DEBUT of "Serve & Volley" with Host and Nebraska Volleyball AC Jaylen Reyes! - September 23rd, 2025

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome in the Servant Bolly featuring Nebraska assistant coach in recruiting coordinator Jalen Reyes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Servant Bolly gives you a look behind the curtain of Nebraska volleyball and a coach's perspective on the world of college athletics.
[SPEAKER_00]: Servant Bolly is sponsored by Buffalo volleyball Nebraska.
[SPEAKER_00]: become a love volleyball Nebraska member for your chance to engage with love and its players.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now it's time for first serve on serve at Molly with your host, J. Lim Reyes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Alright, walk back in to take a week, nice day viewing another show right after just they use the new show with Peter Cole about this is served and voli with the Brass volleyball assistant coach, Jalen Reyes and again this show sponsored by League 1 volleyball, League 1 volleyball, Omaha just rebranded as love volleyball Nebraska.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can become a love volleyball member and get exclusive access to players coaches.
[SPEAKER_01]: another fan today by going to lovb.com.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can also purchase your season tickets there for your chance to see Olympians, all Americans, and national champions, I'll take the floor for love volleyball Nebraska.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you guys want to join in, 4024645685, Facebook, YouTube, ex, alo, channel 961, all great ways to put a face to the voice.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I said, we got the host of the show assistant head coach, excuse me.
[SPEAKER_01]: The assistant coach, Jalen Ray is to my left, Jalen, how's it going
[SPEAKER_03]: Harrison, thanks for having me doing awesome and yeah, it's great to be here.
[SPEAKER_03]: Can't believe we're here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, when D.P.
[SPEAKER_01]: starts talking, if you want to get to know them, you start realizing the things materialized a little bit quicker than maybe you would even anticipate.
[SPEAKER_01]: But nonetheless, since it is the first show, we're going to dive into the background.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think more, maybe a little bit more fitting.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, of course, we do got Michigan tomorrow 6pm opening up conference play.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll definitely lean into that.
[SPEAKER_01]: towards the later end of the show.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you guys have questions about it, guess what I asked the assistant coach yourself, you can't text in 4024645685.
[SPEAKER_01]: But nonetheless, Jim, we'll just start with your background.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was looking up a little bit, did not realize, originally from Hawaii, native born Hawaiian.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then your father coaching volleyball as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it was one of those things were at the young age.
[SPEAKER_01]: You just remember growing up watching volleyball and being involved with it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I know this is like super cliche.
[SPEAKER_03]: What I'm doing exactly what I wanted to do since I was probably six, seven grade didn't think he would take me all the way to Nebraska.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, but yeah, my dad coach, college volleyball for 40 years, men's and women's, um, from Southern Illinois to Weber State University Hawaii on the men's and women's side to Oregon state, uh, Weber State all all over, honestly, and it's actually the year that I was born 1992, he got, um, one of his, uh,
[SPEAKER_03]: The coach that he actually played for at Cal Poly San Luis Spispo, he got Mike Wilton got the job at the University of Hawaii on the men's side and hired my dad and they were there from when I was born until when I was a junior in high school.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, um,
[SPEAKER_03]: I didn't really play, I was, you know, kind of grew up in Hawaii doing, you know, all the outdoor sports playing, you know, baseball basketball, a little bit of surfing beach volleyball, and it was when I was a seventh grader my club, a club team asked my dad if if I would play just because they needed a couple other players to go to nationals, it was actually Minneapolis.
[SPEAKER_03]: went to Nationals for the first time, first time playing club volleyball and literally after that, I basically gave everything up and wanted to be a college volleyball player that was the goal and started going to work a lot with dad, whether it was in the mornings when they would practice or during their season in the spring, I would go to school and then have volleyball practice
[SPEAKER_03]: kind of just spent more time around the office and you know always thought oh dad gets paid to go to volleyball practice obviously learning now it's a lot more than that, but you know ever since I think he was in before I was in high school I always wanted a dream was to play college volleyball and was to coach college volleyball one day and not had no idea where what that would look like but I'm definitely living out the dream that I wanted since I was probably a six or seven greater.
[SPEAKER_03]: How big is volleyball and why it's huge boys and girls the beach volleyball makes a lot of sense Beach volleyball's huge it's just in the culture there.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's it's very much like Nebraska, but You know for an example in high school
[SPEAKER_03]: state championship game we played against.
[SPEAKER_03]: I went to this school called Kamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehamehame
[SPEAKER_03]: We played in front of five, six thousand people.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's a high school volleyball game.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's a lot of people.
[SPEAKER_03]: So volleyball is big in the state of Hawaii.
[SPEAKER_03]: And, you know, for an example, like on the men's side and the last Olympic games, there's only 12 Olympians that get chosen for the men's or women's team.
[SPEAKER_03]: three of them were from on a lulu.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you think about it three out of 12 for from one small little island.
[SPEAKER_03]: The volleyball has always been big there.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's huge.
[SPEAKER_03]: Obviously on the beach side.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's really, really big.
