Tsai-1

Erin Tsai
Instructor: Malcolm Campbell
English 1101
6 November 2014
The Day in the Life of a Volleyball Coach

Coach Tsai starts his day off by making a large cup of boiling coffee. The aroma
pours into the kitchen as it overfills into the surrounding rooms. He takes a large gulp and
the caffeine starts to overtake his body. Coach George Tsai is now ready to take on the
daily and fulfilling tasks of coaching and managing Raleigh Volleyball Club.
Raleigh Volleyball Club (RVC) is a Junior Olympic Volleyball Club based out of
Raleigh, North Carolina. RVC is a member of the Carolina Regional Volleyball
Association. They provide teams for girls, ages 12-18. The minimum amount of players
that is required per team is 6 and the maximum can range from 10-12 players. There are
4-6 different teams per year, per age group. It is a smaller organization compared to the
other volleyball clubs in the North Carolina region, which can usually have a minimum
of 6-8 teams. The official club tryouts start in October, the official season usually starts in
the beginning of December and ends around March-May (depending on the team). The
club director is George Tsai. George Tsai has over 30 years of volleyball playing
experience and over 20 years of coaching experience. RVC started in 2009, after his
daughter started to spark interest in the sport. Coach George Tsai hires around 3-5
coaches per year (both new and previous coaches) and each coach can coach 1-2 teams,
depending on the amount of teams available.

Tsai-2
Coach Tsai meets the other coaches at the North Raleigh Christian Academys
(NRCA) gym, which he rents out for practices. RVC coaches and players meet for two
hours, twice a week for practice (usually Mondays/Tuesdays and Thursdays, depending
on the team). Coach Tsai gets there 30 minutes prior to set up the volleyball nets. The
other coaches join him in setting up the net, a daily ritual for the RVC coaches. The
coaches are wearing either the official RVC t-shirt, the official coaching RVC polo shirt,
or a random t-shirt. ******Insert picture of RVC t-shirt or uniform****** All the
coaches are wearing some sort of athletic shorts or athletic pants with a pair of athletic
shoes (usually of Mizuno or Nike brand). This is the official RVC coaching
uniform/attire.
After the nets are set up and the players have arrived, the coaches start everyone
off with a warm up. There are three different gyms in NRCA to use for the practice of 4-6
teams. The coaches start the warm up in one single gym and then split everyone up by
teams for individual practice. Each gym can have two nets set up. The atmosphere of the
gym is loud with the resonance of whistles, volleyballs hitting the floor, the
communication between players, and the communication of the coach to the players.
-More about how I observed the coaches communicating and their language
-Research on the language of volleyball players, volleyball coaches, and coaches
in general.

I was previously both a coach and a player of RVC, so I was able to observe the
coaches both on and off the court. I observed the coaches before the season of club
volleyball started, during the tryouts. Since I was previously a coach, I was able to use

Tsai-3
prior knowledge of the RVC coaching staff. I interviewed George Tsai, the founder of
Raleigh Volleyball Club, who also happens to be my father.

-Interview

Part II: Interpretation

-

Spoken language, written language, purpose of meeting, beliefs/values/tastes (do

their actions portray this),

How to be a member, how they treated one another, how this group sees its place
in larger community, compare towards their relation to other groups