BIG TEN VOLLEYBALL MEDIA DAYS

August 1, 2023

Erin Virtue

Hannah Grant

Allison Jacobs

Michigan Wolverines

Press Conference

ERIN VIRTUE: Hi! We're excited to be here. Thanks for having us at this media day.

My first one as a head coach. Obviously these girls are also new to media day but not new to the Big Ten.

We're just really excited to be here. Thanks for all of the work of everyone that's put into this day and for the media outlets that are here to just tell stories about our team.

Obviously a Big Ten that everyone is curious about today is I'm new, and we're kind of a new program under my leadership.

I started with the team just earlier this year, and I've actually -- because of the NCAA rules, I've actually -- they spent more time training on their own than actually training under me.

It's an exciting fall. We have much to learn and much to continue to build as a foundation, both culturally and technique and systems.

But I'm so excited about the group that we started with in the spring and adding in some newcomers.

But pumped to have these guys here. Hopefully you have some questions for them, as well. There you go.

Q. There's obviously been the differences, NIL and the COVID differences, but what to you has stood out in terms of the time in Ann Arbor, 2011, 2014, 2015, and now in terms of the sport of volleyball and the things have been run between 2015 and 2023?

ERIN VIRTUE: Yeah, and I was at Michigan and then I was at Northwestern. Then I took this time where I wasn't actually at a college, I was with the national team. There has been just some changes of like just how the NCAA wants the NCAA sports to run. NIL as you mentioned, some massive different changes in how our recruiting timelines look.

For me, there's some changes in that, and I am like -- I am getting up to speed with how Michigan tackles, for example, NIL and the support around that.

One thing I love about that at Michigan is they really want our athletes to be really educated in those spaces. Even, for example, one of my first weeks, there was a tax education, just understanding how to be -- now you're earning money, be able to have some earning behind your name and your image and your likeness, so I'm encouraging our athletes to just get educated about that.

We want to support our athletes in anything they choose to go out and do outside of the court, and that's a thing that it's an academic institution first, and I'm so proud that Michigan can support those things outside of me trying to be the expert in everything so then I can focus on trying to be awesome for them on the court.

I think some of the recruiting pieces that have changed since I was kind of removed from the NCAA, some of those pieces are always adapting.

I think as a coach and a recruiter, it's a massive thing to try to bring in great talent to your team, so I have to be able to adapt quickly, whether it was new in 2023 to me, but that'll change next year or the year after or the year after or anytime there's a rule change, something in that space is going to be adapting and being new.

One thing that I did there is made sure to hire an amazing staff that are, like, present. They're on it. They're great in maybe these spaces that I wasn't if I was with the Olympic movement.

That is what is one of my first tasks in that space was to make sure I have a great staff.

Q. Hannah and Allison, what's been the biggest learning point you've had so far with Coach coming in and you two being around for a while? What's the biggest difference, biggest change, newest thing, maybe a fun thing that's happening to get you ready for the season?

HANNAH GRANT: I think something that I really appreciated is when I came in they made it apparent that they wanted to get to know each and every individual on our team on a personal level, and that really only prospers. They're teaching us with volleyball, as well, and it really grows our relationship overall.

ALLISON JACOBS: From a volleyball perspective, we've enjoyed implementing her new system. One of the first practices, I think it might have been the first practice, she was here and maybe one of our assistants as well, we worked on out-of-system setting, which is maybe not one of the main skills someone would think about when they think about volleyball, but one of my new favorite things to do is to hit out-of-system balls.

Because we're really great at setting out of system. That's such a specific skill that against hitters in the Big Ten, you're going to be out of system a certain percentage of the time. I'm not sure what the percentage is.

Just the small attention to detail that we're getting under this staff is really cool. It's going to make us a lot better.

Q. What is the impact you've seen from Coach's Olympic experience or how does that inspire you or how is it different than coaches in your past in your volleyball career?