[SPEAKER_03]: But even in the indoor game, it's it's really popular, especially even at the high school level.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, we'll get into the coaching a little bit later, but how is he found love with it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Was there any part of you that thought about the coaching aspect as well?
[SPEAKER_03]: Or you just want to play it at the college level and be an athlete I had the advantage that my dad my dad my dad did it right.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I just I always
[SPEAKER_03]: love the sport.
[SPEAKER_03]: Once I started playing and I fell in love with it, but the coaching piece of it in terms of that's what I wanted to do growing up was seeing like the effect that my dad had on young college students that at the time when I was, you know,
[SPEAKER_03]: 9, 10, 11, 12 going in a high school, I really looked up to and I thought it was like the coolest thing in the world that those guys really respected my dad and respected the job he did for them.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that was something that I wanted to have with one, my college coaches when I went to become play and then look to kind of give it back and pay it forward, I guess, some day when I hopefully got to coach college.
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then at what point did you realize like, you know what I'm pretty good at this thing?
[SPEAKER_01]: Was it, you know, pretty early on that you figured out a talent for it and then like kind of that senior year high school actually going to the college level was a A moment where it clicked for that's the possibility and was it early or later.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're talking about plays a player.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's a player.
[SPEAKER_03]: I always thought I was a really good player.
[SPEAKER_03]: I I had the luxury of growing up in this like.
[SPEAKER_03]: This time period in Hawaii where for volleyball fans out there, there's a couple of families like the Shoji's.
[SPEAKER_03]: The Shoji's are their dad Dave was like a long time, 45th year coach at the University of Hawaii women's team and he had a couple of boys that were just older than me.
[SPEAKER_03]: And there was a couple other families last names the crabs or the McKibbin's.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, and we all, we're, I'm a little younger than some of their kids, but we all grew up kind of around the same time.
[SPEAKER_03]: So if I'm being honest, I was like one of the average volleyball players in the group.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like we would go down to the beach and I remember we would play, you know, all morning, all day.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'd go home and my dad or my mom would ask me, how'd you do today?
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, and I just go, oh, dad, just super bummed.
[SPEAKER_03]: I can't, I couldn't win.
[SPEAKER_03]: I can't win a game, you know, and
[SPEAKER_03]: I remember my dad used to tell me like, son, you'll one day realize you'll you're playing with some of the best volleyball players honestly in the world that that's just who you play pickup with you don't know it on with the biggest fish.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, oh yeah, I mean it was there's.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, both Shoji's were Olympians, a guy that I went to high school with, he's actually still the center for the men's national team, Michael Christians, and we're high school classmates.
[SPEAKER_03]: Him and I would play together a lot.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's now he's going to be on his in LA.
[SPEAKER_03]: He'd be going for his fourth Olympics.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's four Olympics is 16, 17 years of playing professionally overseas.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then a couple of guys that have been beach Olympians as well, and these last couple of little of the games like Taylor crab and try and born.
[SPEAKER_03]: These are the guys that I honestly just go down to the beach and get bucketed all the time and a couple of us would play played on club teams together.
[SPEAKER_03]: So.
[SPEAKER_03]: They were microcursions in was recruited by everybody.
[SPEAKER_03]: Taylor Crab was recruited by everybody.
[SPEAKER_03]: There was a couple other guys that were recruited by everybody.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was recruited a little bit, but I wasn't as talented, especially at that age as they were.
[SPEAKER_03]: I still, I think now I look back and I go, man, I was actually pretty good.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just, I compared myself to those guys and it was like,
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, those guys were, you know, some of them in high school, everyone would thought they were going to be Olympians, which is pretty crazy to think about.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it was my senior year.
[SPEAKER_03]: I got recruited by a few schools decided, actually, I went to Cal State, Northridge, out of high school, went there, red shirt, and then transferred to BYU.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I feel like for me, I don't know, I tend to be a little humble about it, but at the same time, I thought it was pretty good.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just man, our club team and the guys that I grew up playing with and against, they were really, really talented.
[SPEAKER_03]: And some of them were multi-time all-Americans, Olympians, national champions.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I feel like the fact that I always kept getting the text to come back, keep playing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now I'm like, man, it's something that I actually wear with pride when I tell people
[SPEAKER_03]: I get to play with some of the best players that are still the best players some of them in the on the planet right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was so like by senior year and two, probably it made you click like when you saw those guys is the offers rolling in like okay, these guys are.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I see you why so some of them are older than us, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's like okay, couple of them they go to college right away.
[SPEAKER_03]: They go to Stanford.
[SPEAKER_03]: They go to USC right there, you know, freshman all Americans national freshman of the year.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're just like, oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, he's we know he's pretty good, but now he's going to college in doing that.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then, you know, some of them end up winning national championships.
[SPEAKER_03]: One of them was the national player the year, my buddy that I went to high school with Micah, he was, you know, the center of the year four years in a row.
[SPEAKER_03]: It'd be like, it'd be like a quarterback winning like, you know, the Dave, he's at the Maxwell, the Maxwell's the quarterback one or which the Davey of Ryan award four years in a row as a freshman through senior year like that's kind of unheard of like that's what he did, you know, and I'm just like,
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, it's kind of one of those things where you're like, okay, I knew we were pretty good, but I didn't realize like, man, even nationally, because sometimes in Hawaii, when you're growing Hawaii, it's a little isolating sometimes you don't you don't get to see all the mainland competition like if we grew up in California, I think we would.
