“Once you get out into the world and experience someone’s culture first hand, it’s hard to think of them as ‘other people.’”
Sean Kiracofe, the head coach of women’s volleyball at Northwestern State University, sits down with us in this episode of the 35,000 feet podcast going over his start in coaching, his advice to those who want to pursue the athletic route, a funny thing that no one knows about him, and some exciting travel experiences.
In this episode, we discuss:
How this past season went for Northwestern State Volleyball team (0:18)
How Coach Kiracofe got into coaching (3:37)
Sean’s favorite travel experience (7:33)
One thing that no one knows about Sean (9:53)
Sean’s advice to athletes wanting to play in college (11:07)
Sean’s next adventure (13:05)
Why This Past Season Was The Best For Coach Sean Kiracofe And His Team
Morgan: Hi, guys. Welcome back. It's Morgan. Today I'm sitting down with Coach Sean. Thanks so much for joining us.
Coach Sean: Thanks for having me.
Morgan: Yeah, we're super excited to hear from you and hear about your adventures the past few years and your team and just getting insight into you guys' lives. One of the first questions I wanted to ask you today is if you could tell us about some of the highs and lows of your season.
Coach Sean: We had a great season this year. We were really happy with what we were able to accomplish. Going back through the history of the program, this is probably the second best season the program's had to date and the best season that I've had here in my five years. We were really successful.
I have yet to be able to win a conference match in our conference tournament. We finally got that out of the way and checked that off the list. We were able to compete and finish in the top three in the conference and really felt that we had the ability to push into the conference championship match, but just fell a little bit short.
We were lucky enough to get an at-large bid to the NIVC. This is only the second time in program history that we've been able to make the post-season. It was something to really be proud of, as a program, and then just as an individual team.
Morgan: I'm glad to hear that this has been the best season yet since you've been there for those five years. I think that's awesome. Is there anything in particular that you'd say helped you guys this year?
Coach Sean: That's a great question. I don't know. Every single year is a little bit different. I go back to 2017. Our season was really a breakout year during my time here. It was just some great chemistry out on the court and off the court, just with everyone on the team.
Whenever we got in tough situations, the fifth set of a match, we just really felt comfortable, like we were going to come out on top. For the most part, we did in 2017, and we returned everybody in 2018 from that team in '17. It wasn't there, for whatever reason, and it should have been. We should have been a whole lot better. You can point your finger at a couple of different areas of maybe if this was a little bit different or maybe that, but for whatever reason, it just did not work out the way we thought it would in 2018.
To be able to turn around for this season, and to have everything click again, was great to see, great to be part of. We just found a way to really make each other better and get through those tough situations, whether it was a point in a match or a stretch in the season. It was just a really good group from a chemistry standpoint.
Morgan: I think chemistry is huge, you know that? That's what helps take teams far and I love that you mentioned that.
Coach Sean: Yeah. it's a huge thing. You can have all the talent in the world, but if they don't click in certain ways, it just doesn't work. You can have a little bit less talent than some teams, but if you're constantly working together, you believe in each other and you trust each other, it can take you really far.
Morgan: Getting through that adversity together. I feel like that chemistry helps teams push through adversity.
Coach Sean: Yeah. Completely agree. Yeah.
The Journey of Sean Kiracofe’s Coaching Career
Morgan: Well, thank you so much for sharing that. I'm curious, Sean. How did you get to be a coach? What's your story there?
Coach Sean: Well, I started playing volleyball. My sister is four years older than I am and she was playing in, really, just the start of club volleyball. It was much smaller than it is today, but they were still traveling all over the country and it had big tournaments.
I was lucky enough that Mick Haley was the head coach at University of Texas at the time. He had a son, Keith, that's the same age as I am. He wanted to make sure that he had the ability to play, so he started a boys' team. My dad was really just like, "Well, do you want to go out and try out for it? You're going to be stuck in the gym anyways, because of your sister, so you might as well try it."
I did. I fell in love with the sport, turned out to be pretty good at it. I went on and got recruited by a bunch of programs, but men's volleyball, the opportunities as far as a scholarship standpoint, is way different than at least females getting full scholarships. I ended up going to Texas Tech and then just started coaching camps, just to make some extra money.
It was entertaining. It was something to do during the summers, but I never really thought it would take me towards coaching. I got out and graduated and got a taste of the real world and actual jobs. I'm like, "Nobody likes this, do they?"
I was looking for something else to do and had the great opportunity. I'm still having connections back to the coach at Texas Tech, Nelson, and he had one of his former players, Scott Swanson, got his first head coaching job at UTEP in El Paso. He said he was looking for an assistant.
I had been coaching club for a while and really started to fall in love with that different side of the game and wanted to take a shot at this to see if it was something that I really wanted to do. Luckily enough, Scott saw something in me to be able to hire on as an assistant. I've been in college coaching ever since and I can't imagine doing anything else.
Morgan: What would you say is one of the biggest things you've learned since being a coach and going through those experiences?
Coach Sean: Great question. I have no idea how to answer that, to tell you the truth, the biggest thing. I went into it just eyes wide open and having no idea where this is going to go as far as profession and just my life in general. We talked, a little bit earlier, about travel. Just the ability with this job to travel all over the country and just see different parts of it is just an amazing opportunity.
I never would have experienced all the things that I have as far as traveling across different parts of the states if I didn't have this job. Just to be able to learn from many different people and to be able to experience all those things around the country, I think, kind of roundabout, answers to your question, but I don't know if I could put a finger on just the most important thing.
