Mark Rosen, the head coach of volleyball at University of Michigan, sits down with us in this episode of the 35,000 feet podcast going over his start in his career as a coach, some memorable travel experiences, his next adventures, and some words of wisdom for future athletes.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How this past season went for University of Michigan Volleyball team (0:15)

• How Coach Rosen got into coaching (2:08)

• Mark’s favorite travel experience (6:44)

• One thing that no one knows about Mark (10:00)

• Mark’s advice to athletes wanting to play in college (12:49)

• Mark’s next adventure (14:59)

The Past Volleyball Season for University of Michigan

Morgan: Hi, guys. Welcome back. It's Morgan. Today, I'm sitting down with coach Mark from the University of Michigan. Thanks so much for joining us.

Mark: Thanks for having me.

Morgan: Yes. And we're so excited to hear from you and get an insight into your team and into your life and just get to know you better. One of the first questions I want to start by asking you is if you could tell us about the highs and lows of your season.

Mark: Yeah, it's funny. I try not to have too many highs and lows. This is an interesting business, because it's so competitive and I'm an incredibly competitive person. All the players on our team are great competitors. My wife, who actually coaches with me, is super competitive. So I try not to ride too many highs and lows, because it gets to be a bit of an occupational hazard.

But certainly, for us, we have some rivals. Being in Michigan, Ohio State's a natural rivalry. Michigan State's a big rivalry. We actually swept both those teams this year in all four matches we played. So that was a pretty big highlight to be able to beat those guys and sweep the rivals. Anytime they have the NCAA Selection Show, and we've been in the NCAA tournaments a lot of times in the last 20 years, but it never gets old. And so, we all meet as a tradition in our house and have dinner and then we have the Selection Show. To me, it's like an early Christmas. And so, when that happens, it's just a huge highlight.

So I think those would probably be some big ones. But for me, again, I try not to ride too many highs and lows. I got a pretty great job. It doesn't stink to be able to teach 19 to 22-year-olds a game and get paid for it. So it's pretty awesome. And I'm surrounded by really good people, not only my staff but also all of our student-athletes. I pretty much look forward to going to work every day. And that, to me, is no reason to ride a lot of highs and lows when you got that going on.

Morgan: I love your insights, because I can tell you're positive and you care about your team and you want what's best. You're not going to dwell on things. You're just going to keep working hard. I can tell that from just listening to you.

Mark: Well, thanks.

Mark Rosen’s Start in Coaching and Balance Between His Career and Personal Life

Morgan: Yeah, for sure. And I'm so curious, how did you get to be a coach? What's your story there?

Mark: It's funny, I grew up always loving sports. I played just all the traditional stuff that people play when they're growing up, baseball and... I actually grew up in Alaska, so hockey was big. And I grew up, most of my life, I played hockey. Or most of my young life. And then, as I got to the end of high school... And I always thought I wanted to coach. I just really had a lot of respect and great relationships for the coaches that I played for. And so, I just thought, "Hey, I'd really like to coach." I kind of assumed that would coach hockey.

But my senior year in high school, I got into volleyball in a weird roundabout way. And as I finished up high school, I didn't have a future in hockey, because I was a good high school player, but that was about the ceiling. And I happened to get into volleyball in some pretty good situations. I ended up playing volleyball at college at Cal State Northridge. By the end of college, I knew that, okay, if I'm going to coach, I want to coach volleyball. I played for a coach who was a really good teacher and that was kind of intentional on my part. That's one of the reasons I chose the school I chose.

So it just kind of always something I wanted to do. I didn't know if I'd ever be able to make it a living. And I know my dad was very concerned about that, because he wanted to make sure I could someday get off of his books and get on my own. But it turned out okay. At this point, it turned out great. And my wife and I coach together, as I mentioned earlier. She always wanted to coach as well. So when we got married, it just was a natural progression for us to coach together. So very fortunate. Sometimes life just takes you where it's meant to go. I feel like I've never really had to have a job.

Morgan: Wow. No, I think that's so amazing that you and your wife coach together. How has that been like with balancing family and coaching, I guess?

Mark: Yeah. I think it's been really rewarding, because in this business, you wouldn't see your spouse much. We travel a lot with recruiting. We travel a lot with our team. It just means you're on the road a lot. And so, we wouldn't see each other a lot, which had been hard. But it's been pretty easy for us, because I think we have similar philosophies in the game. We see the game the same way. But we get about it very differently. We're very different personalities. And I think that's a huge plus. So had we looked at the game differently or value the game differently, I think that would have been hard, but for us to have similar view of the game but then just different approaches actually makes it really healthy. But there's been times where it's challenging.