[SPEAKER_03]: probably compete a little bit more you'd see you'd see like we're on the food chain you stand versus we come to the mainland a couple of times and we play in some tournaments we would do really well but you know okay you go up there you play for four days sure you win a gold medal
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, where do we really stand, you know?
[SPEAKER_03]: But, you know, when we all went to college and we all had successes, whether some of us were older or younger, I mean, it was a really expect, even now, I look back on it and go, wow, this is, this was a really, really cool time to grow up and play volleyball.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I get to say, like, I used to go and play pickup with this guy who's a two time, three time Olympic.
[SPEAKER_03]: I used to go to, I used to play pickup with this guy who's, you know, you know, led the money list
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, these are the people that I got to play with and call buddies and, you know, hang out with.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I just, I don't know, in the volleyball world, I think I'm very blessed because I just happened to be born the right time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, it's what you do with it, though.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Joe, take it for granted and use the tier of Vantage, which is smart thing to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys still keep and touch pretty well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's going to be a crazy circle.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm really, you guys are right.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it's crazy.
[SPEAKER_03]: Some of them, I used Micah, for an example.
[SPEAKER_03]: Micah Christians, and he's actually down in the Philippines right now playing in the world championships still.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he's down there right now.
[SPEAKER_03]: Him and I are pretty tight.
[SPEAKER_03]: Taylor Crab and I are pretty tight.
[SPEAKER_03]: He was the guy who Taylor Crab was the probably the best outside hitter in the country in our recruiting class,
[SPEAKER_03]: from Hawaii.
[SPEAKER_03]: He went to Long Beach State with National Player of the Year as a six foot outside hitter.
[SPEAKER_03]: And in the men's game, that would be the equivalent of the, uh, in the women's game, a five foot eight outside hitter was the National Player of the Year.
[SPEAKER_01]: What was this news vertical?
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it was 40 inches on the real 40 inches plus, you know, but.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, he was just such a gifted volleyball player.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he ends up being a beach Olympian.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now he's trying to qualify with a guy actually that I actually went to college with too.
[SPEAKER_03]: His name is also Taylor.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's Taylor Sander and Taylor Crab.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I would say I'm probably the two closest with those guys just because we are also the same age.
[SPEAKER_03]: And whenever I get to see a couple of the other guys too, it's just like yesterday.
[SPEAKER_03]: Some of them are in coaching, which is kind of fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: Some of them are still playing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Some of them just retired from playing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now that we're getting up there and age, we're just crazy to think about, but But yeah, a lot of them are, you know, whenever I get to go home, we always run into each other and talk volleyball talk life.
[SPEAKER_03]: Obviously, they follow.
[SPEAKER_03]: They still have a volleyball fan.
[SPEAKER_03]: So they're like, well, Jalen, you happen to be coaching like one of the easiest volleyball programs to follow.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's a it's pretty cool.
[SPEAKER_03]: And some of them actually were actually here for volleyball day in Nebraska a couple of years ago, which was pretty awesome.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, let's go.
[SPEAKER_01]: They just kind of hear about it.
[SPEAKER_03]: And one of the earners.
[SPEAKER_03]: Two of them were actually here for.
[SPEAKER_03]: They were here with USA volleyball.
[SPEAKER_03]: USA volleyball kind of sent a contingent of players and because it was early enough in the calendar, a lot of the players didn't go overseas or to Europe to play for their proteins yet.
[SPEAKER_03]: My buddy, Micah and then Eric showed you who's been the liberal, the last three Olympics.
[SPEAKER_03]: They were both got here and took in volleyball day and it was cool to for them to see like, okay, this was like maybe my job on steroids that
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's a man that they're still crazy.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we're still seeing the ripple effects and we're probably seeing him tell the day I died like what that one day alone did for not just volleyball, but women's sports as a whole because you know, pretty soon after I was they're going to do it with Caitlin Clark.
[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't quite sell out the way Memorial Stadium did, but you saw this growth in women's sports and I and volleyball day to my mind is like a huge part of that because it was something that
[SPEAKER_01]: How are you going to look away like that you back more than the stadium to that capacity, you know, and at the end of the day along these things or about business and numbers 92 plus thousand people's pretty easy thing to sell.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, and it was massive for Nebraska volleyball and just they probably one of the coolest things at the University of Nebraska is pulled off for that being said they'll back to your playing career.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you go over you make a transfer BYU how many years.
[SPEAKER_03]: four years.
[SPEAKER_03]: I get some play all four years, which was crazy.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll be the first one I meant.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was definitely not ready to play my first year.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was a good player, but I definitely made a jump after my first year, but it just, I mean, everything in college sports sometimes is just timing, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: It was just the year before I got there, they had two senior Liberals.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was a Liberal in college.
[SPEAKER_03]: They both just happened to graduate and I just kind of walked in at the right time and
[SPEAKER_03]: By the time I was a sophomore, I was much better.
