Episode 58: Tales from the Badger Region Volleyball Association featuring Jen Armson-Dyer

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[Music][Music] coming to you from the Olympic City Colorado Springs Colorado this is  the USA volleyball show and here are your hosts Clarence Hughes and Stephen Munson hey what's up everybody Welcome to the USA football show my voice just cracked but that's  okay this is episode number 58 and yes this is regional commissioner month Stephen what's up how  are you doing Regional commissioner month indeed I'm doing great uh I was gonna ask you did you  watch the Super Bowl I did I did I kind of bounced around a couple of uh restaurants yesterday it was  a really good game it was a really good game I I I I don't like games ending on a field goal but hey  I mean you know yeah you know yeah a little bit of a yeah time clock management there at the end  trying to trying to be smart definitely the smart move for sure but uh kind of kind of lame to to  end us again a game on that bag of that magnitude uh in that way but one of the best Super Bowls  I've seen in recent history like just as far as like scoring and and yeah just the the star power  that was on display was pretty cool with the this the two young quarterbacks there oh yeah  100 and just even like you know first possession of the game uh you know Kansas City defense comes  out you know just hit it and then you know Eagles still scored and they just went back to back and  they just you can really just see it just became a chess match but it was one of those just really  really really exciting test match is that people you know like to see you know very historic Super  Bowl for sure yeah for sure who were you going for well as you know I'm a Dallas native big  Cowboys fan Eagles are division Rivals nice mug you got there oh yeah uh and uh so yeah  I was pulling for the Chiefs I know I know a lot of Broncos fans here in Colorado are pulling for  the Eagles for the same reason division Rivals but uh yeah it was a fun game though it was fun  yeah I'm a Chargers fan and you know AFC West there you go I'm tired of the Chiefs winning  but I guess I guess I was pulling for the Eagles but I didn't really I was in different I didn't I  didn't care either way it was it was a good game I saw anybody could really ask for right unless  you're actually playing or unless you got money on the game but you know neither here nor there  yeah neither here nor there really quick did you oh you you said you were bouncing around  different restaurants what's right what's your like go-to Super Bowl snack appetizer that you  that you want to have on the on the spread do do Wings count as snacks like yeah I love a  good traditional uh flat you know just either lemon pepper barbecue buffalo I like making  wings too so it's Gotta Be The Flats too are you that's what I'm getting I'm a flat guy yeah me too  yeah every time I order them I I do all Flats I pay the extra dollar whatever it is one big thing of ranch Wingstop Ranch is the best is that gonna be a new sponsor soon I'm just  kidding yeah I'm a big uh I'm a big dips guy like I need I need some uh like we had some seven layer  dip out on the spread last night um Okay so didn't know you could do that yes yes order only Flats who stole the hot sauces from the white elephant from our mind holiday party we could we could have  happened you could have a hot one seven layer dip Wings all the wings oh my goodness all right start  mark it down on the calendar for next year for sure got it a USA volleyball Show podcast Super  Bowl party there we go well that's awesome yeah definitely uh now that we're all nice and hungry  here on this early uh recording for this episode uh let's let's move on to to the actual the the  meat no pun intended of this of this episode we're talking about we talked we brought it up  at the beginning this is regional Commissioners month we have three episodes dropping this is  episode number two of that series uh in case you missed it we had on Siva that's Columbia Empire  Volleyball Association region commissioner Cody march on our last episode uh you can go check  that out right now Cody talked about uh his region the growth of the game uh specifically  specifically to his region and what they're doing at the Grassroots level um to grow the  game there Cody also talks about his background as well as growing the official's pool in Siva  region for more info on siba contacting Cody or becoming a usab member visit usabollyball.org now everyone's favorite segment of the podcast news with Hughes that's not what  I heard I don't know it's not what the reviews are saying yeah I know I got a couple negative  ones I'm just kidding totally kidding all right the 2023 U.S Beach Club Championship  will be held July 9th through the 11th in Hermosa Beach California side note Hermosa  Beach is also one of my favorite places to go in California Long Beach LA County area really  great so really happy that's going to be there too but um this is the second year of the joint  venture between USA volleyball and Association of volleyball professionals AKA AVP the format mimics  Collegiate style of competition registration is now open so sign your team up if you are  interested uh big congrats congratulations to Kelsey Robinson cook Catherine Plummer  and Stephanie samity on winning the Italian cup after sweeping the U.S teammates Jordan Larson  Jordan Thompson and Dana Redkey in the final that's a that's an amazing amazing lineup I'm  not thinking that that's what I wanted to say oh some stacked teams man I'm really sad I had  to miss that I bet that was a fun match yeah man insane wow but um also coming up uh are  you interested in the men's college volleyball World men's college volleyball scene if so check  out our website for weekly roundups to stay up to date on results rankings e-matchups and much  more more information on these and all other news items can be found at USA volleyball.org now on to Today's Show and pretty fitting uh I would say because today uh if you're listening to  this when this comes out it is Wisconsin day and we are talking to the badger region commissioner  Regional commissioner jyn armson Dyer uh back in December we sat down with a few of our USA  volleyball Regional Commissioners at the 2022 ABCA convention we chat with them about their  region successes uh as well as some struggles that they've seen in their region we talked to  them about growing the game and so much more um so continuing our dive our our series here into the  regional Commissioners uh month I was about to say episodes months uh they're technically