BIG TEN VOLLEYBALL MEDIA DAYS

August 1, 2023

Steve Aird

Camryn Haworth

Grae Gosnell

Indiana Hoosiers

Press Conference

STEVE AIRD: Good afternoon. Once again, thank you to the Big Ten Conference for putting on an unbelievable event.

We've had a pretty cool day so far, the last few hours.

I'd be remiss to not start with thanking Indiana, Scott Dolson, Mattie White, Jeremy Gray, for their continued support of our program.

We are so proud to be here on behalf of the volleyball program at IU. I feel like we're on our way in so many different respects. Had a great summer. Kids are healthy, very excited to get back in the gym.

Wanted to take a second and thank Jay Wilkinson for another generous donation to IU. Jay and his wife have been so great to the volleyball program and now the football program. Again, just wanted to use this platform to say thank you to him and all he's done for us.

We're coming off a year we were very proud of. I think we've made some gains and certainly gotten to a point where we feel very good about the trajectory of the program. Very proud of my staff, Rachel, Brett, Hal, Kev for all their hard work to get us to this point. Recruiting has gone very, very well.

Preseason schedule looks challenging and daunting certainly. Excited to play. Go out to California, play UCLA and Washington and Long Beach is a big trip, finishing up in South Beach against Miami and some other very good programs is a lot, but I think we're at the point now as a program, we want to play good teams and see if we can make some moves.

Again, grateful. I have a lot of gratitude to be here. Very, very excited about the year. Incredibly proud of the team and the young women for all their hard work, and excited to get going.

With that, we'll take questions.

Q. Does it feel like to you this season is a big step forward where you've been kind of on that cusp of getting into the top half and having such a huge jump in wins from year to year and feeling like this is another season to try and make a statement in the conference?

STEVE AIRD: Yeah, I can be quick with that. I think we have too much respect for the league to think that it naturally just keeps going and you go from X number of wins and double them and triple them.

I think it's about improving. It's about us getting better and doing the work.

Very proud of where we've come from. When I took the job, they had won one match in conference, and I feel like we've come a long way.

As we were saying at dinner and in the car, none of us have really celebrated being eighth at anything in our life. It's really not the Super Bowl. It's about trying to keep getting better and keep improving and having a ton of respect for the conference. What do you think, Grae?

GRAE GOSNELL: Yeah, I agree. I believe, like Coach said, there's never a moment in the conference where we're doubting anybody's abilities. It's always another opportunity, but it's always out of respect. It's a challenge every day. Not just the games, it's the practices, it's the league. Like this conference is just daunting, regardless of what the jersey says.

I think that we always -- we want to take the momentum from last year but just because we won something last year doesn't mean it's going to be the exact same this year, and I believe that the big wins that we did have last year, that had a lot of influence. I think those teams are going to take us -- they're going to be a little bit more prepared. They're going to take us a lot more seriously, and I think we should be prepared for that.

I think that this whole new season is going to be just a great opportunity to see how we can continue with the momentum from last year but never take anything for granted.

Q. For the players, you mentioned Coach already the non-conference schedule. It's not an easy schedule by any means, but one of the challenging parts it seems is the travel. How are the two of you going to adjust for the preparation of the games themselves coast-to-coast but the travel and still being a student-athlete?

CAMRYN HAWORTH: It's definitely going to be a challenge, but I think we've had a lot of opportunities to overcome that. We went on our Europe trip last year, and we were playing matches the very next day, so it's adjusting to that time frame.

It's going to Rutgers, adjusting to the travel there.

Our schedule allows us to adapt to it, so being in the preseason will help us with the conference schedule, as well.

GRAE GOSNELL: I don't think I would ever be successful as a student-athlete with the travel and all of it without the help of the program. I mean, Indiana University. I couldn't be more grateful for the resources and the people in the program.

There is never a moment where we as a program don't have access to people who are willing to give their time, energy and support into us, and I mean, it couldn't be a better setup to face these challenges coast-to-coast, time changes, time travel.

It feels like time travel at this point. It's like we're East Coast one day, West Coast the next, and then right back into the Midwest. It's a battle, but I could not ask for a better program to support us through each and every part of it.

STEVE AIRD: Part of it, too, growing up with the program, we'll charter a flight to Miami, and we've made some big strides in terms of how we're trying to support the student-athletes.

Again, it goes back to my opening statement about being grateful. Scott Dolson and company, they value it. They understand that the sport is a very important sport in the conference. They know the teams that we have to compete against and the resources from where we play to how we travel to where we stay to how they get their fuel.

Very few programs in the country have it as good, and I feel like that's a huge part when it comes to recruiting and developing talent, that we're at least at the situation now where we're doing things amongst the best in the country, and hopefully the results will start to come with that.

Q. Camryn, obviously to be named to the Big Ten preseason honors after a solid season last year, getting honors then, does that change -- you think of maybe perception of the team at Indiana or your preparation at all, or how are you looking to continue to improve even while hitting those kinds of milestones?