[SPEAKER_03]: My junior and senior, I think I was pretty good.
[SPEAKER_03]: But my freshman year, it was like, oh boy, you know, I still thank the coaches for just being super patient.
[SPEAKER_03]: Me and my teammates just because, you know, in high school, I was a setter and a hitter.
[SPEAKER_03]: I didn't really play LeBaire.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, you still serve receive.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's one thing to like really be a different position.
[SPEAKER_03]: And my first game has a LeBaire was one of my first college starts.
[SPEAKER_01]: I did not know.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yep, yep.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was a little bit on college.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was a hitter.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was mainly a hitter.
[SPEAKER_03]: I like outsider in high school and club and I got recruited to play liberal.
[SPEAKER_03]: That was typically like somebody like me who's about you know six one six six feet Unless you can jump like 40 inches like my buddy Taylor crab you're typically like not physical enough because you're playing against I mean we had a BYU We had guys that
[SPEAKER_03]: outsides that were six, five, six, six or six four, but could touch 12 feet.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's like 43 inch vertical, you know, and then obviously we had a bunch of guys that were 6, 7, 6, 8, 6, 10 outsides hitters.
[SPEAKER_03]: So let's just say, I was a little vertically challenged both ways, you know, so
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, staying on the ground and passing the ball for all those guys was kind of my my role, but I I got a lot better in college.
[SPEAKER_03]: I I wasn't I was a good player coming out of high school.
[SPEAKER_03]: I wasn't quite at that level, but you know, I just I've worked really hard.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think my teammates like playing with me and you know, I was as fiery as I was as I am as a coach and I think some people see that on the sidelines.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was very much like that as a player.
[SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, my freshman year was was we were really talented.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think we finished like fourth in the country, but I'll admit, I was not.
[SPEAKER_03]: I wasn't ready to play yet for people that are coaches or players out there when you kind of have this like perspective and understand like gosh what was I even doing out there that was me my freshman year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, I'd mention the coaches to just knew like we're putting this this kid in the spot where he's going to have to take some lumps along the way, just because obviously they probably knew that you're not familiar playing that liberal position, but they stuck with it and then it paid off dividends at the end, what was the biggest toughest thing like going from high school to playing college vibe on being on that college volleyball schedule, especially at a big school like BYU.
[SPEAKER_03]: I would say the biggest if you're talking about just specifically volleyball like the speed of the game, you know, everybody is it's so fast for those who haven't watched men's volleyball.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a little different from the women's in terms of the fact that there's not that much rally.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like up here like.
[SPEAKER_03]: past set hit kill.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a ton of servers here as because in the men's game everyone's jump serving jump spike serving.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you kind of have to you have to because it's just really hard to play defense against guys that are jumping out of the back row.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, guys that jump out of the back row and hit the ball.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, you're really just setting them in the front row.
[SPEAKER_03]: They just have to jump, you know, you know, behind the 10 foot line, which in at that level is nothing
[SPEAKER_03]: It's uh, there's so few teams that have it that it's like, you're, if you get to play at this level, you're like the 1% tile of, you know, men's volleyball players in the country just because it's not, it's not as, it's not as vast as women's where every school has it.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's, you know, there's
[SPEAKER_03]: Gosh, like 40-ish D1D2 schools that even have it.
[SPEAKER_03]: So the fact that, you know, you know, per record, it's like like 300 something division one schools that have women's volleyball.
[SPEAKER_03]: So just if you do the math there, it's not, it's not an equitable amount of opportunity.
[SPEAKER_03]: So like if you get them, you're pretty elite just because the fact that not everyone has a chance to play.
[SPEAKER_03]: So
[SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, I would say the speed of the game is probably the biggest.
[SPEAKER_03]: The second thing was, I would say is just going to school, not growing up, LDS or Mormon, going to BYU was just a different experience.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was awesome.
[SPEAKER_03]: Honestly, it was, it was one of those things where if I had to do it all over again knowing what I know, I wouldn't have changed anything because it was so good for me.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was a.
[SPEAKER_03]: something that I was looking forward to in terms of I had a lot of friends that were already on the team there and the Mormon or LDS culture was very big and like Paul Inesian culture and in Hawaii.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I was very like I went to high school with a lot of Mormons.
[SPEAKER_03]: some of my friends growing up for Mormon.
[SPEAKER_03]: That stuff was not.
[SPEAKER_03]: That didn't shy away.
[SPEAKER_03]: I didn't shy away from that stuff.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I went there.
[SPEAKER_03]: I also wanted just something different.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, growing up in Hawaii, we always kind of joke.
[SPEAKER_03]: We have three seasons.
[SPEAKER_03]: I always try to get asked people, what do you think the three seasons aren't Hawaii?
[SPEAKER_03]: And everyone says, well, you don't have winter, so it's gotta be spring, summer, and fall.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I tell them, no, the three seasons are last summer or this summer, next summer.
[SPEAKER_03]: Those are the three seasons, you know?
[SPEAKER_03]: So,
[SPEAKER_03]: I wanted to just experience something different and really you actually got tired of like the endless beautiful days Yeah, I know it's crazy now.