episodes  yeah that's right here again here is Badger region commissioner jyn armson Dyer here's Jen all right well um Jen thanks again for taking the time and you know waking up a little early  walking in the cold Nebraska snow to you know meet with us today here um yeah let's just kick  things off and you know this is a question we really like to ask you know all of our guests  here and it's really really cool to hear you know the regional commissioner answer to this too just  how did you get immersed and introduced to the game of volleyball and from there how does that  tie into you know your journey to being a region commissioner you know of the badger region yeah I  mean I have been a my mom was a high school coach in Wisconsin for 40 years and so I grew up in a  gym I grew up you know surrounded by volleyball um I played Club out of Madison Wisconsin um  went to college on a scholarship at Northwestern um from there I have a journalism degree from  Northwestern now and so I went into Communications and so like I was saying before I'm much more  comfortable behind the camera and the bike than in front of it so I was the sports information  director at Penn State for 10 years with men's and women's volleyball during that huge run of  you know 2007 to 2010 I left at nine when the men's and the women's and so that was really cool  um my husband my now husband I met he was the men's assistant coach at Penn State  um when they won the national title in 2008. and so cool yeah volleyball's just been a part of my  life and then when he transitioned from the men's game to the women's game at Marquette University  um moved back to Wisconsin um and just kind of happened in Nevada region I was hired and  actually it was funny when I was hired they were like are you gonna be bored and I am so far from  bored and so I started off in membership and then you know some moves happened and I am now the  executive director and commissioner so yeah I've been with Badger reason since 2009. okay yeah cool  wow what an incredible career already and a lot of turns there but still staying in volleyball what's  been your favorite part so far along that Journey sounds like you got a long way to go a lot a lot  more stuff to kind of dive into dig into well it's been like you know your favorite part so far it's  funny I kind of refer to my life in like two parts the the you know the first part of my life was the  communications part of it and I loved it I was single or newly married didn't have kids I got  to you know go to a bunch of different cool places I got to go to Hawaii every year with the med Penn  State men's team which was terrible especially in January from All State College Pennsylvania  um but just meeting the people in the relationships and I guess  that's probably the the thing across I mean there's been some really cool experiences  um 2007 National Championship with Penn State I was sitting right at the end and just being  able to hear coach Rose who is a character in it of himself um just hearing what he's  saying on the bench and then when we won it's funny if I was showing somebody this  the other day because we were talking about this um 2007 if you watch the Youtube video  we win and I stand up because I have no idea what to do like as yesterday I'm like I do I need to go  get an interview what do I need to do so it was funny 2008 actually it was here in Omaha I think  um we were much more prepared um but it was just cool just the experiences and then on  the commissioner side um just the successes the little stuff behind the scenes because you know  as a commissioner you're not out in front of a lot of people sometimes but just a success is the the  thank you notes that we get from parents and you know my daughter got her serve over today and that  was oh my gosh so cool seeing the successes of our high performance teams are really cool  because I get to be a little bit more involved and kind of back in front of people with that  um but that kind of reminds me what why why we do what we do I love hearing about uh just  careers and Sports careers in volleyball you know a lot we have listeners who are  young players maybe Collegiate players high school players could you just talk a little  bit about you know that opportunity be to get into Communications and you know what what excited you  about that what what drove you to want to go into Communications be an SID yeah so I when  I was in high school I just got involved with the student newspaper and when I went to Northwestern  I actually declared as a geology major yeah and we'll actually do that obviously kind of complete  opposite yeah I know exactly no I love you know rocks and minerals and picking and all that stuff  yeah well no and so I got there and I was like oh this is a lot of science no I I liked writing I've  always been a very good writer um and I lucked into one of the best journalism schools in the  country yeah it's a pretty good one so yeah it's okay um and so I was staying on campus  um for one of the Summers and my academic advisor said well why don't you go intern in the athletic  Communications office and that completely changed my life and so it's it's really cool those people  behind the scenes that don't get the press and you know the support staffs and stuff like that  um I mean that suggestion literally changed my life because I was on that path I worked Big  Ten tournaments while a student at Northwestern um you know just a proximity to Chicago um and  then just just went into Communications and it was it was great because especially at a place  like Penn State the the volleyball IQ had to be very high and then also the the journalism and  the communications part and so um especially with Coach Rose he asks a lot of everyone  um and path two um but I was able to prove to him that I could do this on on both the communication  side and the volleyball side and I think I could intuitively know what he wanted and there's so  many restaurant stories that could be another show in itself so we're not going to go down that path  but um just you know knowing what scores he would want to know after the match was done and printing  box scores that he could see and kind of just kind of knowing as scary as it is knowing what  he would want um I think really helped helped yeah I think it's uh I just think it's really important  um for you know athletes to hear you know where their careers could go after playing for sure  um because you know the pool gets smaller and smaller and smaller the higher up in the level of  play you get in volleyball we've had Holly McPeak on talking about sports broadcasting so I