ALLISON JACOBS: I think it's a really special thing that only we can speak to, walking into an office and looking to your left and seeing a gold medal on the wall. That's not something that no one else in the Big Ten or in NCAA volleyball, other than one school now, can say.

And I think that just speaks to how amazing she is not only as a coach but also as a person where she's able to get to that stage and be successful at the highest level.

It also -- for anyone on the outside but also in our program, it comes with an automatic respect where like you know this girl knows what she's talking about, and you can tell when you're in practice that she knows what she's talking about, and it's really fun to learn from her.

HANNAH GRANT: Yeah, I think one of my favorite questions now is, Who is your new coach? And I'm like, Oh, she's just the Olympic coach. It's really funny to say. I love it.

Q. When you go to these kind of events, there's a lot of background talk about the ascendancy of this sport and both volleyball itself is changing and college athletics are changing. It's one thing for people like us to write about administrative change or financial change. We don't live those changes like you all do. I'm curious, if you were made the czar of college sports or the czar of college women's volleyball and you had the chance to change anything, whether that's with the recruiting calendar or the rules or NIL or players' employment or anything, I'm curious, because you've lived this, what are some things you would want to change?

ALLISON JACOBS: I think, first of all, a change that was already made that is an amazing change is the recruiting age change July 15th of junior year. That was huge because we were recruited as freshmen 12, 13, 14 years old, and there's just a lot of life change that comes from even being a junior in high school, like how do you know where you want to do or where you want to be. So that rule change I love, to see recruits coming in and we're working with them and it's nice to know that they're 17, at least have a little bit more life experience on them than what we had.

I had another thought but I lost it.

HANNAH GRANT: That was going to be my exact answer. People getting recruited when you're in eighth grade, you're a freshman in high school. You just don't know what you want to do. You don't know what you're looking for.

I think it's really important that they pushed that back.

ALLISON JACOBS: I also just remembered.

I think it's really important, once you're a student-athlete, that your voice should be heard. I think it's really easy to get wrapped up in the crazy schedule of being a student-athlete, in season, out of season.

You're given a calendar, and you have to follow it, and that's great. It's great to have structure, you need to learn, but you also need to remember that your voice does matter and your opinion matters and your experience matters and your mental health matters, as well.

ERIN VIRTUE: Those are awesome answers, and I echo everything that these women said.

The last few years when we would have this conversation in our national team office quite a bit of just looking at our feeder is the NCAA, so to get to the pinnacle, and, yes, we won a gold medal, but we'd like to continue winning gold medals at that level of the Olympics for our national teams.

So we'd look at what kind of things in the feeder system, the NCAA, but then beyond that, and what is the hardest things to train, where do we fall short sometimes.

I think that would be -- if I had my wand and our staff up in Anaheim with a wand, I think there would be certain elements of the game that we'd try to have more similar when they get to the professional and international game.

I think some easy ones, and not that these are easy, there's also pros and cons, but I would love to see more athletes staying in all the time, so not getting subbed out.

I think for those that may not know, when you go to play pro, when you go to play internationally, the sub rules are so limited. Athletes stay on the court, opposites playing back row, out sides passing, playing back row. So you see less specialized people in that game.

I would love to see that. That doesn't start at the NCAA level. Some of the best are doing that. But I would love to see more of that. That's going to help our game grow.

It's also easier to understand from a fan perspective of like, okay, I'm seeing this girl on the court all of the time. There's less specializations, less special teams. That's one.

Just looking, too, we're seeing fans, seeing teams play in bigger arenas. I love that. That growth is amazing, and we need that. We need athletes to feel that stress before they get to an Olympic stress in that space.

I would love to see us align with some of the equipment that's used, and I think we're seeing more of that in just the type of flooring and type of ball and stuff like that, I think would be awesome as we -- those present some challenges, and I think that learning curve would be less steep if we were to wave that wand.