[SPEAKER_03]: You think about it, especially as we're moving through fall and going ahead and into winter here in a little bit, but I just you just grow up on a island a little small island You typically if you don't leave during your college years you never leave
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, so I just wanted to experience something different.
[SPEAKER_03]: And just through my dad and all his travels, like he always kind of talked to me about what it would be like living in the mainland and stuff like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: And just because of my my dad's role at the time, I got, you know,
[SPEAKER_03]: people that I met growing up were the head coach of Penn State, the head coach of UCLA, the head coach of UC Irvine, the head coach of Stanford, you know, those were, you know, people that I knew growing up.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I was really familiar with a lot of people just because of my dad's access to volleyball and to volleyball coaches.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that was one big thing that I really wanted was different.
[SPEAKER_03]: But that's what I was searching for in my college experience was just something different than Hawaii.
[SPEAKER_03]: I know it sounds crazy, but Hawaii will always be home,
[SPEAKER_03]: you know, I went to BYU and I got a great education and I got to play on some really, really talented volleyball programs and BYU too, just like Nebraska.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, nothing's the like Nebraska, but we were us and Hawaii are the two schools on the men's side that get sell out crowds and that people sprint into the arenas to watch.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you know, especially when we had it rolling when I was in college,
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, you know, we had people that would be camping out, students would be camping out to come to our games in the wintertime, which is crazy.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was going to say that's incredible.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't realize BYU's like we play for meant volleyball.
[SPEAKER_03]: We play, we play in the Smithfield house, and it's about, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_03]: Fire marshals would probably disagree with this, but we say I can see five thousand, but we would be packing people to just random spaces so much so people would be sitting in stands parts of the parts of the parts of the field house and the event staff would be pulling back current so they could just fit more people and people could see.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was just a really awesome time to be in college volleyball and I think as you talk to, I always hear like, you know, NBA players talk about, hey, the generation of the 90s versus now, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm so biased like I think when we were in college.
[SPEAKER_03]: Our generation was so talented just because of the guys that I grew up with and the guys that were in my recruiting class from all around the country and guys that were a little older than us and a little younger than us so I mean it was like everybody was so good and it didn't matter where the were playing like the big brand name schools like UCLA Stanford Penn State or if we were playing how I use here on UC San Diego.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, BYU men's volleyball was a tough ticket and, you know, growing up in Hawaii where volleyball was super important and now going to BYU or volleyball was super important.
[SPEAKER_03]: Obviously, now I'm at the place where my opinion volleyball is the most important.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was just really awesome to be where, hey, the sport that I play or coach matters to a lot of people outside of this team.
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: And with that being said, we are up to our first break here.
[SPEAKER_01]: On the other side, we'll dive into a little bit more of when coaching becomes part of the picture.
[SPEAKER_01]: So don't go anywhere again.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the debut of sort of in volleyball assistant coach Julian Reyes here of Nebraska volleyball or suit be Jayland.
[SPEAKER_01]: Reyes of Nebraska volleyball.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't go anywhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll talk to you guys in a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome into Sirman Bolly with your host Nebraska assistant coach
[SPEAKER_01]: Alright, we'll get back in segment number two, serve and volley with the Rasko volleyball assistant coach, Jalen Rae is, guys going to always join in, started him in text line or via the streams, Facebook, YouTube, X, Al, channel 961.
[SPEAKER_01]: Gonna get into a little bit more of the coaching part four years at the university.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well,
[SPEAKER_01]: three years, or did you have a super year, an extra year at BYU?
[SPEAKER_01]: BYU.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I played there for four, and then I coached there for three.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I spent seven straight years there, but I went straight from playing into coaching.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, straight from playing to coaching, I have a point with the coaching thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: We come in a reality for you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I knew I always wanted to do it, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: We were talking about that earlier.
[SPEAKER_03]: And, um,
[SPEAKER_03]: It's funny.
[SPEAKER_03]: So people that don't know, men's volleyball is in the spring.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's opposite of women's volleyball.
[SPEAKER_03]: So the men's season is during the spring is January to May.
[SPEAKER_03]: May is the final form.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we, uh, we finish up and graduated and all the beginning of the summer.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm all in on trying to play trying to find a contract to play overseas.
[SPEAKER_03]: And, uh,
[SPEAKER_03]: Out of nowhere, there's a coaching staff like shuffle at BYU on the men's side and there's an assisted job that popped up and Out of nowhere, I just like was kind of asked to apply for and what I'd be interested in it and you know,
[SPEAKER_03]: We were going to be really good, you know, like I knew after after my senior year, I had a bunch of, when am I senior year, there was only two of us that, three of us that graduated, there was a bunch of younger players, I got a lot of playing time, and then we actually had this this, uh,
[SPEAKER_03]: This phenomenal athlete, his name was Ben Patch, Ben was coming back off his mission and he was going to join the team later that fall.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I just knew we were going to be really good.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I always had this thing where, you know, you see a lot of guys that go and play.