loved  hearing you talk about the Sid side of that that was awesome thank you no and it's it's you know a  lot of people think oh if I'm not a player then I have to be a coach there's so many different roles  there is Administration and I know um some of my former teammates are in like athletic counseling  or you know athletic for academic counseling and stuff like that and so there's so many ways  that you can contribute after Sports rather than just coaching yeah and not just coaching because  obviously that's yeah that's a huge thing too but yeah there's many many different Avenues  and I just love the communications part and that was a really good wheelhouse for me and  it serves me now in my position now because everything lives or dies by communication  um and and we really take that to heart in Badger region yeah what's some advice that you know you  have to an athlete or a student athlete who is making that transition uh you know whether it's  just trying to find that foot in the door in the sports industry or like like we are talking about  now trying to go through that transition process of being an athlete to making that career into the  sports industry like what what's some advice you have there I would say try everything I  did an internship while at Northwestern uh in a magazine in downtown Chicago and it was a great  experience but I found out I didn't want to do that and so just learning what you don't want to  do as part of you know okay that that closes that door I'm going to continue on this path  um I think one of the the biggest eye openers for me when I started in the athletic Communications  world was just how much goes on behind the scenes and so I would encourage athletes you know in high  school or in college or just explore and talk to other people and talk to the athletic trainers  and talk to the facilities people and talk to the academic counselors because something may spark  um High School newspaper exactly you did yeah exactly and it's you know some of those things  that you never think of become your life yeah so yeah that's awesome um do you just talk about your  role as the commissioner uh in the badger region I almost said Gateway we just had Steve meathon  right before you but yeah just your role as the commissioner of the badger region yeah we have  um five I'm one of five staff and so we're based on a near Milwaukee Wisconsin um we just got the  numbers yesterday we're one of the eighth art or we're the eighth largest region oh awesome  congratulations just passed 14 000 members which is crazy to me when I started we had about seven  um and so we have 130 clubs and so my job is just to kind of manage the circus you know in in region  Communications where all nonprofits or I'm sorry region operations we're all non-profits and so I'm  the HR department I'm the finance department I'm the a lot of hats I'm the ultimate cause  you know customer service complaint department yeah Communications Department managing stuff  stuff like that so it's a lot and I think a lot goes on behind the scenes that people have no idea  about right but we we do a lot of stuff we have a lot of you know kind of fingers and different  pies and try to try to do a lot of different things so that's what I'm most proud of and  it's a cool experience because it's not anything I even knew existed you know when I played Cub  volleyball it's like oh I just played for the club we just went to some tournaments and then we had  fun you know and and now seeing the other side of it it's it's a lot yeah yeah and how many clubs do  you have we have 130. some of them are satellites and so they're larger clubs that have you know  um just different branches in different parts of the state but yeah across Wisconsin  we have 130 clubs and are you hosting any local tournaments and you know Junior to adults who just  um volleyball development as a whole yeah we have um our Badger region championships is our I would  say our Marquee event we have 750 teams um over three weekends at the Wisconsin Center in downtown  Milwaukee so it's a lot um see it sounds like a lot yeah yeah but it's great I mean it's it's  it's like this convention it's a reunion the officials love coming back we have coaches who  have been there you know since it started um we've been around since 1994 and they've been running it  since the late 90s and so it's it's just a really long-standing tournament now we're like oh this is  really big okay and so thankfully our Convention Center is expanding um we also host a power league  and a qualifier one of the really cool things that we do is we have we called it the BBS  the badger boys series and so it's a high level scrimmage I guess for boys 12s and 13s and that  has really spurred our boys growth and and people love it and it's I love seeing those boys play  um we host another boys tournament the Dale Roadie Memorial Dale was a long time official parent  um coach in our region and he passed away from cancer and when he passed we had a conversation  with his wife and she said I'd like to give some money to to sponsor a boys tournament  and so it's a low-cost boys tournament it's one day we host it with our Badger  agent championships when when space allows and we've had teams come from Minnesota and Iowa  um and one of the teams from Minnesota who came last year said this is the only tournament our  boys have played against boys this is amazing oh wow yeah and so just to try to help that boy's  growth is really cool yeah had a similar moment when and I I had a very short coaching career  um but I I had a similar moment I was coaching a 14's boys team in Colorado and um we're at a  tryout and it was actually a girls trial but they had some boys there kind of simultaneously doing  it um but the first day was only one boy uh in the 14U kind of age range and um loved it still loved  it his sisters were there playing uh and then the next day there were probably five or six more boys  and his face just lit up just because he'd never played against other boys his age before and then  had a great team form from that and just had a blast seeing them just enjoy volleyball it was  just so cool because I see him very rewarding for sure yeah what uh you you talked a little  bit about it but what were what are some of the like recent successes in the badger region  I know you talked about the growth of the boys game uh but just some of those recent successes  that come to mind and it's funny we my my staff does a great job we have a great Communications  in Badger region and we put together in the last 16 months Badger region across all levels has had  12 national