Episode #44: Kyle Van Den Bosch

Kyle Van Den Bosch is in his 20th year as the head coach of the Northwestern College (NAIA) volleyball team entering 2024. Van Den Bosch boasts an impressive 525-147 overall record, winning nearly 80% of his matches while at NWC and is an eight-time Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Coach of the Year.

Learn more about Kyle Van Den Bosch here:  https://nwcraiders.com/sports/womens-volleyball/roster/coaches/kyle-van-den-bosch/2541

Transcript

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Welcome back to the significant coaching podcast. I have been receiving a number of requests from volleyball parents across the country who follow me to interview some of the top NEI coaches in the country. It was a great request, a smart request. So I reached out to one of the top NEI volleyball coaches. Kyle Vandenbosch, the head volleyball coach at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa. Coach was kind enough to say yes, and we had a great conversation about NAIA sports. Because I know a lot of you don't know the difference between NCAA and NAIA. And even more of you don't know how similar they are. Coach just finished up his 20th season on the bench for the Red Raiders, where he boasts a remarkable 525 and 1 47 record. I'll do the math for you. That's an average of 26 wins to seven losses per year for 20 straight years. That is insanely dominant. The conversation was profound because we talked about the great opportunities to prospective college athletes to earn scholarships and be able to play at a high level while competing for N. A. I. National championships. His players routinely graduate with degrees that lead to profound careers as well as a number of professional volleyball careers. I expect you'll learn a lot from Coach Vandenbosch. It's easy to see why he's considered one of the top teachers and coaches in the country. He's just a good guy and passionate about coaching and winning with a significant mindset. If you're enjoying these conversations, I encourage you to subscribe on your platform of choice and leave me a comment with your thoughts and questions. You can check out my coaching history, my weekly blog and podcast episodes and schedule with me at CoachMattRogers. com if you're seeking help with college recruitment. All right, let's get to it. Here's my conversation with Coach Kyle Vandenbosch. Coach, I get asked at least weekly, what does NAIA mean? And, and I can't imagine how often you get asked about it. What is your go to answer when asked about NAIA? You know, NAIA is a really good organization. Um, you know, it's, um, it's not the NCAA, you know, not trying to be, uh, but the, the level of play throughout all the sports. is really impressive, you know, for the NAI. So a lot of great people, a lot of great teams throughout the NAI. I agree. I started my career at St. Ambrose coaching down there. And so I was, I was just amazed at the quality of education, the quality of athletics, um, how many great coaches we went against every, every game. So I think it's just a great option. What do you think separates and see NAI sports and especially volleyball apart from the other divisions. Um, you know, for the AI, we can we can do a lot of things with like scholarship and stuff like that. So there's really not a big difference between, you know, the scholarship being part, you know, we can we were really competitive that way. You know, I think, um, all the levels play really good volleyball. Uh, I think where our niche a lot is, at least for Northwestern, I see in this area is, you know, girls that maybe want to go to a little smaller school for us being a Christian college. You know, I want to go to a Christian college, uh, but still play really high level volleyball. Um, so I would say we get, we get a lot of girls that, that want that experience. You know, that, um, volleyball is going to be a big part of their experience, but not the whole experience, you know, where the off season training, we might practice. 15 to 20 times total, you know, and maybe not just consume all of their time in the off season. And God, you know, when the girls get to be 21, 22, that's, that's pretty nice. You know, it's, uh, you know, the, the priorities, um, I don't know if they change, but, you know, volleyball is really important, you know, when they're 17, 18, and it's still important when they're 22, but these other things start to creep up, you know, to be probably, uh, more important at which we're, we're excited that that's the process. That they're ready to be, you know, start a career, potentially be a, a wife, potentially be a mom, you know, they're, they're prepared for that. So, um, so I think that's a little bit of a difference there. