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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN VOLLEYBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEAugust 26, 2013Kelly SheffieldCOACH SHEFFIELD: We've been going two, two and a half weeks right now, two‑a‑days. We're starting to‑‑ obviously this is game week. We're leaving in about 47 hours for California. So starting to slow things down a little bit. We've had a scrimmage this past weekend on Saturday, liked some things we saw. Identified quite a few things we've got to get a lot better at. And that's kind of what we're trying to do. We've been hit by the injury bug probably a little bit more than what we'd like or what most other teams are having to deal with right now. But we're trying to get things figured out and hopefully get a little bit better every day. So that's kind of where things are right now. Q. Coach Andersen was asked about this. He said he's gone through openers here, but this is the first time with this program. Is there any difference, any feeling for you in getting a season started right now, being your first year and getting going with this program? COACH SHEFFIELD: You're always excited for the start. I don't know if it's a new program, it's a new year. So every year you're optimistic, you're fired up, you think about the possibilities, and then you've been through a preseason with your players, with the team, and you're ready to go beat up somebody else. So there's no question this is a special place. And with special people. I think that enthusiasm is always really, really high. If it's not high, I think you're probably looking at getting out of it. So I think it's no different that the place is obviously different. And there was a lot more people involved. But the enthusiasm, it's always sky high. Q. If you have things to straighten out is it perhaps easier to straighten them out the first couple of weekends on the road? COACH SHEFFIELD: Things are a lot different with‑‑ yeah, we're hurt. We've got‑‑ half of our lineup is out right now. And that's significant numbers. And then some of our top backups are out as well, at the same position. So there's some places that we're not very deep right now. The animal that we have is very different than the animal that the football team has. You go out and lose one or two games, and the goals are a little bit different, where probably our situation's a little bit similar to what Bo Ryan was having to deal with, he has a significant injury at the beginning. The end is what matters in our sport. You know, this buildup. So, yeah, if you're going to take it on the chin with injuries, you would rather do it early than late. The thing we keep talking about, obviously, here it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. But we also want to get a little bit better every day and that's where our focus is, get one percent better every day and build and build and build and then you put yourself into position to do some magical things, which in our sport it's at the end of the season. Q. How much does the injury to Mikaelsen hurt your team; and as far as the other injuries, are they significant, very serious? COACH SHEFFIELD: Yeah, Jules, that's a big one for me. We thought‑‑ she probably is one of our top two options. She's 23 and very, very experienced, oldest player on our team and somebody we're going to lean on an awful lot. That's a tough blow. On the flip side, it's a tough blow right now; but then you get the enthusiasm of realizing, hey, the career is not over we still have one more year. She decided to redshirt. So you feel sorry for her for a little bit. Our team, we'll adjust. Injury is part of the game. You just deal with it and move on. And the other injuries, nothing else is easing along, we're day to day, week‑to‑week, with some of these guys. It's really changed how we want to practice. It is what it is. We've had to give more days off than what we were hoping. We've got people that bounce around from position to position. Seemed like a few days there we were losing somebody a day. But the thing that I'm probably really, really happy with these guys and something we've been stressing throughout the entire spring is how do we handle adversity. I think championship teams, championship elite athletes and I think elite people across the board, when adversity hits they handle things appropriately. And it's been a message from day one and these guys really had it in front of them with some of the things they've had to deal. But on the flip side, everybody is having to‑‑ it's not easier for the younger kids or some of these people that picture themselves in there to get them ready. So I think in one way it's kept people more focused, because they know, hey, I could either be next in or this role is going to get a lot better for me. And so you run away from that challenge or do you embrace it and accept it. And I think we've done a really good job of embracing it. Q. With the injuries potentially how young could you be for your first match? COACH SHEFFIELD: I don't know if it's young because some of the injured people are some young kids. So in some cases maybe we're getting older. But what it is is that you're creating this mentality or trying to get them to go, hey, let's simplify the game. Serving and passing to start out with. We've got to be really good at that. We feel we got a lot better serving. And