For CV volleyball coach, building connection with players key

If there is a guiding principle to Jason Allen’s volleyball coaching philosophy, it would be something he distilled from a movie.

Not a volleyball movie. Believe it not, there aren’t that many volleyball movies out there to draw from.

No, this would be a vintage Richard Dreyfus movie: “Mr. Holland’s Opus.”

“I do love that movie – it’s one of my favorites,” the first-year Central Valley coach laughed.

A main theme from that movie is about relationships that extend beyond the four years that students are at a school.

As a coach, Allen draws from the three previous CV head volleyball coaches he’s worked under as an assistant.

“I’m drawing from three different coaches and using things that I learned from each of them,” he explained. “And I have some things of my own that I’ve come up with that I’m anxious to try.”

Allen is the first Central Valley volleyball coach to also be an in-building teacher in longer than anyone can remember.

“I think that whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing depends on who the coach is and who the previous coach was,” he said. “You’d have to say that we’re in the heyday of Central Valley volleyball in terms of the success we’ve had, the state appearances we’ve made and the trips we’ve made to the state tournament.

“I do hope that I can bring some stability to the program. We’ve had some turnover with the program over the years.”

The first thing Allen did was to create a volleyball camp for youngsters in the Central Valley district. With programs from elementary-age players through high school, the camp drew 90 to 100 young volleyball players into the CV gym to learn the game.

“Kids tend to take up volleyball a little later than they do other sports,” he said. “I see that with my own kids. My 10-year-old is just starting out and has already played soccer and done dance.

“One of the things I did was to get my high school players working with the elementary and middle school players. They did a great job. For the high school camp I got our alumni to come back and help teach.”

It’s all part of Allen’s belief in relationships.

“That’s one of our strengths at CV,” he said. “I work with the drama department. I coach track and now I’m the volleyball coach. At other schools, that might be seen as a strange mix of things to be involved with.

“At Central Valley, that doesn’t even raise an eyebrow. It’s just an accepted thing. Last year we did the winter musical and we had players from the football team involved in the production. They were dancers on stage and they were just accepted as part of the program.”

Shades of “Mr. Holland’s Opus.”

“I do hope that our (volleyball) program can reflect that same diversity,” he said.

One the one hand, Allen said he’s looking forward to next week, when fall practices officially begin. And on the other, he’s not.

“Because of the state limits, we’re going to have to cut players to make our rosters,” he said. “I’m not looking forward to that, at all.

“For one thing, you have a relationship with a kid and then the thought of having to make a cut turns them into a ball of nerves. I don’t like that. And I think having to tell a kid that they didn’t make the team is the hardest thing you have to do as a coach.”

That, too, he said, is part of building relationships.

“I think the tradition model is to tell kids that, if they do these things for you, then you will give them value as a member of your team,” he said. “I think that’s backwards. I think you have to value the kid first. That’s how you build strong relationships.”