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Definitely get a balance at your level as a, as a student athlete and somebody that wants to be involved on campus and be on a great team and develop all those team skills. So I love that. Are there unique challenges you face as an NEI coach? maybe this is a better question, coach. Are you finding yourself having to explain why playing at the NAI level? Is there's really no difference than playing NCAA division two in a lot of, in a lot of ways. Yeah. You know, when I talk to the players, I kind of tell them that, our level of play is pretty equal to a NCAA division two level, you know, and in the spring time we'll go play a couple of local D twos and You know, we, we beat some of them, we split with some of them. So we know that's where our level is. Um, and so I think, you know, and most of the time I would say 85, 90 percent of our roster was, is within about a five hour radius of us. So they've kind of heard of us a little bit, which helps a lot, you know? So, uh, I don't feel like I have to explain it too much just because girls are within four or five hours of us. I always encourage families. If you've got an opportunity to go watch an NAI volleyball match, it is such a worth your time. It's so exciting and so fast and so powerful. And if you, and again, if you saw an NAI team and you had no idea what you were looking at and you watched an NAI team play a D2, you wouldn't be able to tell which team was, which don't you agree? I would, yeah, I would agree. It's pretty similar, especially the high end NAI volleyball, you know, I would say is. Pretty comparable to maybe not the top teams in D two, but you know, just that step down just a little bit, but Yeah, pretty good. Yeah. I'm, I'm so impressed with what you've done, coach. I mean, you've, you've done it in the middle of Iowa at a Christian school and N. A. I. And year after year. I mean, from the beginning, your teams have just had dominant seasons in a lot of ways. I mean, You've had a couple of years where you've almost been 500. And, and, and I, and those must've been years that were hard on you, but there's very few and far between when you're talking to a young coach, who's just getting started in the business, what advice do you give them about, about being a head coach and building a program like you have Yeah, I think, um, you know, you got to find you got to know your personality. You got to know, um, how you coach and then finding players that that fit that a little bit. And I've been pretty fortunate, to be at Northwestern College where it's a pretty attractive place to come to school just because the academics is really high. The other sports, in our community. athletic department are all pretty good, so you get to be surrounded by excellence all the time, which, even for me as a coach, I'm just, I can go down the hallway and talk to quite a few pretty elite coaches and just, pick their brain on certain things. Yeah. So I feel pretty fortunate, to be here, and then I, the also thing is probably the thing when you get into college, you know, the X's and O's of volleyball, that stuff, but the other piece is the recruiting piece, and where do you spend your time recruiting? You got to know which kids you have a shot at, because I'll, go to these club tournaments there's a lot of really elite players, but some, they're not going to look at us, so I'm not going to spend time on it, so you got to find your niche, which type of players. want to play for you, want to be at your institution and then really spend time on those players. Yeah. I know your faith is really important to you and I know it is at your school. Do you find yourself when you're at a club match? Is there certain characteristics that you're looking for on the court that kind of tell you? I think this kid might be worth my time, or obviously the talent, but is there those other things? Yeah, as coaches and recruiting players, we're looking at a lot of things. You can see the Jumping ability and the quickness and those types of things. I think a lot of people can see that. But, our culture on our team is one of a lot of encouragement and being a good teammate, because we got to find a bunch of girls that are willing to say, how can I help this team be great, so you're looking for people that. Are starting to show that already, how do they act when things go? Well, how do they act when things don't go well, how do they treat their teammates when they have a good play? How do they treat their teammates on a, not a good play? All those things matter. Cause I think, yeah, the little things definitely matter, in this game. So, um, you know, those are probably a few things, I'm looking for. You talk to their coach, a little bit to see, you know, would they fit a Christian college? And that's one of the earlier questions I'll ask the player, are you comfortable being at a Christian college? This is who we are. We're unapologetic about it. And cause yeah, it, if, if they don't it's not going to work. What's the biggest difference, from, St. Ambrose University, where I coached many, many years ago as a Catholic school, you guys are a Christian school. What's the biggest difference when you throw that phrase out there, Christian school, what do kids need to understand? Yeah. They're not going to get at the University of Iowa. Yeah. From everything at Northwestern is, from the academic side, from the, when they're in class, the perspective that it's going to be taught at is from the biblical perspective. When we're, on