championships oh awesome like when you think of Wisconsin you don't think a hotbed  a volleyball you know you think of California or just you know just those types of things but  um obviously last year with UW Wisconsin or UW Madison winning the national championship  um UW Eau Claire women won the national championship for division three Carthage  men's one back to back on the college club we have a very very robust College club scene in Wisconsin  UW Oshkosh men and women beat uw-la Crosse men and women for the title that's awesome  and I was going to mention Oshkosh as being a Powerhouse I played a Collegiate Club at  Texas State nice and Oshkosh was always the go-to you wanted to go watch them play for  sure yeah for sure no and then I mean we had three um three teams win boys and girls junior  National Sealy won some titles our high performance teams won two titles this summer  and so just just those successes alone are the visible ones but then it's you know it's the all  the the other smaller successes and just the you know we hear from clubs that come to our region  championships they're like this is the first time we ever won a match like that was amazing the kids  had such a great experience and so it's it's the high level visible ones from from Madison from  Wisconsin winning to that you know level and it's it's great that's awesome I love how each of these  conversations have kind of been naturally just inclusive of you know the conversation of boys  volleyball I mean like I saw the way your face lit up then we just you know we just interviewed Steve  not too long ago same thing happened with him and you know we just also uh released uh uh an  episode with John Spira who's our Men's National Team Coach and he's talking about you know the  growth and development of the boys game and how important it is and you know just the state of the  boys game right now and how we need to you know continue to support the boys game as I love the  public setting we have here that was Lee fine swag from volleyball magazine just laughing yeah it's  perfect yeah perfect timing but um well they're going with this like just um just these natural  conversations about growing the the boys game of volleyball and continuing to support there and  doing what we need to do to grow the game so you know what are some other things that the badger  region is doing to help grow you know the game of boys volleyball and it's funny I mean just being  at Penn State with pav um when I was there and when I was there Matt Anderson was a gangly six  five kid who weighed about 95 pounds obviously we all know his success now doing pretty good and Max  Holt yeah and and you know if you don't know the story of Max Holt when he was a freshman serving  against Braun Irvine do some research that was the match where the the lights went out at Penn State  oh yeah you'll have to do some research okay maybe we'll have Max on to talk about how Max  is wrong about about the lights going out when he was serving in the National semifinal wow  uh-huh because the lights were on a timer at Rec Hall nobody thought to turn the timer off  timer's now been fixed yeah that was probably 2006 six five six yeah so that's that's another  story a little teaser for a later episode turn off the like lights episode that's awesome  um and so just getting immersed in that when I was at Penn State it  it really really become an advocate for boys volleyball um Brian Sharkey who's my um my one  of my staff members is just a complete amazing person he's so nice so nice he's so knowledgeable  just he's a really he's the champion of bad of boys volleyball and Badger region and so  he takes it he's and he's a high school coach too and so he is in with all the High School  coaches with all the club coaches we have a great relationship with all of our boys clubs  um and so just being like hey does this try out you know because a lot of the focus is on the girl  side because that's the the larger number and you know that's how it is but we really try to be like  okay but is this good for the boys too does this tryout model that we have for the girls does that  also work for the boys at all levels um you know is there anything we can do to help with anything  um one of the things I'm most proud of is we have a boys high school Grant and so any High School in  the state of Wisconsin who is starting boys at any level will give a thousand dollars to awesome we  had six start last year wow yeah so um Sharky and I just went to the Wisconsin Athletic Directors  Association conference and had a booth there and talk to athletic directors from around the state  being like hey do you know this is available like we'll we'll help you we'll do whatever  um the unique thing about Wisconsin too is our boys high school is in the fall  and so we're one of just a few areas I think a couple areas in New York some in Virginia yeah  normally spring normally spring yeah and so our boys club when everybody else goes  into their High School season our clubs don't have that much to do and so we try to provide  them with opportunities during that down time from you know late February to March until May  um and so we just yeah that's when we do the region championships and the Dale and things like  that and so just try to provide Outreach and and like I mentioned before the badger boys series um  just kind of bringing recognition we've partnered with the High School coaches association to do  um watch lists and all tournament teams and rankings and polls and just trying to help bring  that visibility to the boys game especially being so close to Minnesota and them just approving  boys you know we're trying to show okay this is actually a legit thing what can we do to help  um and so yeah you talked a little bit about it there um just about the Grant and wanting  to start more on the boys high school level but what are I guess for the girls and boys side uh  what is Badger region doing to continue the growth of volleyball in the region  um from the Grassroots level level up we really try to be we just went through a nine-month  strategic plan and we really try to be cognizant of what is our what do our customers want what  do our clubs need what can we do to help them we have experienced significant growth in the last  couple years like I said 750 teams in our region championships yeah I mean five years ago we would  have been like okay let's try to hit 600 yeah and so just seeing that growth has been great and  so we've done a lot to kind of ask hey what does this does this trial policy work for you guys or  we took away some reducing fees which in this day and age is