Q. You were mentioning the growth of the sport of volleyball, and that's been a big theme today. Obviously you're a new head coach in her first year, one of five out of fourteen female coaches for the university -- or across the Big Ten. I'm wondering if that means anything significant to you, especially in the way of having a woman's perspective of kind of as the coach; and for the players, does it make a sort of difference to have specifically a woman as the head coach, kind of a way for you to have a role model sense or a path forward when for a while it was very dominated by male coaches?

ERIN VIRTUE: I can start, and certainly, ladies, jump in.

For me, I would never want to be hired for a job because I'm a female. I hope Michigan didn't hire me because I'm a female and they want a female as their head coach.

I've worked really hard to build up a career, to hopefully do a great job for Michigan, and I'd be really proud to do that.

You're right, we see tons of male counterparts, and I have so much respect for those that coach the game at a high level regardless.

Internationally that's even worse. I think at the Olympic Games of twelve teams, I think total there were three women of every staff on any bench. So it's across the world.

I think the USA is leading in women leaders in this sport, which is exciting, and we have still a pretty skewed amount. Not that that's bad or good, but we're growing.

What I'll tell you is just in the world, I think this is a place where the USA can lead of just having women leaders in volleyball.

It does make me proud to be able to hopefully show our women on our team if they do want to carve a path in coaching that it can be done at whichever level that they want. But I would love to hear you guys' thoughts.

ALLISON JACOBS: I want to take it a step further and acknowledge how amazing it is that we do have a female leader as our head, but also to have Erin as our head coach, who so majestically and seamlessly shows us that you can do everything really well and still be very kind and caring and ambitious and hard-headed when you need to.

She just has this ability to encompass everything it means to be a leader but also a strong woman who can give you an amazing hug when you're crying.

It's just everything I have ever looked for in a role model. And she inspires me wherever I go, that like I can do this, because I know if Erin was in my position, she would do it three times better than me. I just need to do some crumb of what she would do because she's just great.

HANNAH GRANT: She said that all. She killed that one.

Q. Hannah, when the schedule comes out, are you looking now -- you've been around the league long enough. Are you looking to see when are we going to go do the Minnesota-Wisconsin trip or when are we going to see Jess? Are you looking at the schedule to see benefits or disadvantages of your schedule?

HANNAH GRANT: To be honest, no. When I look at the schedule, it's really what's next. What's the upcoming one.

I think if you kind of look at it as a whole, it can be a little overwhelming, and no matter what you have the next game. My priority is the next game. It doesn't matter what the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh game is. I don't think that's something that I really prioritize.

ALLISON JACOBS: I'm going to agree with Hannah there and tell you October 29th is an important date because I think that's our game on Fox. But other than that, probably Michigan State or Ohio State. But we look to the first game that we're playing, that scouting report, what are we going to do, what is Michigan going to look like, because that's what matters most. You can't look ahead.

Q. Erin, when did you find out about the Fox notice, and what was the instant reaction and telling the team? It's a really big deal, it's on an NFL Sunday and they're going to put you on Fox.

ERIN VIRTUE: Yeah, it's great. Obviously the schedule was announced today, the TV schedule. So I think that's when the team found out, because we're traveling, so that announcement came out before I was able to talk with our group. I think these girls might have even learned as they were interviewed about it.

But it is, it's important that we represent Michigan in a positive way.

I think our promotions crew is working their butts off to make sure we have people there, and if Michigan fans are listening to this, come and be in those stands. It's home at Michigan. So we want to show the amazing atmosphere that is Michigan athletics there.

Of course, our team, our goal, like Hannah said, and Al, is to put our best product out. The volleyball side of that is like their whole purpose is to try to compete and to try to do the best they can in a game.

As a head coach working with promotions and things leading up, these women will help get the fans and the students -- we can help on that, but when it comes to that match starts, we're focusing on trying to beat Ohio State. The lights are on, the lights are off, it doesn't matter. We've just got to focus on can we win this point in front of us.

