July 11, 2008
Orlando, Fla. (www.ucfathletics.com) - Entering into a new era of UCF women's volleyball, the Athletics Communications staff recently sat down with first-year head volleyball coach Todd Dagenais to learn more about the coach and his visions for the future of the volleyball program. In the first of a three-part series, Dagenais discusses his year of firsts, his coaching philosophy, the style of play fans can expect from his squad this season and what he looks for in a recruit.
This year you have become a head coach for the first time, a first time father, and you are opening a new home for UCF volleyball. What do you think about some of the milestones that you are going to achieve this year?
"It is funny because these things have been in preparation for a long time and to actually get to the point where all these fantastic things happen at one point in our life is really exciting for my wife Katie and I. It is just exciting to have so many different things going on - great advancement in the career, obviously the great advancement in the family life, and what we are trying to do here to build a program and trying to advance UCF. It is really an exciting point in all of our lives to be able to be apart of this. And to have it all converge at once is even more exciting."
What is your coaching philosophy?
"I love to teach. More than anything else in the whole wide world, I love to teach. I love to be able to get people and teach them the skills to maximize their ability. The one thing I have learned is that volleyball is truly a sport of student-athletes. We have great students that can be great athletes. I love to help them explore both of those parts of their lives, in addition to getting really good collegiate balance off the court. I think that it is just as important that they have a great social experience in college as it is that they have a great classroom experience and a great athletic experience. Overall, the philosophy is that I love to teach and I love to open their eyes to the bigger vision of how the game should work; then I love for them to have a great balanced collegiate experience in the classroom, athletic floor and socially in a university setting."
What kind of style will your team employ throughout the season?
"That is a good question. It is going to be relentless pursuit. If I was to put it into two words, I would say just relentless pursuit. We have to go for it. We can't hold anything back. We have to get in there and work everyday to better the program. Our first step is to better the program and get all the foundation work done for all of our future success. So this year it is going to be all about relentless pursuit of being the best that we can be at that moment, on that day and in that practice. Clearly, it is going to be one step at a time for each milestone along the way. This season will be a relentless pursuit of excellence."
What do you look for in a recruit?
"It is funny, I tell kids when I am out recruiting that I know if you are athletic enough in 10 seconds. Literally, I just go, that is it... she is athletic enough or not. I know if a kid is an athlete in the first few seconds. After that, I spend the rest of the time, days, and weeks evaluating their character. How they are as a person. I look at how they treat their teammates, how they treat their coaches, and most importantly how they treat their parents. Because how they treat their parents is how they are going to treat the coaching staff. How they treat their friends and teammates is how they are going to treat their teammates at UCF. We spend a lot of time trying to evaluate character and how that character is going to fit in the overall mold of what we are going to try to accomplish here. Athletic ability has to be there, that is a minimum. After that I look at character, heart, and discipline - all the things that you need to have in somebody that is going to have relentless pursuit."
Fans can learn more about coach Dagenais in the second of this three-part series to be released next week, exclusively at UCFAthletics.com.
The volleyball team opens its 2008 campaign at the Georgia Southern Tournament Aug. 29-30, before opening the newly renovated UCF Arena against six-time National Champions Stanford on Sept. 2. For the latest news and information on the Knights, tickets or apparel log on to www.ucfathletics.com - the official site for UCF varsity sports. Also check out UCFPhotos.com, the exclusive fan source for UCF action sports pics
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