not really a thing we took away  team fees we took away just kind of making that Administration easier because we understand that  being a club director that's a lot and so if we can if we can get the the big clubs  make it easier for them but also the new clubs coming in um that's kind of one of our goals  and just customer service and communication is really something that we strive for and I  think we're pretty good at it yeah we put out a Sharky does a great job with the newsletter  um we have a newsletter that comes out every other week we just started an officials newsletter  that comes out every other week to really try to educate and and bring visibility to the officials  um so coaching education we do a lot with we have a program called 3C coaches coaching coaches  and so rather than you know just having a coaching clinic and you go and sit at it and then leave  um we'll send mentors out to a practice and they can talk about practice philosophy and  we're not going to teach you how to pass but we'll ask you why are you doing that  drill oh cool have you thought about doing the drill this way and kind of like the cap  um the cap model of let's just think about it a little bit  um we're doing things that we call lunch and learn and so just taking an hour over a lunch period we  did one on um boys growth just doing a Facebook live we have one coming up in a few weeks with  um Eric Hodgson from Arizona region and Marwan jaffir from Delaware who are I know our cap Cadre  and are in the coaching education realm um just about like preseason volleyball and what you know  when you have parents how do you run a parent meeting and you know just stuff like that that  I think you know we're just trying to do as much as we can and provide as many services as we can  it's a good thing there's an expert in Communications uh in in the region yeah  well and Sharky also has always great oh there you go so two of the five people on our staff  you drown people with facts a lot yeah I'm not a talker I'm a writer  um but yeah no so it's it's good and it's you know a lot of the the problems that arise are  from because people don't understand yeah yeah and so we really try to go above and beyond we call it  drowning with facts which sometimes was probably annoying but the more people understand the why  even if they don't like the answer the more the people understand the why they're like oh okay  that that makes sense yeah okay fine set them up for success and the answers are there when they  have those questions yeah yeah exactly awesome yeah you know you're you're a leader in you know  your region and you know your your community of volleyball and you know we're talking about a  lot of these growing points and you know points of development and you know from the you know  boys side girls side even on the official side you touched on a little bit too what have been  some other um successes that you just see uh you know whether it's in the community on your staff  um on tournament standpoint just some just some some wins some successes that you just noticed  and you know have really seen come through yeah I mean there there's so many different little  stories that are really cool um we're doing a lot with obviously there's an official shortage  um and and and a lot of different events popping up that are polling officials  away from the regions um and so we're doing a lot with just kind of training  officials and and seeing the kids and and we're focusing on a younger demographic  um seeing the college kids get up and officiate their first match and just seeing like oh this  is kind of cool and seeing we're also doing a lot with sportsmanship we just partnered with  Excuse me a company focused on sportsmanship and really promoting that and seeing that take hold  um has been really rewarding because it's it's this is a human game you know and and volleyball's  a game of mistakes everybody makes mistakes from the coaches to the officials to the to  the players and we actually have have banners in signage at our events that's like hey this is a  learning environment the coaches are learning the officials are learning the players are learning  don't don't don't yell at everybody you know um I think one of the good things to come out of covid  and something that we learned a lot about was when we had parents doing line judges and tables  and stuff like that I I think it really put in perspective like oh this is hard this isn't fun  um and we actually we would joke around with it and say players please don't yell at the line  judges we need you we need them to take you home it's kind of a reverse role there almost  yeah exactly yeah I can see it just like that child yelling at the parents score scoreboard  exactly and it was funny too because there were some parents who didn't know how to do the score  book yeah and so you know we tried to provide the training and the online training and U.S  volleyball coach Academy does an amazing job with the modules and the education for officials yeah  um and so we did a lot with that but there were parents who would run to the table to get the  book and the and the you know score Flip or to get the score flip rather than the book because they  knew that they were like oh I don't know the easy job right right um so yeah I love that approach  because uh like you said you're getting more young kids into officiating uh but I had never thought  about having parents get on the scores table and do that job or on the court and do line judging  yeah that's a great approach and for them to you know realize next time they're sitting in the  stands have a better uh I guess uh understanding of yeah those officials who are out there yeah  well and we found that it it kind of helps with tournament management too obviously if you don't  have to have a work team and you can have parents working that match it that takes you know a match  out of the day and so we found with some of our scheduling challenges I mean we don't do  it at the older ages like you're not going to put parents on an 18's boys match right yeah yeah not  gonna end well for anyone yeah um but you know at the younger ages the parents love it they can  get out of there faster it's just a more efficient tournament yeah so where that's one of the things  that we're kind of taking out of coven yeah is hey let's let's look at when we can do this let's  look at keep it keep going and establishing that learning environment for everybody exactly like  you mentioned I think that's super cool yeah we had to I we talked about it with Steve too but  I just love Patty rolf's quote uh bring love and kindness