BIG TEN VOLLEYBALL MEDIA DAYS

August 2, 2023

Caitlin Schweihofer

Alissa Kinkela

Taylor Humphrey

Rutgers Scarlet Knights

Press Conference

CAITLIN SCHWEIHOFER: Good morning, everyone. Year two, first one again. We're very proud to be here and very excited to be here. I brought with me Alissa Kinkela and Taylor Humphrey, two of our underclassman athletes on the team.

I want to say first and foremost a thank you to the Big Ten for hosting this event. It's my second year attending, and every year it gets bigger and better, and it's really a wonderful opportunity for us to talk about the Rutgers program but also to celebrate Big Ten volleyball in general, which clearly there's a lot of interest in, the best of the best. It's just really exciting to be here.

Q. Coach, last year you had eight newcomers that you were incorporating. What does that look like this year as you continue to try and take a step forward in the Big Ten?

CAITLIN SCHWEIHOFER: Five more. Actually six newcomers this year, five true freshmen, a transfer.

We are a team that has spent a lot of time in the off-season developing the core that is returning from last season, building upon that experience and what we are setting as our non-negotiables, our team standards, and making sure when anyone comes into this program, they're aware of them.

And that allows for the transition whenever we add new faces, which we'll do every year. Every year in the program we will add new people. It's really important to make sure that those core values are established and set and that the team is really aligned with what the vision is for not only this year but the program moving forward over the next several years.

Q. What was one thing that was an unexpected change or something that you went through here going into your second off-season that you didn't necessarily expect, whether it be with Rutgers or doing Big Ten volleyball, either media or inside the team?

CAITLIN SCHWEIHOFER: Didn't expect? I think it's really important to recognize, I had an idea of what was necessary from a training standpoint and also from a mental side of the game, so to speak, right, of how to develop that, how to train that in the off-season.

But I think really being able to pivot to those ideas for a team that was maybe in their first spring or maybe only in their second spring or even a true first spring, having the ability to train from start to finish, it did change kind of the way that I was approaching practices and how we were looking at personal development, not only on court but also just in the mental space.

We spent a lot of time this spring talking. I think we spent a lot of time making sure -- probably more talking than I expected, but a lot of time talking and just making sure that relationships were really established.

I'm a very relationship-driven coach, and for me I recognized last season that if the relationship between coach and player is not strong, then it's hard to give honest feedback.

I look at them not as volleyball robots but as people, and I need their feedback, as well, to me. So I think that was an unexpected piece of the spring was really the conversations that occurred in order to create really dynamic relationships leading into the fall.

Q. Taylor, you participated in the U.S. Open Tryout program, too. What was that experience like for you, and what did it mean for you to represent Rutgers at that program?

TAYLOR HUMPHREY: Yeah, it was an honor to be selected by Coach to represent our team. I just had a great experience. It was amazing being able to travel out to the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs and just compete every day with some of the best of the best.

It wasn't uncommon if we were doing a passing drill to have an All-American next to me, and that was just really eye-opening and a really exciting opportunity to be able to see the level in the gym and try to bring that back to the Rutgers gym and just elevate our team aggression and how we played. So it was a really amazing experience.

CAITLIN SCHWEIHOFER: This season was the first time we've ever sent anyone from the Rutgers program to the tryout. And historically we've been a very internationally based team. Obviously Alissa is from Australia.

Say hello.

ALISSA KINKELA: Hello.

CAITLIN SCHWEIHOFER: So we didn't always have the ability to send people just because they weren't able to participate, because they were not domestic players.

But as our team has shifted into more of a domestic-based team with support from our international student-athletes, we now have and we will year after year have athletes who have the opportunity to attend the tryout. So it's exciting.

Q. You were talking about those conversations and really wanting to get to know them and being that sounding board. Tell me about what you have been working with with OWN IT and collecting that kind of data and how important that is to kind of evaluating things around your program.

CAITLIN SCHWEIHOFER: Yeah, I'll let Alissa speak to this one after I kind of give a brief overview, but a few years ago we started wearing collectible bands, as you see other programs wearing, or rings or things like that that can collect data.

You receive all this information, but what do you do with it, how do you process it, what good is it for the athlete other than saying I worked really hard today or I didn't get enough sleep. We all do those things, but how do we create habits out of that.

And my assistant, Robbie Belden, we call him the "Whoop Master," he really owns this. We were approached by OWN IT to be a pilot program for their programming, and I think it's just a lot of, again, conversation and teaching our student-athletes how to protect themselves from burnout, protect themselves from injury, that sort of thing.

Alissa, I don't know if you have anything to add to that experience.

ALISSA KINKELA: Yeah, for sure. It's just technology like that just helps us benefit our bodies and help us create our bodies -- prepare our bodies for games, and after long travel days or long games that have been tough, it's important to review that data and what our stress has been like in order to better prepare ourselves for the next day.

Just technology like that has really benefitted us from the first year to now, and it will just continue to help us.

