Flagler Volleyball Adjusts to Coaching Change

By Raisa Montilla | gargoyle@flagler.edu

Flagler volleyball started the season with some big changes. Matt Affolder was named the new women’s volleyball head coach in March of 2014. Affolder has been coaching college volleyball for 14 years and Flagler College is the first Division II school Affolder has coached.

Coaching at a Division II college is not extremely different compared to Division I according to coach Affolder. There are subtle differences, but to coach Affolder, “coaching is coaching” regardless of what division the college is in.

“I’m doing things the way I’ve been accustomed to doing them and how people have thought me and the things I’ve learned,” Affolder said. “So, there’s really not been any differences in what my approach has been and how I want the players to think.”

Welcoming a new coach to the team brings changes along with it. Caitlyn Kovach, a junior player in the team, believes that even though adjustments had to be made from both sides, it is refreshing to have someone new come in from Division I.

“He knows a lot about the game and he’s very passionate about what he does, so we kind of just feed of off that,” Kovach said. Now that the team and the coach have gotten to know each other little bit better, Kovach believes that everyone is on the same page and the team chemistry is great.

“I think we have a lot of room for improvement which I think is something we try to focus on, like a one percent mentality” Kovach said. “We try to get one percent better every game, every practice and there’s a lot of room to get better which is something we’re really excited about.”

Jenea Reddick, a sophomore at Flagler, agrees that they had to adjust to the new coach and his coaching style, and she says it wasn’t easy in the beginning.

“At first it was kind of rough just because of everything that we were taught last year is completely out the window, but I think we’ve adjusted pretty well,” Reddick said. “I think we’re definitely rising and getting better every day.”

The volleyball team didn’t start the season as they would have hoped to. For the first half of the Peach Belt Conference the team had to deal with a major injury that threw the team out of balance for a couple of important games. Starting the second half of the conference, coach Affolder is confident that the team will get better results.

“We’re starting to become what we think we can become,” Affolder said. “I don’t know what they’re expecting from us in the second half of the conference, but I know we are completely different.”