It was probably most challenging when our kids were young and we were both traveling. It made it a little different lifestyle for them. But luckily for us, that's all they knew. So they didn't really have any... Sometimes they'd ask why are their friend's parents home on the weekends and we're never home. But for the most part, I think it's been a good opportunity for them. And they've gotten probably, I'm hoping, more benefits than they have negatives of it. But it's been good. And we've done it for 27 years now. So it's been going pretty good.

Morgan: 27 years. I know. I was going to ask. That's so amazing. Wow. I'm glad that you guys are able to balance everything and be awesome coaches together. I think, that's a really unique experience that players get to be a part of. That's awesome.

Mark: And we talk a lot with our program about core values. And one of ours is family. And certainly that comes a little bit for Leisa and I coaching together. But we want it to be a feeling of a group that's a little more connected than just a team. And so, I think us being married, we probably attract people that are looking for that too. And so, it seems like it's been a positive, but I'm sure there's some players that maybe it wouldn't be a good fit. But for us in our team, it seems to be working pretty well.

Morgan: Oh, no, I think that's awesome. I like that you mentioned the team family too, because that's what I valued in a team was when it was so much like a family. You go through the highs, the lows together. So I love that view.

Mark: Yeah. I always told our team the ideal situation would be when something really big in their life happens, whether it's getting married or they're having kids or maybe something tragic happens, I would hope that their teammates would be there even to 10, 15, 20, 30 years from now. And I think if we've done that and we created those kind of relationships, then we've done a really good job. I always loved going to player's weddings, because you see all the other players there and you see how they support them. It makes me feel like, hey, we're doing something right here and we're doing something a lot bigger than just volleyball, because we're developing those lifelong relationships.

Coach Mark Rosen’s Favorite Travel Experiences

Morgan: Well, it's so true. I know. I love going to my old teammates' weddings and things like that. I don't know. It's true, that team family and doing more than just volleyball. It's beyond that. So I appreciate your views. What are some of your most memorable travel experiences?

Mark: Yeah. That's one of the cool things about this job is you get a chance to travel a lot and we travel constantly for recruiting. It's funny. I joke about it, but we feel like we've been in every convention center in the country, because that's where all the [inaudible 00:07:22] are held. They all look the same. They're all concrete. They all got pillars in the middle. Those are real highlights. And when we go to a lot of these cities around the US, they're great cities, but we don't get to see much of it, because we're just in the convention center.

But with our team, we've had some really cool travel experiences. You're allowed every four years to go on an international trip with your team. Luckily, University of Michigan is supportive of that. And so, we've been on four different international trips over the last 20 years. I've also had a chance to travel with USA Volleyball and take a team to China with that group. I took the Big Ten All Star Team last year to Japan. So really some great experiences.

But I'd say the one that stands out the most to me probably was in 2009, we took our Michigan team to Brazil. I think it was cool, because Brazil's a great volleyball country and it's just a great country in general. The people were awesome. The food's amazing. The scenery and the sites are just phenomenal. But we also had a Brazilian on our team and that made it really special, because, one, we could all communicate and she could translate and give us the inside track. But I think we saw a lot deeper into the country than we would've had she not been on the team. And so, it was a really cool experience. Juliana Paz is her name. She graduated that year. She was a senior that year. It was just really cool to be able to travel with her. And we never even got to her hometown. It didn't work out because of the volleyball side of it. But just for her to know the country so well, it was really cool experience.

Morgan: Oh, I love it. And I feel like any travel you take as a team brings you closer. Have you noticed that with your teams?

Mark: Oh, without question. They're really good bonding experiences. They're really good... You're uncomfortable at times. I think the best way to develop a tight team is when they're uncomfortable and how you work through that. And international travel, there's a lot of really cool things about it, but there's also some times where it's uncomfortable, whether it's the food can be challenging, sometimes the communication, getting around. So to see our team go through those things and grow from it is amazing.

Another trip that really sticks out to me was that I took the USA College National Team to China probably seven or eight years ago. China's such a different country and some cool sites and cool things. But it was difficult. It was tough to get food you felt comfortable with. It was tough to get around because it's so populated and so bustling. It was hard to communicate, because the language is so drastically different. So that team was really uncomfortable. And they were new. They just got together for that trip. And to watch them bond very quickly, it was pretty amazing, because they kind of had to. They were out there by themselves and the only people they could lean on with each other. So there's no question those trips are great bonding experiences.