yes into officiating and I think that's  exactly we call it rainbows and unicorns I love that too and Patty's from Badger region yeah so  she would bring that to our board and be like why are we doing this yeah this doesn't make sense why  are we doing this look yeah you're right that's super cool so it's cool to see her up on the  stand last night too yeah oh that was awesome that was awesome so we talk about that how did  you enjoy the the games yeah they were good they were good they were great I mean my my husband  um started at University of Pittsburgh with Dan when he started at Pitt and so that one was tough  um because we know they didn't play the way they could have played yeah um the match at Wisconsin  was amazing yeah like that was one of the best volleyball matches I've seen in a while yeah um  and so I know they're disappointed but to get here again that says something they're doing something  right yeah exactly yeah and to force that fifth set too for sure yeah that was cool yeah um you talked a little bit about um we've talked about boys we've talked about the girls growth  um officials who who are some of the people or maybe some of the clubs in your region who are  kind of doing things right and helping the sport of volleyball grow within your region maybe you  know a region or player coach Club directors helping another club or something like that  that you've seen that just makes you smile yeah yeah I mean I have to start with my staff I mean  I have Brian Sharkey who's my program director he does all the communications and the boys um Scott  spies who was a long time coach with Milwaukee sting um just a really great guy he's the he's  the like even Keel one out of all of us which is great you need you need that type of person  um and so he does a lot with coaching education Kelly Layman is my tournament director and just  he he's got a mind like he can look at AES scheduling and just like piece it in I'm like  I I don't even I don't know what you're doing but it's it's like the Matrix yeah it takes me like  10 minutes to just I'm like what what did you just I need a second to just break that down so  that's insane right yeah so we'll be determine and something he's like oh I'm gonna move this  over here I'm like ah what are you doing I'm glad you're doing that why I need to know the  why about it right and then Sarah Voit who's my um officials person and youth director and  so just the work that they do behind the scenes and and that I mean it's great to see and they're  they're the they're the faces of the region and they go out and then they talk to people and they  do you know the coaching and Club directors um one person who doesn't get enough credit  is Jason Smith from the Wisconsin volleyball conference so that's the college Club he has  been doing that for years and just to to build up the college conferences um you know sometimes the  college clubs are like herding cats because it's you know it's it's not the visible like you know  Intercollegiate Athletics experience but just the experience that these kids are having and I  I think that has experienced is part of the growth of volleyball too is these high school players who  don't maybe they don't want the division one two three Nai experience but they still want to play  um for Jason and his team who are all volunteers to go and have this such success at the wvc level  is is awesome um Tom Galecki of well pack a boat ride who you know one of the largest  grass tournaments in the country still trying to get to that tournament yeah it looks so so  cool yes yes I need to do a little bit more training I've lost uh due to coven  okay I'm not in the best shape I I used to be in but I think I would love to play in that I would  love to play in that tournament it looks like such a fun time it is it is it's fun but just you  know that we have a lot of just facilities who are like hey can I run can I run a youth tournament or  if I mention one Club director I'm gonna get in trouble but I'll just say that I love all  of my club directors yeah um we have really good relationships with with a lot of our  clubs and a lot of people saying okay well I can't do that why and so we explained the why  and they're like okay but can we do this we're like yeah let's let's figure it out I do annoy  my staff a lot because I am the I was a Setter in college so I like to facilitate success and  so my first thought isn't no my first thought is yeah how can we do that because I was like  hey can we talk about this can we breathe can we let's let's think about it take a second  here yeah we're good maybe the answer does need to be no or not right now I'm like okay fine  but yeah no there's just so many cool people in in Badger region and and that's what I love I know  there's some areas of the country where it gets Cutthroat and whatever and we don't really have  that in Wisconsin I mean we do we do in some level you know tryouts everybody hates tryouts yeah yeah  um and that type of stuff but for the most part everybody really works well together  um hey what are you doing for this and and just kind of collaborating and that type of stuff so  it's it's been great yeah if uh if a parent or adult has an athlete who wants to start playing  in your region yeah uh what are some of those first steps that they can take um you know um  on you know who can they talk to where can they go to find out more information how can they take  that first step to get involved yeah and start it I I know this will surprise you but we have a very  robust website for communication I wonder why I don't know who's behind that and we're actually  redoing it right now but um no the badger region website is is the first one badgervolleyball.org  we have a listing of all the junior clubs in this state Broken Out by area the state boys and girls  one of the cool things that we do too is after tryouts we have a listing of clubs looking for  players and players looking for clubs and so if players go through the tryout process and find  they don't have an offer for a club or or the offer that they received isn't what they wanted  or whatever they can email put a email submission or a form submission on our website we put it on  the website and then clubs can look and be like oh I need a 14's medal this girl's available or  oh you know that type of stuff and one of the cool successes this year is one of our clubs was able  to form a team of 12 from the players looking list wow wow and so it's like just providing  opportunities like that like that just gives me chills um and and it's that type of those little  things that people don't really know