[SPEAKER_03]: And if they don't quite make the national team, then they try to get into coaching, they kind of have to, and there's nothing wrong with like working your way up through the ranks, like coach club, volunteer, at a certain college due to GA route,
[SPEAKER_03]: But I just kind of thought like, you know, man, if we if if we get to go there and we do really well, we go to a couple of fun of fours
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I might be able to kind of parlay this into a, I mean, never did I think it would be Nebraska, but I just thought maybe I can kind of springboard my coaching career.
[SPEAKER_03]: And at the time, I was only 21, 22 years old.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was kind of a, I was a late-born kids.
[SPEAKER_03]: I graduated college at 21, 22 years old.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I just thought like, man, if I were to, you know, do a good job, and we were to do a good job, maybe this could lead to something a little quicker than, you know, hey,
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, people that are around my age now are starting to finally get those like biggest distant jobs.
[SPEAKER_03]: And on the women's side, I just got lucky and kind of, you know, kind of, was in literally in the right place at the right time.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, um, that summer kind of material materialized and I decided not to play anymore and just go into coaching and
[SPEAKER_03]: Coach there for three years got to coach a lot of my I mean pretty much the whole team I've just played with so I got to coach a lot of my former teammates and what was that kind of relationship will little tough up for the beginning it was just not being one of the guys anymore you know that was that was the the most difficult part the volleyball piece like once we're in the gym I don't think so because I think my teammates slash players now respected me as a as a volleyball person but it's more of like the
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, hey, after practice before practice, hey, what happens when people aren't doing the things they need to be doing showing up late to stuff now I kind of have to be the, you know, the bad guy or the enforcer and stuff like that and that was a little that took some transitioning for sure.
[SPEAKER_03]: So.
[SPEAKER_03]: Never had, never.
[SPEAKER_03]: And no idea what 402, the area code was.
[SPEAKER_03]: So got a text from the 402 number.
[SPEAKER_03]: And basically, hey, Tyler Hill rant's going to be leaving, he's going to go with USA volleyball and looking to get a list of potential assistance.
[SPEAKER_03]: And at the end of that text, it just said, J.C., I know I was like, is this John Cook Googling?
[SPEAKER_03]: What's 402?
[SPEAKER_03]: This John Cook, you know, an anonymous G.C.
[SPEAKER_03]: on there, I mean, I was going to scroll back and read that that exact text, but it was, uh,
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's the first time we ever made contact with that through a text message.
[SPEAKER_03]: That was the first time I ever met.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, obviously texting, he reached out to me and I reached back out to him.
[SPEAKER_03]: And we hopped on the phone, you know, probably a day or two later.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it was, that's kind of how the coaching career started was just, I, I always wanted to be a college coach.
[SPEAKER_03]: I always had dreams of, you know, coaching in college, coaching in Olympics, not necessarily ever playing in the Olympics.
[SPEAKER_03]: So my thought was just like, how can I,
[SPEAKER_03]: Jumpstart a career and maybe get out ahead of people my age that we're still trying to play and And so like that and do I admit did I miss do I wish I played overseas a little But again, it just like me going to be why you if I could do it all over again knowing what I know I wouldn't change a thing
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely, but were you recruiting as well over their way or no?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I actually, so the coaching staff changed.
[SPEAKER_03]: The thing that really helped me was the fact that I just knew a lot of club coaches and players.
[SPEAKER_03]: And on the men's side, it's really small.
[SPEAKER_03]: But the new coach of BYU, he was the women's coach.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he had no recruiting, he never coach men's volleyball.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he had no recruiting contacts on that side.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then the other coach, his name was actually Luka Slabe.
[SPEAKER_03]: Luka is actually now going to be the head coach of the supernavos, which is pretty funny.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, Lucas coming over, he was a BYU grad too, but he's coming over from Europe, so it kind of worked out great for me in terms of like, I knew what clubs to recruit from and I knew a lot of players.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I honestly think I think that was part of the reason why I got the job and the first thing when I got hired was Sean Olmstead at the Sean Olmstead, my former boss at BYU.
[SPEAKER_03]: He basically kind of handed that to me like you're going to be doing the recruiting because you just know more people on that side Then he came over the women's side and Luke was coming over from Europe, so I was kind of the point of contact and I had no idea what what I was doing I mean I was 21, 22 years old the best conversations when I would talk to parents and then we go jailing how old are you?
[SPEAKER_03]: And if I'm recruiting a junior senior I'm like, well, like three or four years older than your son, you know, like give them like a vote of confidence.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think it was just one of those things are looking at me and I'm they're like, how old are you?
[SPEAKER_03]: Like I'm 22 years old, but I promise I can help your son become a better volleyball player.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, that was just kind of one of those things where You know, I just super fortunate.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, we happen to, it was calculated, but at the same time, it takes a lot to get teams to to compete and win at the rate we did.
[SPEAKER_03]: And, you know, we were lucky enough to make it to a couple of final fours.
[SPEAKER_03]: And, you know, and I, uh,
[SPEAKER_03]: I think I helped us recruit a couple of kids that maybe necessarily wouldn't have come to BYU, BYU, you have this LDS cloud or Mormon cloud that kind of floats over.