Something Noone Knows About Coach Mark Rosen

Morgan: Oh, no, I love that. I've noticed that when I travel with my teams. You get way closer. I agree. I couldn't have said that better myself. So thank you for sharing that with us. What's one thing that no one knows about you that you can share with us?

Mark: Probably I gave it up just a little bit ago. The fact that I grew up in Alaska, played hockey. Playing hockey and skiing were my two big things. Volleyball, I got into really late and I got into it my senior year in high school on just a pretty recreational team. It wasn't a very high level. I went to Oregon State for two years and played on a club team there and really follow up with it. Just got super connected with it and I decided I wanted to play at the highest level. So I worked to transfer down to a college in Southern California where I was going to play in the best conference in the country and an awesome experience to go to Northridge.

Again, I knew that I was probably going to be limited in how good I could be as a college player, because I'd only been playing for about a year and a half, two years. So I wanted to play for somebody who could really help me become a coach. When I visited schools, that was one of the things I talked to the coaches about is that was one of my goals. And when I met [Walker 00:00:11:22], the coach at Northridge, and we had a chance to talk, I immediately knew, "Hey, this guy's going to help me achieve my goals." There's no question that I would have never been able to coach probably collegiately, but certainly not at this level, had I not had that experience. So it turned out to be an unbelievable thing and kind of a backdoor into the sport.

One of the other things people probably... My close friends know it. But my best friend in the world is a guy named Kent Miller and we grew up playing hockey together up in Alaska. But ironically, he's the volleyball coach at Saint Louis University. We both are coaching Division 1 volleyball, and yet, we both grew up as hockey players in Alaska and got into volleyball really late. So what a-

Morgan: Oh my goodness.

Mark: Yeah, kind of ironic. Some people in the volleyball world know that because both of us have been in it for a long time, but it was a very strange twist of fate.

Morgan: Oh my gosh. Yeah, that is crazy. I've never heard of that before. That's fun.

Mark: Yeah. It's funny, because we see each other recruiting a lot and sometimes people introduce us saying, "Oh, do you know Kent?" And I'm like, "Yeah, I know Kent." We literally were best friends from fourth grade on and we played hockey all through high school. We lived in the same neighborhood. For both of us to end up... For a while, he was coaching at University of Toledo, which is 45 minutes from here. So it was really ironic that we ended up living in the Midwest 45 minutes apart coming from Alaska. So very strange.

Morgan: And both coaching D1. That is crazy. I've never heard that. Wow. I love listening to coaches, especially because your story is so cool to me, how you're coaching with your wife. And you and your best friend are coaching at the same time. I think that's amazing.

Mark: Yeah, it's been fun. We played each other a couple of times and that's always interesting.

Morgan: Oh, I bet that's a good battle.

Mark: Yeah. A little bit. A little bit.

Coach Mark Rosen’s Advice to Future Collegiate Athletes

Morgan: Well, that's fun. I'm glad that you guys are able to do that. That just leads me to the next question I have for you. If you are an athlete that's wanting to play for a team or university, what would your advice be to them?

Mark: I think the biggest thing I would say is do everything you can do to improve your game, to work on developing as a player. I think I see it so often, because recruiting is such a competitive thing and people want to play at the highest level, which it's great for some people, but it's not for everybody. Playing in a Power Five conference or in a Big Ten or a place like Michigan isn't for everybody. It looks great and it sounds fun until maybe you get into it. I think the biggest thing is as you develop your game and you become the best you can be, finding the right level is really important. But don't focus as much on the recruiting side of it, focus on the development side of it.

I'm a big growth mindset person. I think that people have the ability to grow and develop and get better. But that's all through intentional hard work and skill training. Focus on those things. I think a lot of people look at getting into college sports is about marketing themselves. And really, unless you've got a great product, marketing doesn't matter. My big thing is work on your game, work on getting to be the best you can absolutely be, and if that gets you to a certain level, then that's great. That's the level you're meant to be at.

Morgan: That's so true. I love that you mentioned hard work and developing as a player, because I feel like, with everything, you have to pursue it and go hard and be able to represent yourself well. So I love that.

Mark: Talent's a big factor. People have a certain amount of talent, whether they're tall or they're quick or they're fast or good jumpers. Those things are somewhat innate. But skill and just developing skill, being a high-level skilled player in a sport like volleyball or basketball or golf or anything else is a learned skill. And so, I think that people could always get better. People can grow and develop. We don't really value talent as much here. We have to have a certain level of talent, but we value that growth and that development. I tell people all the time, I try and tell my sons that, "Hey, just work on being the best version of yourself and that will get you where it's going to get you."