about until you know until it works and it's cool yeah so yeah  Jen this has been incredible an awesome conversation thank you so much for taking  the time to sit down with us is there anything else you'd like to talk about about your region  about volleyball as a whole uh before we let you go here yeah I mean just volleyball as a whole  is really cool and it's just just such a small community and there's people doing great things  all over the country you know with the recent hurricane Florida region is putting together  um or is underway uh a sponsorship or not a sponsorship like a donation for their families  and several regions have contributed and they've been able to put out tens of thousands of dollars  to help families who have been devastated by the hurricane and clubs you know these people wouldn't  say in volleyball and it's it's like that like that's just a snapshot of the volleyball community  and that's been the cool part is you know there's drama on Club volleyball we all know that  um but at the base of it it's good people we all know everybody even across Enemy Lines  um across the net across the net um you know we're competitors on the court but we're friends off of  it and that's the coolest part to me and being in the environment garment like this and and  you know just with the people at Penn State that I've I you know had relationships with and with my  husband knowing everybody it's like volleyball's like six degrees of separation yeah it it's just  a really cool thing and you can learn something from everybody and the most you know important  conversations are the ones that are had in the the hotel lobby or the restaurant sometimes yeah  because you can be like oh what what do you do for this and what do you do for this and it's  just really kind of small and intimate and be like oh yeah no that'll work for me so that's just kind  of the coolest thing about volleyball for me um and I like my role because I get to do a lot of  cool things yeah yeah there's a lot of like you said drama politics competitiveness and volleyball  um but at the end of the day we're all family volleyball family we take care of each other for  sure um and I love that and and like you said just an environment like this where you can walk five  steps and you run into someone you know just shows how small the community really is yeah I mean I  stood in the in the arena last night and we we literally for a half an hour didn't make it more  than five feet because we ran into Brian Hamilton who's a you know Wonderful official yeah and then  we got to talking and then someone else stopped buying then someone else we were just standing in  the arena yeah kind of reminds you why you do this exactly yeah exactly yeah well Jim thank you so  much this has been incredible and uh look forward to hopefully having you on again sometime anytime  we can talk all about uh your experiences at Penn State with rose we'll have to see what's available  for family content right there we go there you go awesome thank you so much of course yeah thank you kind of the complete opposite from last week's episode with Cody March as far as uh if we're  talking specifically about backgrounds and volleyball Cody coming from a non-volleyball  background this week we had jyn armson diron from the badger region she's very  much coming from a volleyball background uh just growing up around the game with  her mom being a long time high school coach in Wisconsin uh Jen's a Wisconsin native obviously  um Wisconsin being a pretty Powerhouse state in volleyball I would say  um from all the way from the junior to the Collegiate level oh yeah um but Jen also played at  Northwestern in college she was an SID we talked a lot about that with her uh she was Sid for 10  years at Penn State uh some really great years uh there at Penn State with both the men's and  women's volleyball programs so definitely using that background to her Advantage uh not only the  volleyball background but her Communications and media background too to help grow the the sport  of volleyball in her region and look for creative ways to continue that growth and that membership  um growth from from coaches to to players to officials um yeah just uh honestly just  a great conversation we had with Jen uh really enjoyed that conversation  you know I actually had the pleasure to meet her you know way before ABCA uh oh awesome you know  in Omaha at the 2022 All-Star championship and uh you know she just uh a literal wealth of knowledge  around the game of volleyball and you know you know the Wisconsin the badger region excuse me is  you know in very very very very just great hands with someone like her who's you know dedicated to  um you know growing the region as much as possible doing anything uh you know she you know needs to  do to you know just show success and growth in you know in the volleyball Community whether it's on  the junior side even on the adult side of things too or a couple conversations we're having about  you know our open National example there and um yeah it's just very very very respectable person  and leader in her in her um in her wheelhouse there sorry PK came in this brain images if you're watching the episode you get a little bit extra there you get a little PK  action so that's but yeah very jyn is just very knowledgeable uh of volleyball and her region and  and that's to a benefit of that you mentioned volleyball Community as well I think that's uh  kind of been a consistent theme here with uh our first two episodes uh in the regional commissioner  month here um just more they're doing more than just focusing on their Club scenes on their on  their clubs their Club directors players parents they're doing more to to have Outreach into the  community and that only helps grow the volleyball scene the volleyball community in their regions  and uh continue to grow through that Grassroots program introducing volleyball at a younger age  and uh just strengthening the the pipeline for for those programs so uh love that love that  consistent theme of just volleyball Community because we we mentioned it so many times it's  it's a large community but it's a it's a small community everybody has a connection somehow  everybody knows everybody and um you never know if you're you know the the player that you're  you're facing across the net is going to be your college roommate one day or something uh so uh  yeah just just love the conversation we've been and and um love that we're just continuing to  have these conversations with our commissioners and learning so much from them 100 and you know  kind of like you you you mentioned in