Morgan: Yeah, and I could see why, because there's so many different things that you learn from coaching, getting where you're at, and loving the sport and all of those things. I'm sure there's so many different things you've learned that you can't pinpoint one.
Coach Sean Kiracofe’s Favorite Travel Experiences
Morgan: I like that you mentioned travel, how you get the opportunity to do that. Are there any travel experiences that you've had that stick out to you or that are very memorable?
Coach Sean: Well, in my twenties, I was lucky enough at Texas Tech that one of our roommates was from Budapest, Hungary. Being able to just be friends with him and learn about his culture from over in Hungary was great. Once we got out and graduated, I had some disposable income and myself and another friend decided we were going to visit Zoltan over in Europe.
We flew over there and landed in Germany and then just really traveled all around Eastern Europe and ended up down in Budapest. We went to Vienna, Prague, we were in Berlin, Cologne and Dresden, and just did a bunch that we could fit in in about two weeks. It was an amazing experience from all the way of just the backpacking hostels to hotels and then just being able to end up and see where Zoltan grew up, and to just put something right in front of you of all the stories that we had heard through college.
That was just a great experience and that was the first time that I had been out of the country for an extended period of time. It was really fascinating to see other cultures and just be able to live that for a little while.
Morgan: That's so cool. I love that you mentioned living different cultures, like seeing those different cultures, because it's crazy. Even going state to state or country to country, everywhere's so different, yet the same. It's interesting.
Coach Sean: Yeah, absolutely. I love the Mark Twain quote and I'm not going to be able to do it justice, but travel is the worst thing for prejudice and bigotry and things like that. Once you get out into the world and you can experience someone else's culture first hand, it's really hard to think of them as other people. We're all the same.
A Funny Fact That Noone Knows About Coach Sean Kiracofe
Morgan: Yeah, I love that quote. Thank you for sharing that. I've never heard that. That's so cool. I guess this next question is a little bit change of flow, but what is one thing that no one knows about you that you could share with us today?
Coach Sean: Well, I have punched Dolly Parton in the face.
Morgan: What?
Coach Sean: I'll explain that. This is my go-to response to this. It's less and less something that people don't know about me, but back when I was three or four years old, Dolly Parton kissed me on a cheek and left makeup on me, and so I socked her. It's just something a little bit different.
My uncle was Dolly Parton's road manager for a long time, years ago, so my family had the opportunity to have different experiences throughout the years with Dolly Parton, whether she was on tour or just doing different parts of her career. That's always something that my parents and my mom love that story, and there's a good picture of it, of me taking a swing and Dolly Parton because she left makeup on my cheek.
Morgan: That is hilarious. Thank you for sharing that with us. I'm excited for people to hear that story.
Coach Sean: That's good.
Coach Sean Kiracofe’s Advice to Athletes
Morgan: Yes. Well, perfect. If you're an athlete that's wanting to play for a team or university, what would your advice be to them, specifically?
Coach Sean: Great question. I guess there's a couple of different ways I could go about this, one just being, I guess, be prepared for it to not be easy. Pro athletes will say this all the time, that they were always the best in middle school and high school and then they get to college and then everything's equal. Or that next step from college up to pro, where everyone's good and you've got to really put the effort and the extra work in to be able to be successful.
I think a lot of the female athletes that come in had always been the best on their team, whether it's high school or club, and then they get to the collegiate level and it's not easy. Or the person next to you is just as good as you and you don't stand out quite as much. I think just have that preparation to know that you're going to have to work on parts of your game that are not your best and you can't always just rely on it just being naturally easy.
There's going to be plenty of times where practice throughout the weeks are not necessarily to make you better at what you're already good at, but to really focus on your weaknesses. That can be difficult for some players to really just focus on I'm not good at this, whatever that is, and I've got to sit there and do it day after day after day and have a lot of failure involved in that. Eventually, it's going to pay it off because you're going to be a better player because of it.
Morgan: I couldn't have said that better myself. That's great advice to players, and I love that you mentioned go a little bit harder. You're going to have equal talent, but keep going hard and try a little harder to be a little better.
Coach Sean: Right.
Coach Sean Kiracofe’s Next Big Adventure
Morgan: I love that. Just a little bit of extra effort, I think, takes athletes the longest way. Thank you for sharing that. That'll be good for people to hear. What's your next adventure, Sean?
Coach Sean: Well, in today's situation, I guess just going to the grocery store is an adventure, isn't it?
Morgan: Yes, I feel that way.
Coach Sean: It really is. I'm in Louisiana right now, which is hard hit with all of this COVID-19, so yeah, your daily trips out to get groceries is interesting. Right now, we had planned a family reunion trip to Nashville for the Easter holiday, which got canceled, so I'm not exactly sure what is on tap for us next.
Going up to my in-laws, we drive through Missouri and we constantly pass the Ozarks, and we keep saying all the time that we've got to go for a camping trip and do some hiking up there. That might be the next thing that we plan, once things are normal a little bit and we want to get out and have some adventure.
Morgan: Oh, I love that. I'm excited for you guys to get out. I think when things are over, it'll be fun because people will be so excited to go out and do fun things again outside, so I'm excited for you guys.
Coach Sean: Thank you.
Morgan: Thank you so much for joining us on this podcast. It's been fun listening to you and just getting to know your team better, you better, and thank you again for letting us get a glimpse into that.
Coach Sean: Well, I appreciate you having me.
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