CAMRYN HAWORTH: I really owe it all to my team. They've really helped me going in with me in the gym, tossing me balls, all of that.

They're the ones who have really helped me with this. They're the ones who put the ball down. They're the ones who give me the ball. I can't do my job if they can't do theirs, so I really owe it all to them.

Q. Camryn, what advice do you have for younger setters on what it takes to succeed, especially in a conference like the Big Ten?

CAMRYN HAWORTH: As we've kind of started camp season, I've had the opportunity to talk to a lot of young setters, and it's normally about confidence. They lack a lot of confidence, and that's definitely something I lacked.

So as I've gotten older, that's something that has definitely grown, and I think that's definitely helped me with my play.

Q. What do you feel like is the next step for Camryn after such a huge year for her and first-team honors last year?

STEVE AIRD: Yeah, Came won't say it out loud, but when she finished up her club career, she didn't set and she didn't serve. She become one of the premier servers in the country, and I think she's a very skilled setter.

She'll also tell you that she's got a long way to go. There's a lot of stuff that she's still figuring out, and she's on the early chapters of a pretty good book.

I think the sky's the limit. I think she's going to be a phenomenal collegiate player. I think she'll be a phenomenal pro.

I think her habits are good, and what's most important, what warms my heart the most is how she nailed it. You can't do anything in this sport without good help.

We've got phenomenal kids who handle the ball. We've got some big-time arms. We've got kids who come early and stay late and they care, and becoming a good setter has a lot to do with the people getting you the ball and the people taking care of the third touch.

She's grateful, great teammate, becoming a good leader, and yeah, I expect her to keep the trajectory going to where she'll end up helping us get to where we need to get to.

Q. Coach, you had mentioned how last year you had a good season, wanted to build on that, and nobody dreams of finishing eighth in the conference. What then would you say are the expectations for the program this year and kind of the building steps to keep moving forward?

STEVE AIRD: Yeah, I've been asked that plenty. I think the hard part is that any of the teams that are in front of us are phenomenal. There's teams that are preseason ranked 10th that have been in Final Fours.

Indiana as a program had a phenomenal year in 2010. They made a Sweet 16. It's been a while since we've been a team I think that the conference looks at or identifies and says, this is a problem, like this is a group that we're going to have to play great to beat.

I think that's what we're focusing on. I think we're becoming older and more mature. We've got to become less high error from the end line and certainly offensively, and if we can keep doing those things, we become tougher and tougher to play against.

Really the girls will tell you, that's all we talk about.

We'll be good enough or we won't, but we're going to work really hard, and I think if you were to poll my colleagues, they'd say that Indiana is a team that competes and they play hard every single night, and that's the first step, I think, to getting where we want to go. It's foolish to be like, hey, I'd like to be fifth or seventh or -- bottom line is we'll be good enough or we won't be, but it's not going to be from lack of passion and lack of care and lack of work.

Q. How did your experience at Penn State positively influence you, and what are your thoughts on the job Katie Schumacher-Cawley has done so far?

STEVE AIRD: Well, I'll start with the second part of that question. Katie and I are very close. I adore her. I think she's a phenomenal coach.

I think we were both raised from the same cloth, so to speak. I think we had a mentor who modeled some of the things I hope or aspire to be. He worked incredibly hard. He cared a ton for his players. He was consistent. He had a lot of passion and a lot of fire.

So obviously that's a big part of it.

I was lucky enough to be part of three Final Fours on the men's side, so a lot of the stuff as a player -- my career I was the best player on the team; I was cut; I was a starting attacker; I was a libero.

All of the emotions that they go through, I've kind of felt, so I hope with my staff, with Kevin, with Rachel, we've all played at a pretty high level, so we understand what it feels like to be in their shoes.

I think that's what Penn State did for me. I wouldn't be here without that institution. I have a lot of love for it.

It's always a hard -- it's the hardest match for me during the year when I go back because I consider it home in a lot of ways, but the best way to respect the place where you grew up is to go there and compete and win, and that's certainly my goal and will be my goal as long as I'm coaching.

Q. For the players, you either get better or you get worse it seems a lot of times, and your program has continually taken strides to get better. I would feel a lot of that is contributed to the culture that Coach has created. Can the two of you as players speak to the culture that he's created to allow the improvements year after year?

CAMRYN HAWORTH: Coach has kind of set out a layout for us, so you come in and you stay late. Early, late, everything, you're there.

I think our team has finally adapted to that. Everybody is in early, everybody stays late. We work hard for each other.

Growth isn't linear, so you might think that someone has gotten worse, but maybe they've plateaued. Maybe they took a little bit of dip. But they're probably working on something to help get back up on that up.

I think a lot of the times that might be what you see, but we might be working on something behind the curtain.

GRAE GOSNELL: I think there's been a lot of emphasis on building a culture and making something into -- something of a program that it wasn't before, but I don't think it was something that was forced. I think it was something that was expected. It was something that was required.