[SPEAKER_03]: BYU and that could be a good or sometimes a hindrance to recruiting, especially of recruiting people that are not of the Mormon faith.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, but we got a couple of players that, you know, I think maybe turn some people's heads at like what they're going to be why you, but you know, they went there for school and volleyball and that's kind of the reason why I did.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think that was I kind of gave them a different perspective.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think just because I wasn't, you know, of the Mormon faith and I still went there.
[SPEAKER_03]: I still chose to still be there and you know, really succeeded there and had a really, really positive experience.
[SPEAKER_03]: So going through that, I think it really, I think that kind of helped recruiting as well too.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think I'm also pretty personable, so I think that really helped even though I was young and, you know, kind of came here and started doing the same thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: It makes sense too.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think D.P.
[SPEAKER_01]: give you a, you know, radio show we didn't think you were a very personal person out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think there's definitely some truth that, go back to Nebraska then.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's curious.
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, I know you've recruited for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why I want to make sure doing that be way you as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Realization that it is J.C.
[SPEAKER_01]: of Lincoln Nebraska is John Cook reaching out and then he said he called it a couple days later, you know, what was kind of that process like and then when you realize you're you're going to be at Nebraska, did you have a good idea on what this place kind of was already.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it was like, I remember actually the text.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was on President's Day.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I know it was in February, and he was actually in town in Salt Lake City recruiting.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he was an hour north of where we were in Provo.
[SPEAKER_03]: Again, we're in season.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we are practicing that day.
[SPEAKER_03]: He was actually going to come to practice.
[SPEAKER_03]: He knew Sean and Luca, my two co-workers.
[SPEAKER_03]: at BYU at the time, but there was, I remember like yesterday, there was this like massive snowstorm.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, honestly, for people in Utah, a massive snowstorm is like feet of snow.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, it was one of those where, ah, there was enough snow where coach didn't want to drive down the highway.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, to other people, massive snowstorms up us Utah, people at the time, you can't even go snowboarding with this amount of snow that just came down.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, he didn't end up coming to practice and then he ended up reaching out later.
[SPEAKER_03]: at this text and go through a process, I mean, gosh, it was,
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm trying to think.
[SPEAKER_03]: I probably hopped on a couple of at the time, I don't even know if Zoom was the thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: So Skype interviews.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_03]: Back in 2018, a couple of Skype interviews, a couple of talks with Lauren.
[SPEAKER_03]: She was part of the search committee.
[SPEAKER_03]: Our director of operations, Lindsay Peterson was part of it.
[SPEAKER_03]: My the current assistant, Kayla Bannworth at the time, who ended up being a co-worker of mine.
[SPEAKER_03]: She was part of that.
[SPEAKER_03]: I remember doing an interview with talent plus.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean talking to their sports psych coming out here to visit and doing an in-person interview, kind of hanging out with their grad assistants at the time.
[SPEAKER_03]: The thing that I think about the grad assistants were we were literally all about the same age because I was so young and played against each other in college show.
[SPEAKER_03]: Got to meet a couple of players Kelly Hunter was actually the first player I met at the time when she was still she just finished her senior year, but she was still playing on the beach on the beach team, okay, is that it was in the spring and beach season was going on so it was I mean gosh, it was probably like a three four week thing and you know that I you know was so lucky to you know able to receive this opportunity and then.
[SPEAKER_03]: I still, Harrison about being honest, I still don't think I can wrap my mind around what like Nebraska volleyball really is like the reach it has the the you know the amount of followers we have the effect that we have on not just not just Nebraska athletics but like the sport of volleyball and even not I mean as you as you pointed out about volleyball day like.
[SPEAKER_03]: even women's sports like I mean it's it's cool to see This volleyball program do things that were once I think thought of like there's no way of a woman's sport could do and Now it's like I mean there's high school teams all over the country playing in their football stadiums and yeah, you know There's other sports that are thinking about doing that obviously mentioned Iowa basketball I thought like Oklahoma softball was gonna try to do something like that in their football stadium.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think they could
[SPEAKER_03]: They really could they really could obviously I know their softball stadium is pretty ballad or so they're kind of like well, which is saying that thing right now But you know, there's so many there's so much.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, you know, all summer long I see the WMBA's on TV.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean just off the top of my head like that's way more WMBA games And I could even think of obviously I know it helps.
[SPEAKER_03]: They Caitlin Clark is in the WMBA, but
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, there's just so much attention on women's sports.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm not going to sit here and say, hey, we're a hundred percent to blame for that.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I like to think there's a small piece of that that, you know, where this program is responsible for.
[SPEAKER_03]: So to answer your question, like, when did I realize like what I was getting myself into and how big it was?
[SPEAKER_03]: I still don't even think I have, you know, I'm just, you know, like amazed and shocked every day that I get to come to work.
[SPEAKER_03]: And this many people really care about our volleyball program.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, that's fair enough.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm always kind of blown away by this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, like, again, I keep using example of Husker vibe all day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do I know it was a big deal?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they placed up the next, they get packed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they expected to get to 92,000 plus like maybe they expected to be packed on everywhere around the stadium out of Lincoln to get through like everyone's just going to be out and about like it's the biggest college football game day.