But ahead of that, it's so fun, and they should be honored. That's the very first volleyball match, I think, our SID was telling me that, on Fox for the Big Ten. So we're pumped to honor that.

And they chose such a great one because what a great opponent in Ohio State, a wonderful rivalry between the schools, a program that's really well-respected and a coaching staff that I respect a lot.

I'm pumped to welcome them in. And maybe some Ohio State fans can come, or two, but we're going to fill that up with a lot of maize and blue.

Q. What makes Jess special as a player, and what are you looking forward to about playing her this season?

ALLISON JACOBS: I think one of the most special things about Jess is her ability to be a consistent six-rotation player. I think she brings a great level of serve receive into the game that is special in the Big Ten when you have servers that are coming after you. And they will pick one person, and they will try and tear them down. And she's also -- she can be terminal when she needs to be. She's good overall outside.

HANNAH GRANT: Yeah, she's just, like Allison said, I think she's really solid in all the fundamentals of volleyball player. She's a great volleyball player. I've played with her since I was little. I'm excited to see her across the net. It's going to be a little weird, but it'll be fun.

Q. Coach, there's so many great other coaches at Michigan. Have the conversations happened? Have they been supporting you so far in this transition, from football to lacrosse? I personally have always had great relations with your media department and coaching staff. Have you had that same welcome?

ERIN VIRTUE: Yeah, I'm fortunate, actually, there's a lot of coaches at Michigan that are new, and then there's a lot -- I would say it's about 50/50 from when I was an assistant at Michigan before.

So super easy for me to have connected again with those that I knew, and some like me were assistants when I was there. Wrestling coach is now the head coach. Was an assistant when I was at Michigan. Same with our softball coach, was an assistant and now is the head coach at Michigan, as well.

The three of us were all assistants back in that era when I was there, and we actually went through a program that was developed by our administration called the Rising Talent program to help us grow to be head coaches someday.

And how cool that the three of us were in that program of 18 coaches, 18 assistants across all of the sports at Michigan, and then took that step to now be coaching for the maize and blue.

I think that's super cool, and it also speaks to Michigan that they were developing those staff members to go and be head coaches somewhere else but ended up keeping three of us back here in Ann Arbor.

The support has been great. I sit across the hall from our gymnastics coach, and how great -- men's gymnastics, and he's right now in China supporting, he's coaching for Team USA. He has a lot of athletes that play on national teams.

For him to speak my language when we have an Olympic qualifier this year and a world championships and some other things that I have with Team USA, to speak that language to is awesome.

But I've been really fortunate. We have even just the women -- speaking of just women coaches or women leaders, we have a chat group of the women head coaches at Michigan, and there are a lot. And it's awesome for us to be able to, just the other day as some of us are prepping for this new season, just to be able to talk about some ways that we provide information for our team and just share that. The sharing has been awesome.

I'm really grateful for that because, again, you're not stepping into that alone. No one coaches at a place like Michigan and does it by themselves. You have your staff around you. You have your support around you. But then you have your cohorts like that and other coaches.

One of my first conversations with Jim Harbaugh was there was a pair of transfers. They were a volleyball player and a football player from a school that were dating, and they wanted to transfer to the same school. He came up to me and wanted to know what I thought of the girl. He's like, the guy is okay, but if the girl can help you, I'll bring him in.

I think that was great to know that he would take one for the team and help me bring this girl in, and she wasn't the level we needed. Actually, she had already committed to another school.

But that just told me everything you need to know about Jim, just someone that he's like, just do it for Michigan, and wanted to support volleyball.

When he found out that there's a game, I think somebody told me -- just kidding, it's a big deal -- a game being held in a football stadium, we have the biggest football stadium, so I was like, down the road, Jim, maybe we have a conversation about what that looks like to blow that attendance out of there. But had a good, a nice conversation about some stuff like that.

So really feel supported, and with 29 sports at Michigan, I'm sure there's more I need to meet, but it's really a wonderful place to be.