for, for this upcoming season?
Erin Lindsey: Well, year two is always the challenge. I think we've set the bar high, which I was really excited about. I believed and I knew that our team had it in us to get ourselves in contention in the WCC. Now I would say the process gets a little bit slower and it requires a lot of patience I think to continue to make change and improve. That first year is really exciting for everybody and I think there's a lot of motivation. And then now I think we really have to dig in and stay disciplined and resilient and work together. So I'm looking forward to that. And now that obviously we're apart from our student athletes right now, I miss my team a lot. I miss seeing my staff every day. We get on conference calls and see each other through the computer, but it's just not the same.
And so I'm really looking forward to getting back together and getting back to work and really just putting the puzzle pieces together and solving problems and finding solutions with one another. I think that's my favorite part of this profession and why I'm so grateful to have a career in college sport. We get to do so many different things day to day. And a lot of it is working with other people to find solutions and figure things out. And so I'm excited to start working on that and figuring out the other teams in our league and figuring out how we can be just a little bit better every day. So that's what I'm most looking forward to.
Morgan: Well, I'm excited for your team and thank you so much for joining on this podcast. It was fun getting a glimpse into your team and just getting to know you better.
Erin Lindsey: Thanks so much. I really enjoyed it.
Santa Clara University Volleyball
Podcast made in partnership with Acanela Expeditions
Theme Song - I’ll Just Be Me by Gravity Castle