[SPEAKER_01]: They came here like so it always blows my expectations away.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this would be a great text to kind of wrap up here again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Husker Robo really as he says Michigan fan in Toronto here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I always enjoy listening to the show leading up to the game on the Huskers are on the schedule which Michigan had local sports radio show as entertaining as y'all I said simple once called Jim harbott national treasure takes one to bill on he says good luck the rest of the season of course he puts in there beats party as a
[SPEAKER_01]: Michigan fan would want and that shout out Ryan all the way up there from Toronto with that being said we are up to the clock here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't go anywhere We got one more segment with assistant coach Jalen Reyes of Nebraska volleyball Welcome in a certain box with your host Nebraska assistant coach in recruiting coordinator chain and race
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, welcome back in third and final segment of the debut of serve and volley with the brass skin volleyball system coach Jalen Reyes this show every Tuesday from 7 to 8 PM and you guys will be able to join in the tech slider any of the streams don't get a ton of time here left and I did promise that I knew we weren't going to get through your entire back story within the first hour but we do got Michigan tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_01]: and I feel wrong if we didn't talk about it a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I mean, for you, what's the biggest jump going from?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not like you didn't have a tough non-conflap.
[SPEAKER_01]: But now you're in the big 10.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, what does that really mean for this Nebraska vibe up program that you're a full big 10 conference player now?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, be seeing these guys rest the season and it starts tomorrow with Michigan who we're talking off air, pretty decent squat, 10 and one.
[SPEAKER_03]: Great squad.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, Aaron virtue a friend of mine that I really respect.
[SPEAKER_03]: She's a gold medal winning assistant coach at the last Olympics or two Olympics.
[SPEAKER_03]: I guess technically she was on the staff when they won the silver medal also in Paris, but Aaron's in a really good job, you know, they've they've done a really nice job with the start of their season going 10 and one and some of the numbers they're putting up offensively is pretty eye opening in terms of.
[SPEAKER_03]: Man, they got a lot of real threats, Allison Jacobs is like a four or five year outside hitter now.
[SPEAKER_03]: She's been there a while.
[SPEAKER_03]: She's a really dynamic player.
[SPEAKER_03]: They have an outside hitter named Ella Demitrition.
[SPEAKER_03]: She's kind of from the green bay Wisconsin area that we actually, we were creating when she was a little younger.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they have two setters, Morgan Burke.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's actually from Omaha's Cut Catholic.
[SPEAKER_03]: One of their setters is from Omaha and local girl coming back home,
[SPEAKER_03]: They're doing a, they're running an offense, they're running a 62 offense to dynamic opposites, and then they do a really nice job of setting the middle.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we're going to, one, we're going to have to serve really well because if we don't serve really well and they're on the net with those two setters and those two middle blockers they have, they're going to be a handful.
[SPEAKER_03]: So.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, for us it's it's we need to we need to make sure we're ready defensively to handle these guys because they're coming in rolling to they're not they're not just ten and one they're they're ten and one playing really really a high level brand of volleyball numbers are through the roof and you know they're coming in on a thing it's like a three four five game winning streak so they're feeling really good heading into conference play as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, it's been a pretty solid run.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was just going back there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, at least one, two, three, four game winning streak as they got another day and back to back.
[SPEAKER_01]: The beat Virginia and then Central Michigan.
[SPEAKER_01]: But tomorrow six p.m.
[SPEAKER_01]: we're hosting.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you are in Nebraska, this just feels like you get a little bit extra out of everybody with the target beyond your back again.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're the number one team.
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, the big win for teams to beat you to move up or the rest of the country would view, say Michigan, if they're able to take down a number one team.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no, I think, I mean, I think we're, I'd like to think we're a game that people, people circle on their schedule, you know, it's going to be a national television on the big tenet where can, you know, again, I'm not in their huddle and I'm sure there's a little bit of.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, this is one out of this is one out of the 20 games calendar year or the 20 game conference calendar, but I'd like to think there's a little more, hey, you get to play at the Devanny Center against Nebraska to open up the big 10 seasons can be the first big 10 game because we're going to be starting before everybody else so.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, what a way to kick off conference and plan to school like Michigan, a really elite university and obviously a really, um, you know, a great athletic department, um, and the volleyball teams on on its way up.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we're excited and, uh, you know, we're, we're going to have to, we're going to have to play well to, to, to, to get the result we want and, you know, at the end of the day, it's two to two great teams that are going to kind of go out at tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely, should be a lot of fun again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, got a one loss Michigan team heading on the road in going to Lincoln Nebraska.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nebraska hosting obviously still undefeated on the season 6 PM is to start.
[SPEAKER_01]: And of course, we will have the post game show as well right here on then three seven to take it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you guys want to catch that, many months will be joining us for that post game show soon is that last set gets over.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll start that one off.
[SPEAKER_01]: But nonetheless,
[SPEAKER_01]: This is going to wrap up, serve and volley with assistant coach, Jalen Reyes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, this is going to be a weekly show every Tuesday from 7 to 8 p.m.
[SPEAKER_01]: Appreciate you guys listening.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't go anywhere for my Oscar tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, Pearson, I'll up next.