July 17, 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 second of a three-part series, Dagenais discusses his major coaching influences, his favorite part about coaching at UCF and his proudest moment in coach so far.
Who are your coaching influences?
"That is very easy. The very first coaching influence that I had was Chuck Erbe who hired me at Michigan State to be his assistant and later associate head coach. He is world known and he has coached national teams. He has coached around the world. He is just a fantastic disciplinarian and very structured. He is an old marine guy, so he understands structure and discipline and how it fits into the whole team setting.
Then, my next major influence was Toshi Yoshida who was the US national team coach from 2000 to 2004. I had a chance to work with him during all four of those years, including when I had a chance to work with him during the Olympics. He just taught me to really see the game from an international level and how to look at it from levels and variations that are not there to the naked eye. He showed me how to use numbers and how numbers correspond with performance and lastly, he really taught me the international style of game and how it completely differs from anything that we do here domestically.
The last major influence on my life is Mick Haley, who is the head coach at the University of Southern California. Mick is just the best manager of people that I have ever worked with. How he finds people's strengths, hides their weaknesses and is able to use those strengths to make them feel like they are an important part of the team amazes me. Everybody had an important role and that is the thing I learned from Mick. Everybody involved in the team and the team around the team has to have an important and measurable role. If they have that role, then they are completely invested in what they are trying to do. So, his management skills are phenomenal and that is the thing that I take most from him. He has the ability to manage a match mid-stream - in the middle of the game and under the lights with all the pressure - and the ability to make great decisions, see things and make changes and adjustments. It was a great tutorial under him for three years, learning how to manage people and a match."
What is your favorite part about coaching at UCF?
"So far, just the vision. It is not often that you get into a business proposition at the ground level. Could you imagine getting into Yahoo at the ground level or one of these major companies at the ground level? I think that is exactly what is going on here. There is a very small handful, maybe one or two programs that are in this type of position where they have the size of the school, the educational vision and they have athletic support to be able to grow. Very few schools have all of those things. Many only have one or two of those things, but very few have all of them. UCF has that and that is really the primary reason why I came here because it has this unlimited potential to grow up and become a big-time volleyball program. It has the fan base that is out there waiting for it. It has a university that is ready to support it. Now, it is just a matter of putting all the steps in place and building this program to the level that we want to take it. We want to become a top-25 program and that is not easy. That is not done overnight, but all the tools are in place for us to be able to do that. Now, it is just a matter of putting all those things together to make it happen."
What has been your proudest moment in coaching so far?
"It is not anything that has happened on the floor. It is not anything to do with the national team. I think that my proudest moments are when I get phone calls from former players who are at crossroads in their lives. They do not know how to handle a certain situation or who to ask for advice, those kinds of things. When I am one of first phone calls that they make when getting married, going to have a baby or they are at a major milestone in their life and I am one of the first ones to know about it, that makes me proud. That means that all of those things that I talked about in being a well-rounded student-athlete have come to pass. The experience that they were left from me has allowed them to want to get in contact with me later on and share their great news. That is the proudest moment in my life is when that phone rings and it is a former student-athlete that needs me to give them advice or wants to give me news. Those are proud moments when you know that you are doing it right."
Fans can learn more about coach Dagenais in the third 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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