the team, we're going to have devotion time together. We're gonna pray together. We're gonna lean on each other that way. Um, and they, and the girls that, you know, come to our school, they're, they're looking for that, you know, because I always say, man, there is a lot of places you can play really elite volleyball, and there's a lot of places you can get a great education, but very few can you do it while also growing in your faith, you know, and, and man, when you're 22, 23, and you're ready to hit the world, if you got that faith component with you, You are going to be set up a whole lot better, you know, than just you want a couple of volleyball matches. You know, so man, it's just, I just feel like it's the way to go. It prepares these girls for the next phase of life. So I would say that's the difference for us a little bit. It's the genuineness of generosity and teamwork and sisterhood. It seems like it's just, there's no faking it in your program. It's when you come play for you it's real. There it's not a sarcastic thing. It's very much who you are and who you want to be. And and it's gotta be a huge part of the reason you've been so successful. Yeah. You get, the girls that want that they're good, man, they're good girls, they, I mean, we got talented girls and. The thing that you see, though, is those girls are also really talented in the classroom. They're, they're good at so many things just because they set a pretty high standard for themselves in all areas of life, and I feel pretty blessed to be around those types of people. I hear you. I've got 28 years of former players that I know I am who I am today because of them. So I'm with you there. Talk a little bit more about academics, coach. What, you see a resume, you talk to a kid. I'm sure you're like I was for all those years. One of the first questions you have to ask is, what's your grades? What's your test scores? What are some of those minimums that you're looking for, requirements that you're looking for to not only make sure that kid can get into school, But you can finance their education as much as you possibly can. Are there certain minimums that you're looking for? Yeah, I mean, they gotta be able to, get into Northwestern. So those are probably the minimums, but you know, I really talked to the kid a lot too, like, can they survive here? Can they make it at Northwestern? Cause it's, there's a rigorous, to our studies, that our institution really prepares our students well. When they move on, so they got to be able to handle that. And just like any college, you jump from high school to college and things happen a lot faster and the more intensity in the classroom. But yeah, there's standards to get into the school. I mean, test scores are, the ACT isn't as much, for a lot of schools anymore, like you don't have to take it for the high school kids. But, I like seeing that and the GPA definitely matters, but. Overall, we got some high achieving young women that, excelled there as well. Good. I love that. I'm curious how, if you have a mindset or a template in terms of helping these girls go from high school to college, are there certain things that you're doing throughout the summer, once you know your commitments? especially when they get on campus. How are you helping them not only get ready to be really high level college volleyball players, but how are you helping them transition to being a college adult? Yeah, yeah. A couple of things. We start giving them our weight program. So they start to get that going now in Iowa. We have summer softball, so some of the players coming in are playing softball and We, we're like, just be the best softball player you can be. And then when that's done, we can talk about college volleyball. So that's one is we try to, get them ready that way. We also pair each of our incoming girls with a current player that they can kind of start mentoring them or, ask questions of, All kinds of things. What size dorm fridge do I take? What all the things that people would have questions for for a dorm, you know, we have a teammate that's kind of helping them through that, you know, to transition to college. And, um, so I think a few of those things. You know, help prepare them. But boy, until they're here, the intensity level is so different than high school. You can prepare them a little bit, but man, that first week is, it's pretty intense for those freshmen. I've got a 15 year old volleyball player. She's a club player in my house. What are the things that a 15 to 18 year old doesn't understand about collegiate championship level volleyball? Cause you guys, you guys aren't trying to be middle of the road. You heard. Every year you're taking a step to win a national championship. You want to be one of the best in the country. What are some of those things that a 15, 16 year old needs to have in their mind in terms of habit, routine, discipline? To play at your level. Yeah, I think if they have that growth mindset of can I just keep getting better every practice, you know, each tournament, each match, you know, control the things you can control. Um, I think that's a good starting spot when they're 