I think our passing with Annemarie Hickey and Taylor Morey, it's as good as anybody in the country. They're both healthy. The offenses start getting more complicated as the season goes on. We think it's going to be pretty basic to start out with. Most teams are and they add as they go. So we feel like the things, the sort of passing game we're not‑‑ there's no difference there. Courtney Thomas, we'd like to move her on the outside we think she's going to be a really good outside hitter but with Lauren Carlini not practicing right now, and Courtney Thomas, a two‑year starting setter for us, is setting. That's not a bad backup. That's probably as good a backup as there is in the country. And things are tough as far as the training perspective. Things could be a whole lot worse than where we're at. Q. Every sport has a series of nonconference games to get ready for conference play; but especially for you, how do you use these nonconference matches and that point leading up to Big Ten play, what has to change and what has to get better between now and then in your mind? COACH SHEFFIELD: Good question, I'll probably have a better answer on Sunday. But it's challenging. We've got 12 out‑of‑conference matches and six of them are against teams that are nationally ranked with even votes. So it's a schedule that we wanted to schedule tough. And I think number one we've got to get healthy. That's just it. So we can train the way we want to train. I think we're getting a little bit better on the pins. I think we're getting good swings there. Middle blockers, it's taking some time to feel bad. Dominique Thompson didn't play last year, out for a season. Number one middle. Our Tori Blake is trying to come back from concussion. And so she's a freshman. And we're going to need her out there. But she's missing some training time. I think our defensive packages and how we're defending gets stronger as we go because as we get more bodies we can probably open up some things a little bit more. So I would think as we go through the preseason some of how we're scheming we'll have more freedom there. Right now it's really, all right, let's get good at this before we start adding on. Q. Your freshman class is pretty good. They're ranked up there pretty high. One, how good are they? And, two, what kind of role do you think they can take on from September through November? COACH SHEFFIELD: I think some days are going to be a really special class. I think with all freshmen, you're in trouble if you're going in and putting a ton of pressure on freshmen or if you're saying we have to have them to be good. Or to be great. They're going to help us out, there's no question about it. But I think we've got a lot of players that just have a lot of, that are just going to get better throughout the career. Tori Blake, I just mentioned, I think she's an unbelievable athlete. But she's still pretty raw. And her work ethic, she'll keep getting better and better. But her best days are way out in front of her. Lauren Carlini, you know, I mean, you can just see we've only had a few days in the gym with her but you can see her approach how she channels everything and learns and runs the court. You can see that's an absolute special talent. And Taylor Fricano, not sure how we're going to use her this year. But nobody coming out of the scrimmage that was better than what Taylor was. And so I think we've got another great one in that. So I think they're going to‑‑ I think it would be as we progress through their careers, I think they're going to be really elite kids. Q. Can you share the injury to Lauren Carlini; and, secondly, will she be able to play this weekend? COACH SHEFFIELD: It's a leg injury. All of these were during the course of running some drills. And so I don't know. If you asked her, I think she would say that she is playing this weekend. And sometimes us as coaches, you know, in training status, we have to protect them from themselves. And she's a bulldog mentality kid. And we're not going to risk anything serious and down the road just for a couple of matches in week one or week two. So even though we're leaving in less than 48 hours, it's still too early to know whether or some of these others are going to be available this weekend. We don't know. Q. You were asked about opening the challenges of opening a season on the road and what that means. Fair to say with your first trip to Malibu, California and next to Fargo, North Dakota, the challenge of dealing with distractions with players might be a bit different from one weekend to the next? COACH SHEFFIELD: In our sport, a gym is a gym. And people visiting us, it's probably a little bit different. But we go to these tournaments and you're playing three matches and in about 30 hours is just, there are no distractions. And there's none. You're not going there hanging out on the beach doing all those things. We'll get out there and have a dinner, since we're getting out there two days early, we'll have dinner with Caroline Workman's family, she's from there. And after that meal we're either in the hotel or practicing or in a match or watching film. That will be the same thing when we get to North Dakota. It's two different places if you're going to go vacation; but as far as playing inside of a gym, there's not much difference. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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