Q. You mentioned a little bit of an awe factor of playing next to All-Americans. Do you watch other Big Ten matches, and if so, how do you separate getting into the moment and not maybe finding yourself in awe of some of the players on the other side and instead kind of playing your own match?

ALISSA KINKELA: Yeah, for sure. Well, before coming to college, I used to watch Big Ten on my Instagram not knowing that I would end up here, where I am today. I think there's also a line between analyzing the teams and watching Big Ten teams and not comparing yourself to them.

I watched them. I analyzed them. I wanted to pick up certain things that might benefit my game, help my game. But I'm not going to start to compare myself because then that'll just lead to a downward spiral, and that's just not a good thing.

I analyze, but I don't compare, because I want to improve myself and my game.

TAYLOR HUMPHREY: For me, I grew up in Michigan, so Big Ten country. I've grown up watching Big Ten volleyball. It's always been a dream of mine to be able to compete in this conference.

But that being said, when we scout, when we watch film, we're watching their plays, we're reading their offense, reading their defense, and when it comes to game time, it's us versus them. There's not really any celebrity factor when it comes to who you're playing across the net.

CAITLIN SCHWEIHOFER: I think this is something that has actually changed. They weren't part of this program a few years ago, and I do remember before we played some of those bigger matches, we used to -- my players would refer to people by their number, and there were certain matches where we were referring to people by their first names or last names.

And I remember saying, Are we watching this as competitors, or are we watching this as fans? That's something that I even talked to Alissa about on the sidelines sometimes. Like her first year when she was injured and watching from the sideline, I was like, Watch this as a competitor. It's not just because this is a nice game. We can always go back and re-watch games as a fan.

Q. Caitlin, volleyball is able to add a third assistant coach. Are you able to add one? What were the discussions like, and what could the impact of that be on the sport?

CAITLIN SCHWEIHOFER: He just started yesterday. He was finishing up. Ryan Mather will be our third assistant. He played at Grand Canyon, and he was finishing up playing with a professional men's team this past weekend. He wanted to complete that season. And then, yes, he's starting with the program as of August 1st.

I think he's a dynamic athlete. I think he brings a lot to the table. Obviously have two of our pin attackers here. That was his position. I was middle blocker. I can train all positions, all my staff can train all positions, but having a person that's truly dedicated to us scoring more points, that's what I was looking for in a third assistant.

Because as you look at our history from last year, defensively we increased in a lot of categories. Offensively is where we need to go in order to be able to really get over that hump for where we want to be as a program. So I'm excited to add him to the staff.

Q. What's the overall impact of being able to add a third full-time assistant?

CAITLIN SCHWEIHOFER: It's huge. I have a lot on my plate as a head coach. I know that my assistants also do. Recruiting coordinator, we're out almost every weekend recruiting. We're trying to form relationships with not only players on the team but players that potentially will be on the team.

And having just another person that's within the program that's able to really focus on training, really focus on video analysis, really focus on scouting the future opponent, it takes a lot off of my plate.

So I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity to have another person on the staff. Another person to feed on the road, but...

Q. For Coach and the players, what does Abby Detering bring to the coaching staff?

CAITLIN SCHWEIHOFER: Yeah, Abby obviously has the experience of playing in the Big Ten. She played in a Final Four. She played for a historically successful program.

I think last year we used her as our model. We were a very young team. We were growing in leadership. I think a lot of the questions were how do I be a leader, what am I supposed to do, how do we hold each other accountable? And her having been there and done that in a way that was successful I think was a wonderful model for this team.

She's an excellent recruiter. She has great relationships with a lot of the top clubs in the country, and she's really allowed me to grow in my confidence as a head coach by saying, You're capable. You can do this.

It's hard to be a head coach at this level. There's days where you feel really, really good about what you're doing, and there's days where you question a lot of things. And having someone who played at that high level who wanted to be part of my staff is really inspiring, and I'm very grateful for her to be a part of it.

Obviously you guys are coached by her. She's tough. She can be tough.

TAYLOR HUMPHREY: She brings a lot of energy all the time, which is great, and it's needed definitely on days when it's a little lighter in the gym.

But from a leadership standpoint I had the privilege of having many conversations with her just about how we want to go about bringing this program to another level, and she has amazing experience at Penn State, and it was fun to pick her brain and try to find, all right, what's Rutgers' system, how do we want to move forward as a program.

ALISSA KINKELA: Absolutely, just to add on to that, obviously we have two amazing coaches, Caitlin and Robbie, but Abby has also recently just graduated, so she's still very active in our team. She's very competitive, so she does join in in our games. So she adds that Penn State mentality and intensity to our game, which also helps boost our game and better understand volleyball as a team.

Q. You were talking about kind of building a different kind of culture and building up sort of -- previously you might have been looking across the net and knowing who they are, and now it's kind of getting the competitive nature. With that being said, what are the expectations for this season to keep growing the program and the culture of the team? And players, for you, you talked about integrating new players and new faces. What is it like as a player to uphold them to that culture?

CAITLIN SCHWEIHOFER: When I took this position, I had a very clear vision for the process that it was going to take in order to build this program into something that's sustainably successful.