kind of in implied there's just so much that they're doing  um that you know that they like they do talk about like in all of our interviews that we've had and  there's so much that is being done that you know is just not talked about it's just part of the  day-to-day there's just so much heavy lifting you know that's applied to that and you know  our regions are in a you know unique position to you know Thrive and grow and you know make  so many strides for the betterment of volleyball overall and you know you know Jen is just one of  those people who you know is all in and you know along with a lot of our other all of our other  Regional Commission excuse me there and it's just really good really good time to be a part  of all this too and really be really great time to be having these conversations you know how we  are especially leading up to our you know annual meetings in May coming up in Dallas hint for uh  opens you know we'll just see if we can continue a lot of those conversations there but yeah amazing  um yeah just a big thank you again Jen uh you know of the badger region uh for sitting down  with us especially at ABCA you know without busy uh you know you were you know with we were and  you know just everybody we sat down with just had 40 40 000 things going on right now but be sure  to stay tuned this month as we will be chatting with a few of our other USA of all of our regional  Commissioners I think this is a good time to segue into some upcoming events with Stephen  Stephen that's never going to get on oh no uh uh yeah coming up uh with our upcoming events we have  the ABCA Dallas girls 18's National qualifier February 17th through the 19th in Dallas Texas  the boys Atlantic Northeastern National qualifier week two February 18th through the 20th in Manheim  Pennsylvania good luck to everyone competing in those events shout out again uh to look you  just mentioned it but shout out to all of our usab regions for setting up and hosting those  events you know it's not uncommon for a regional commissioner to be running the scoreboard or  something at event they they literally do everything and these events could not get  off the ground without our region so thank you we appreciate you so much more details on all  upcoming events can be found at usabollyball.org man you can definitely tell when we're in our I  mean year round is busy don't get me wrong but you can definitely tell when our when we're  in our you know really really busy Seasons with events too it's just such a short list I don't I  can't remember the last time you read a list this short of well so yeah and so it's a short list but  if you think about it we we are dropping three straight episodes so we try to like stay really  um I guess currents on the events that are coming up and since we'll have another episode next week  well you're right you're right we'll have the next week of events coming up so which I think  is a little bit of a longer list so it is I'm just imagining being in sunshine in Orlando we  get our land before Sunshine classic that would be uh girl Orlando can't wait for it for sure but  um just a few uh indoor Club reminders just you know since we're on the topic of sunshine uh we  will be in Orlando for Sunshine classic um uh at the end of February and also the first  weekend of March we also have registration still open for those looking to compete  um in a national qualifier um that will be for the Salt Lake City Showdown on April 8th through  10th and the 14th through the 16th as of right now there is no wait list as of today but weekend two  um registration is filling up very quickly as teams are starting to complete requirements and  get accepted so weekend two has a little bit less a little bit more of an opportunity to generate  a wait list April 8th through 10th which is also on Easter weekend is a lot more open so if you're  looking to get a team in and compete in the 11s 12 16s and 17 divisions April 8th through 10th is  our weekend to compete also registration is open for our open National Championship in Dallas Texas  it's like a fun time for the adults we got a lot a lot of fun things in the works here and  this is the year year of growth every Year's year of growth and I'm going to say it again  I'm so excited to be in Dallas this year uh it's a great City great City for opens oh really unbiased  opinion obviously I don't know about that oh we got a vet that we got to accept your sources there  I'm just kidding but um registration's open today we have 30 divisions um over the course of May  26th through the 31st it's gonna be a great time Adidas are really gonna love this one for sure  they yeah the the actually the only time I've ever competed at opens was in Dallas in fact so  um not only am I from Dallas but I also competed at the event in Dallas so I can say  it's a great time you should look at trying to repeat you know back to back times competing  I don't know I might have to do some uh some high intensity training some stretching it's  obstruction I gotta start my pregame stretching right now just gotta remember how to be an athlete  you know that's right that's right oh man my knees are hurting as I'm thinking about trying to get a  team together too but it'd be fun time it's gonna be a lot of fun thank you for for those Club event  reminders uh moving on here remember listeners you can rate and review share with friends family  teammates it really helps this podcast grow and reach new listeners check out our video podcasts  now our video episodes that are on our website and YouTube channel thank you for all your support  do you know a club that should be featured maybe a story from an athlete or coach Club  director parents that you'd like us to share you can email us at the usab show at usab.org  let me say that again you can email us at the usab show at usab.org it's not like I read  this every week I was going to tell you pause for the dramatic effect this time that's right leave us feedback and let us know about any future topics that you like to hear about  reminder we have three episodes dropping this month it is regional commissioner  month this is number two be on the lookout for our next episode coming out next week  until next time this is the USA volleyball show the official podcast of USA this has  been the USA volleyball show with Clarence Hughes and Stephen Munson our content producer is Lara Fawcett our marketing lead is Bree Jaycox if you enjoyed  this podcast be sure to rate and review and if you haven't already please subscribe to the USA  volleyball show on Apple podcasts Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts