From The Desk Of This Month's Guest Writer...
 

Hi Everyone! I'm excited to have the honor of being the first guest author to Paw Prints. For those that don't know me, my name is Steph Albano and I am the Head Women's Volleyball Coach and Senior Woman Administrator here at Daemen College. I am a native of Buffalo and I was fortunate to spend four years as a volleyball student-athlete at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After I finished my undergraduate degree, I moved back to Buffalo; most call me crazy, but there is no place like home! I pursued a career in marketing before returning back to my passion of athletics. When Bridget Niland offered me the volleyball coaching job, I couldn't say no. Just like UNC, this athletic department is full of passionate people who care about our student-athletes and are fully dedicated to their success.  This leads me to the topic I'd like to discuss: success or more importantly sustaining success.

After having a widely successful 2016 season on the volleyball court, winning the East Coast Conference regular season championship and making a NCAA Sweet 16 appearance, it could be very easy to bask in our success. In sports it is so important to stay in the moment. The question that we are asking ourselves now that we've  found success, is how do we sustain it? For our team that means setting goals for the spring, training our physicality, technique and our mindset.

Sustaining success requires mental toughness. Toughness is a broad word that can carry  many different meanings depending on the person or circumstance. For our team it is simple, toughness means being committed. Committed to not just showing up every day and saying "hey, I'm here", but being present and focused on being better than the day before.

Toughness means persistence. When the ball doesn't bounce your way how do you respond? We like to have a proactive, problem solving approach to the challenges that we encounter.

Toughness means communication. This should be an easy one, right? We start communicating from the day we are born, through crying and body language and eventually through our words. However, communication seems to be the crux of most problems.  How do we effectively communicate in order to work together to achieve our personal and team goals?

Finally, toughness means loving the process. We can't just want the result and not want what goes into the process.  As we move forward with the volleyball team and with Daemen Athletics we are focused on sustaining success through being committed, persistent, effectively communicating and enjoying the process through the good, bad and ugly!

These principles apply, not only to what we're building with our volleyball program, but across the 15 additional intercollegiate sports as well.  I am proud to be able to work with such talented coaches and administrators on a daily basis.  These true professionals are committed to the ideals I've mentioned in order to provide the best experience possible for our growing number of student-athletes.

Thanks for taking the time to read these quick thoughts.  If anyone would like to discuss these ideas and how they apply to Daemen Athletics, please do not hesitate to reach out to me by phone (716-566-7893) or by email (salbano@daemen.edu).  I hope to see you at a volleyball match next fall!


Stephanie Albano
Head Women's Volleyball Coach
Senior Woman Administrator