I fortunately had the opportunity to do that with another institution, so I was comfortable in that process.

We're headed into our fourth season, and I think we're right in line with where my expectations were. Major humps that I want to get over is we need to be above .500. That's something that is really, really important for this program.

Obviously that's difficult to do in such a challenging conference. So looking at the non-conference slate, making sure that we're not only prepared to play against Big Ten opponents, but also going into the Big Ten season with a significant win-loss record is important.

I think that making sure that, again, we grow in our leadership potential, we grow in just -- on all the things that we've already experienced. But we talk about this a lot as a team.

And I think in the past we were seen as a victim, oh, Rutgers volleyball is just something that is an easy win for a lot of programs. I think that this first couple years it's hard to get over that. It's hard to get over that.

I think I truly believe that we are at the point now where, yeah, we might be the underdog, but we're no longer the victim. We are 100 percent going in with this gritty, underdog mentality this year, and that's something I see in our gym every single day.

Sure, you can talk about competitiveness, but it is within them. All the players on this team bought into my vision, bought into the desire to be the first to put the banners on the wall, to be the first to really make a name for themselves, and no one is really going to think about Rutgers volleyball was 10 years ago once they start seeing these girls out on the court.

ALISSA KINKELA: I think it's one thing to see on court how far we've come, but behind the scenes, especially since I first started, it has improved dramatically behind the scenes.

I think I view my team as a house that we're building. You need to build a strong foundation or a structure in order to build a solid building or a house. I feel like, as Caitlin said, we have paved over a lot of bumps, a lot of issues that has enabled us to achieve the goals that we are now seeking to achieve.

There has been a lot of improvement behind the scenes which will eventually translate into our game.

TAYLOR HUMPHREY: Yeah, and when newcomers come in or freshmen or transfers, I think we're very quick to introduce them to the culture that we want, and we're very steadfast in knowing like what that culture is.

When we have a foundation of friendship behind the scenes, it makes on-court tough conversations -- asking a teammate to give more effort, holding each other accountable, things like that -- it makes those a lot easier when you know off the court that you can have fun and it can be a good time, but on the court it's business and we're here to win games.

CAITLIN SCHWEIHOFER: These girls hold me accountable, too. I think we have a really great -- I try to treat these players -- like I said, they're not robots. They're human beings. Everyone on this team has a voice, whether they've just been there for one month or they've been there for four years.

It is a working relationship that allows them to grow as people, but it also allows our coaching staff and myself to grow as people.

I think that trust and that belief in one another is really going to bring great things on the court.

Q. Caitlin, you said the spring was kind of an experimental time, figuring out what was going to work at setter, what was going to work on offense. Now you've had time to reflect on that, is that going to carry over to the fall? Do you have a better idea of what you want to do offensively with your roster going into the season?

CAITLIN SCHWEIHOFER: That's a loaded question. I think we have a lot of people who can play in a lot of positions. I do. I think we have a lot of options.

In the past, historically, we might not have had as many options. There was a pretty clear person or persons that were going to play in specific positions. I think the competition in the gym is higher than ever before.

I think that we have the ability to sub people in and out more than we ever had before.

I'm excited about all the potential. Obviously as a coach you have ideas of what offense you're most comfortable running. I've never run a 6-2 as a coach. I've only ever run a 5-1. But we have three setters on the roster this year, and we have multiple really solid pins. We might be in a 6-2. I don't know. But that's what preseason is for.

Unfortunately we're not allowed to be in there in the summertime as head coaches, so a lot of them is just saying, We look good. Until I'm in there getting to analyze what the team looks like, I think this team, they are good volleyball players. They know how to do all the skills. It's what chemistry works best on this team is what is going to in turn make the lineup that's out there on a regular basis.

Q. There's a lot of attention on June 15th as a recruiting date. What are your thoughts on that as a starting date for recruiting after a prospect, sophomore year in general?

CAITLIN SCHWEIHOFER: I was in Naples this year on June 15th, so that was nice.

It's a busy day. I think it's a lot of -- June 15th is the start date, but there's a lot of work that leads into June 15th. Behind the scenes you're making a ton of phone calls to recruiting coordinators, other people, just kind of figuring out where potential interest lies on an athlete or what could be a good fit for your program.

You want to make sure that your list is not expansive. There's only a certain number of athletes in each recruiting class that can play at this level, and that's just the reality of the situation.

They're wanted by every top program within the country and every mid-major program. Everyone is going after these athletes. I don't even imagine -- I talked to a defensive specialist this year on June 15th who had 92 phone calls on the first day.

I do think we need to keep thinking about this process. Is it best for the student-athlete? Is it best for the coaching staff? How do we make sure that we are authentically creating relationships that allow for best decisions to be made and best practices, and the opportunity to have multiple official visits, I think that's huge.

There's a lot of pressure on recruits in order to get everything done and camps and club and high school and all this stuff. Alissa went through a different process, but Taylor went through it, and it's tough.

The more that we can allow for visits in line with conversations, I think that's important.