One-on-one: volleyball coach Tom Mendoza

SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS VOLLEYBALL

Tom Mendoza had a solid start to his tenure as the Gamecocks' volleyball coach. In his first year, his team went 20-10 and made its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002 and they advanced to the second round.

The Gamecocks kick off their season Friday morning in the Panther Challenge.

Before that, though, Mendoza sat down with GamecockCentral to talk about program building, this year's team and what's next for his program.

GC: What was year one like for you competing while trying to build your program?

“Year one is one of those things where not everything went right, but when you get away from it, you realize how many things went right; from keeping that group together, especially the players that when there was a coaching change had some opportunities to go to another program. Our first thing was keeping that group together through the coaching change. We were able to add a couple key pieces in Brit McLean and Addie Bryant, who played major roles for us last fall. To be able to get them and add them late was big. It took some of the pressure off those other players. All the way through the season, not everything went perfect from a health standpoint. It’s the same as every other team trying to keep people healthy and keep people playing at a high level. I think the level of play we were able to sustain really allowed us to be successful. That’s something we talked about before the season and during the season and to be able to go out there and execute it says a lot about that group. It meant a lot they got that reward to see their name pop up on the TV for the selection show and to go beat a program like Colorado was pretty exciting. I think it validated the success we had in the preseason, the success we had in the SEC wasn’t a fluke. Not everything went right but it’s hard to imagine year one going better. In year two, now everything you put off in year one you have to deal with in year two. It’s been a lot of those things but we’ve been able to get a lot done from a team development standpoint and a program development standpoint. We’re trying to increase things like relations with alums, building our booster base and making improvements to our facility and trying to get our recruiting where we want it to be. Those are the things in year two we’re putting a lot of emphasis on."

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GC: What was the biggest surprise in year one?

The challenges are going to come either in a match or in a season. Unsuccessful groups find ways to stop at those challenges. Groups who are high performing, high success rate, handle the problem and move on. Whether it was a point we shouldn’t have lost or a mistake or a call we disagreed with…we handled those challenges well and moved on. We had a couple matches last year where we did not play as well as we want. But that didn’t lead to a four-match losing streak. We responded well and made the changes we needed to make.”

GC: Transitioning to year two, what do you like about the team you have?

“It’s a very similar group. Last year, for good or bad, we had a pretty clearly defined lineup. I think that provided some continuity but I think there were times where we didn’t push those top players in positions or if those players were a little banged up and needed some rest or weren’t playing a match below the level we expect, I think this year we’ll have more of that. It’s people getting older who are in our program last year now having another year of practice and development or whether that’s incoming players, I think that group behind our starters is a lot stronger this year. Hopefully that’s going to push that group and provide some depth to get through a really challenging schedule."

GC: What will constitute a successful year this year?

“I think it’s just playing to our potential. You’ll get in a lot of trouble saying, ‘Last year we made the second round, this year we’ll make it to the Sweet 16.’ It just doesn’t work that way. There’s one way to get to the Sweet 16, and that’s through the second round. That’s months from now, and if we’re focused on that one match, we’re missing a lot of things from then to now that are important.”

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GC: What’s the strength and identity right now of this team?

“One of the strengths is we have so many leaders in this group, and I think we need that. If we were pointing to one or two players then I think there’s a certain ceiling. If you asked me that, I could give you six or seven names and I think that’s one of the strengths of our group. From a playing style, last year we relied heavily on pressure behind the service line. We had one player who was second in the country in aces per set. Obviously we can score points from an attacking standpoint; we can probably score points in the middle and right side better than most teams…The strength of our team was how well our left side played. I think that was a big jump that we were able to do consistently. Having Courtney Koehler back for a fourth year, it doesn’t automatically lead to success but it leads to a comfort level on the court. I think she’s one of the top setters in the conference…we’ll have to find a way to replace the pressure Aubrey had behind the service line, and I think we can do that.”

GC: What signs of progress did you see in year one you can take into year two?

“Some of the stuff is longer term. I’ll give you an example with our facility. We had a scorer’s table that was just black. It’s pretty bland. We addressed it as something like, ‘Hey, I think this will make a big difference with our student athletes, make a big difference for people attending the game and it’ll make a big difference on TV. We got some people involved, we got graphics drawn up, we got people to install it and people pay for it. There so many moving parts to what you think is a pretty simple project, it needs to get done and needs to get paid for an needs to get executed. You look back and think its relatively simple: we were able to do that project fast and affordable.”

GC: Is there a timetable for when you’d like to feel totally comfortable in your program?

“I don’t think there will ever be a point. Hopefully I’m here for a long, long time and I don’t ever think there will be a point. We try to get more efficient…I love Jerry Seinfeld. Seinfeld’s my favorite show. He was talking with a comedian friend of his who was starting a brand new sitcom and he asked him how its’ going and he said, ‘it’s going great, it’s actually easier than I thought.’ And Jerry’s first response is, ‘this guy is doomed. There’s no way this guy’s going to make it. He thinks it’s easy and he doesn’t understand what all he has to do. He’s not seeing those things.’ I think that’s the point. If you think your job is easy, you’re probably not doing it right.”

GC: How’s recruiting gone so far?

Recruiting was strange, especially when we got here. We were really recruiting four classes at once because we had some really short-term needs and obviously we were trying to lay the groundwork for those more long-term needs for classes down the road. Hopefully at some point that’ll get clearer where we’re working on one class at a time but the last two years we’re recruiting four classes all at once. In some ways it’s good because you can make sure all the pieces fit together but that’s been scatter shot. This year we don’t get that luxury. That’s been a little hard to manage but hopefully that’ll get easier as we go. Having a good first year makes a big change. That’s something we talked about even throughout last season. There’s really good players in our region that are fans of South Carolina. We want them to understand South Carolina is a place where they can compete nationally. Having a good first year validated that. We didn’t have to sell anyone on a dream at that point. It’s very realistic. Now the question is how far can we go?”

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GC: What’s the next step for this team and your program?

“I think it’s consistency. That’s the message we’re having in every meeting. If it’s marketing or ticketing, I don’t want people out the door for one match and then the next match is half empty. We want consistent people that are excited about South Carolina. I would love to start a sellout streak. Let’s put a streak together and let’s see if we can extend it through an entire season. I look forward to where we have an entire season of sellouts and our administration is saying we need a bigger volleyball facility. We’re not there yet, but I would love for that to happen. I love our facility now, but to have that problem would make me very happy.”