Morgan: Oh, that's so true. Being the best version of yourself. It's true, because we all have different talents and skills. And especially athletes.

Mark: Absolutely.

Coach Mark Rosen’s Next Big Adventure

Morgan: That is great. Well, what's your next adventure?

Mark: It's funny, in between foreign trips... We went on one two years ago. So we're going to have two more years before our next one. Right now, we're just hoping that this whole... We're living in an adventure right now of going out of the country. So it's kind of hard to think about that next foreign trip. I guess I'm glad we didn't have one scheduled for this year or that would've been tough. But a couple years.

We're planning right now to go to China. We're not 100% sure on that. The reason I'm doing that is, one, when I went with the USA team, I thought it was just an amazing country, just how vastly different it is than the US. And I think that'd be a great experience for our players. A lot of our players, at some point in their life, they're going to go to Europe. They're going to probably go to South America. But to go to China is a pretty unique experience.

We also have a gentleman involved in our program who's named Sandy Vong. And Sandy was the original coach at Michigan back in the '70s and early '80s. He was an engineer for Ford Motor Company. He actually has some amazing talents. He's one of the people who invented the technique to tint auto glass and he's an engineer in glass. He knows everything about glass.

But he's also a volleyball guy. And so, he's in our gym every day. He's 90 years old now. In our gym every single day. And he's Chinese, obviously, by his name. He wants to take us to China. So I told him if you can stay healthy enough and you can go with us to China, then we'll go to China. And this was two years ago. And it's funny, he walks our track every day. He's working to stay in shape. So God willing, if Sandy's healthy enough, then we're looking to go to China. But if Sandy's not involved in it, if he's not up for that trip, I don't know if we'll go on it, because he's really the only person I'd love to take our team to China. Because as I said with Juliana, having her be with us to go to Brazil made it special. I think going to China with Sandy would be really special.

Our players love him. He's one of these guys who's very quiet. He doesn't say a lot. But when he does, everybody listens. He's got everybody's full attention. He's very wise and he's very thoughtful in what he says. And so, I think that to be able to make that trip with him would be pretty cool. That's our next international adventure.

We're hoping, this fall, we've got a couple of trips in pre-season. We're going to... Where we going? Louisiana State down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which we'll fly into new Orleans, which would be really cool. And we were planning to spend a half a day just checking out the French Quarter and getting our team to see that side. And then the other pre-season trip we have is to the Naval Academy in Annapolis. We're actually going to spend a day touring the campus and touring the facilities and just the life of what the cadets go through. So both of those, even though they're good volleyball trips, and I'm excited about the volleyball, there's also a little bit of a adventure component to it too. We're really hoping the fall happens this year, but that's all pretty much out of our control. We'll hopefully find out things are getting better soon.

Morgan: Yeah. Wow. That's amazing. China. I think that would be a trip of a lifetime, especially for the girls on the team.

Mark: Yeah. When I went with the USA team and we walked the Great Wall, it's amazing. The tour guide was telling us that it took 2000 years to build. I thought she made a mistake. "You mean 200?" She's like, "No, 2000." I'm like, that's a lot of generations. I don't know how many projects in the world you could spend 2000 years working on it and keep plugging away at it. Let's talk about being persistent. That certainly is. And just the magnitude of the Great Wall, how long it is and how big it is and how remote it is. It's amazing. So things like that I would love our team to see, because I think they're so different than what we have in the US.

Morgan: Yeah. Well, again, traveling, you get to see so much that you wouldn't have gotten to see. I don't know. I think it's amazing. And hopefully your team can do that. I hope Sandy can go with you guys and take you.

Mark: Yeah, that'd be fun. Another trip I went on last year, I went to Berlin. We have a player on our team right now from Germany and I went to Berlin in recruiting with her. I got a chance to go on the Berlin Wall and learn some of the history of World War II. It was somber, but it was very thought-provoking and also very positive, because of the changes that came about. But to be in Berlin and see a lot of that history was pretty cool and very eye-opening.

Morgan: Wow. Yeah. I've never been to Berlin. That's on my bucket list. Dang, that's so cool.

Mark: It's a cool city. There were some really neat things. Jenny's family took me around one day and showed me around from an insider's perspective and it was pretty cool.

Morgan: Oh, I love that. Yeah. Getting that travelers fill instead of more of the touristy fill.

Mark: Yeah. Definitely.

Morgan: Well, I love it. Thanks so much for joining us on our podcast. It was a blast listening to your travels to get an insight into your team. I can really see the love and passion that you have for this sport and I respect that a lot. So thank you so much.

Mark: No problem. Thanks for having me.

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