Not required in the sense that you have to do it or you're kicked out. It was something that when Coach is recruiting, obviously he's doing his best and his job.

There's no doubt in my mind that the people that are coming in are just of that nature. That nature isn't, hey, you need to do this. It's already there. It's in the DNA. It's the fight. It's the born-this-way kind of edge in a player that has been cultivating what we want our program to be.

It's not something that hey, let's be grateful, let's be whatever. It's natural. Our players and our program are just kind. They're kind to the core. It's the kind of people that you want to be around, especially off the court, if not off the court more than on the court.

It's the culture of we want to stay in. It's intrinsic to be in early, to be staying late. It's not the kind of, oh, I'm staying late just because I have to. It's because I want to and we have something to do. We have plans for this season, and this is the requirement for us to get there and be where we want to be to continue moving this program forward.

STEVE AIRD: I was told pretty early you're a good coach if you've got good players. I texted them this summer. They were in. They were in at camps. They were working their workout. They were doing what they needed to do, and I just told them, I'm so proud of what you guys are building.

That was the first time since I've been at IU that I had that sentence. It was about what they are doing. It's the locker room. It's the players.

We're guiding the ship now; it's not about, hey, this is how it works.

What I'm so proud of about IU is we've been able, and I hope they'd agree, to try to eliminate any distraction and give them everything they need to be successful and then they just go to work. That's what makes it fun to be around is you've got a group of kids who they care deeply, they love the school. They care about each other, and they want to win for each other.

I think that's going back to my Penn State days and my Coach Rose days. It's always about the locker room, and the locker room has finally figured it out. I think that's what's going to make this season fun.

Q. Coach, talk about leading the Big Ten last year in aces per set. How much of that is a focus for you and finding those ways to get points, and the kind of work that went into leading the conference in that category and the importance of it?

STEVE AIRD: Yeah, we've recruited players based on that skill. I think as you guys see, we're in the air a lot. We're at times very, very high risk-reward from the end line, but my philosophy is that I want to set the tone. I want it to be kind of the characteristic or the trait of our program is to be very aggressive from the end line.

I think also we're not as good as some of the teams that we're playing, so we have to be a little bit more high error, high risk from the end line. There's times where when we get it rolling, we are frightening.

What's happening now, though, is that those players that are pretty high error are becoming more skilled, more mature, more inside their game, and I would expect or hope that we will be one of the best serving teams in the Big Ten if not the country. It's something we talk about, we train about. It's going to be a focus.

Errors happen. It's part of the game. But aces are also things that happen, too.

If we toss it and bang it and see what happens, I'm okay with that half the time.

Q. What is it like for the two of you when you have that kind of focus from your coach?

CAMRYN HAWORTH: I think it's really nice to have -- like he has a lot of confidence in the three or four of us who do that top-spin serve. So it's just nice to know that our teammates and our coaches have our back when we're trying to do something a little more aggressive and might make a mistake.

GRAE GOSNELL: I think it goes back to the culture that we were building. You think of the moments where we have a top spinner at the back and we just need to rip one. No longer are the days of oh, I hope she makes it in. It's, I hope she doesn't hurt someone. Like we are just so supportive of each other.

We've gotten to the point with our program where we only support each other. Your success is my success. Like your hard work is our hard work, and it just feeds.

I think the reciprocated energy of just that unconditional support of somebody getting back there to the end line and just letting it rip, there's nothing better than the feeling of -- whether you're serving or it's your teammate serving and getting the ace or whatever it is, it's just unmatched.

I think that support is not only just for my teammates, from the coaches and the whole program, as well, is just you wouldn't want to be in that spot with any other kind of support.

Q. Camryn, you're one of the few people that are back this year from last year. What's been the experience like this year, and what's it mean to have another event just about volleyball, just about promoting the sport?

CAMRYN HAWORTH: It's very, very cool, especially growing up, like I had an older sister who played volleyball, and her experiences were very, very different. So this is something that I get to share with a lot of different people. So it's just really something unique that I'm glad that I had the opportunity to be a part of.

Q. Steven, we talked earlier this spring, health was kind of a concern. You were hobbled a little bit. How are you feeling now as you're about to start fall practice and getting everyone back to hopefully full health?

STEVE AIRD: Yeah, it's on my mind a lot. I think we've got some talent. I think we've got more depth than I've ever had as a head coach. So I'm excited about that.

I think I'm looking at the preseason differently, how we're going to train and how we're going to go about that. I've spent a lot of time with my staff trying to map out what we want to do, huge focus on recovery.

Now that the team is a little bit older, I think some of the systems, some of the things that I want to do, I think we've got a good feel for. Now it's about trying to be as healthy as possible for the opener.

I think we're almost there. I think a lot of the girls stayed the whole summer. A lot of them are working really hard in the weight room. I wouldn't say we're all the way there yet, but we're getting much closer to what I think you need to be really relevant in the conference, and they've taken care of themselves. I think the group is in pretty good health, and we're excited to get going on Tuesday morning.