15, they're probably what sophomore year of high school, you know, and just, you know, soaking in all kinds of different coaching, you know, and just keep working on your, your skills. You know, I think, um, You know, the athleticism, you can't control always too much, but the pure skill of it, you can improve. And so just, and don't worry too much if you're winning, losing all that stuff, just keep plugging along, you know, keep working on the pure skill of whether it's setting or hitting, uh, can you develop more shots? Can you develop, um, thinking the game a little bit faster and. I think those things will definitely prepare them to see if they're in a running for a college scholarship or a college team. It's, it's so funny. You and I have emailed back forth a little bit about a couple of kids. And, and it's, it's funny whenever I talk to a high level volleyball coach, speed of the game almost always comes up. How do you, how do you explain that to a novice volleyball parent in terms of what speed of the game means to you compared to what you'll see at a high school match? It's pretty hard to explain, you know, uh, you got to see it to know it, you got to see it. And even when you, um, you see it from the stands, it's different when you're on the floor. So sometimes I say, just stand at court level to watch how high and physical the game is. And then, um, even if you watch one player the whole time for a little bit, how fast they're moving, um, and then how efficient they start to move the higher the level, you know, you, they just can't run around like water bugs, you know, they got to be efficient. You know, and what they're doing. So, um, you know, on the higher, the level, the more, uh, attention to detail they have to have, right. Can, you know, I always say going from good to great is paying attention to the details, you know? So can they keep paying attention to the details? Um, and then the game will start to slow down. You know, I, I tell our freshmen a lot, the first week is like. Driving in a big city for the very first time, you know, there's eight lanes and there's just stuff zinging by your head and you're just kind of holding on for dear life. And then by the time they're a sophomore, they're kind of sitting back and they kind of know where to look and the game and starts to slow down. So yeah, that's a great, that's a great analogy. I'm going to steal that one. It's funny. Cause I was watching, I watched volleyball is always on in our house. My wife is a volleyball addict. Um, we watched, we watched D three match last night. We watched. Platteville versus Oshkosh, two top 20 ranked teams, and then she jumped right into watching Nebraska versus Minnesota. And the thing that caught my eye last night, whether it was D3 or D1, both high level games, um, the rotations. I mean, the girls were sprinting, touching boom, and they were, and they were on the floor and go, and then the serve was happening almost immediately. So it's not just the play. I mean, it's every part of the game is so much faster. There's just, doesn't seem to be any wasted time. You watch a high school game and you can read a chapter of a book between between serves. That's a good way to put it. Yeah. I mean, that's, and we train that. I mean, we train, how do you come into the gym? How do you go shag a ball? Like all of that has to have a little tempo to it. Cause yeah, cause the game is so fast. If you don't train that way, you just get lost. So yeah, you're spot on. It's, and I think that's why it's becoming so fan friendly is. Things are happening so fast that it's just really entertaining. There's not a lot of downtime. Yeah, but it makes the game so much more fun to watch when you can see that. When, when there's a block at the net and the ball's up in the air and you see the hitters expand to their hitting zones, you know, to get ready for that, that set, it's just so explosive and it happens so fast and that's, that's what's fun for me watching the game, watching those intricacies. I think people are just getting more and more educated on the game, you know, whether they have a daughter playing club, so they get to more games and they're starting to understand the strategy of it and, um, you know, what teams are trying to do, where they're trying to hit the ball. And, you know, the more you understand the game, the more you kind of appreciate, uh, the higher level. I know you're going to be modest and humble with this, this, this question, but I'm, I'm going to push you a little bit. There's not many coaches in the country and it doesn't matter what level. I've had the last 15 plus years that you've had when you look at your success and I call it significance because when you can repeat success over and over, it's a significant thing you're doing. You're doing things that are not. normal. They're not, everybody else isn't doing them. Can you pinpoint whether it's how you train, what you do in practices, who you're recruiting, what your expectations are, are there things that you know, or just. The reason you stay at the level you do? Yeah, I think the first key is we get a lot of really good players, to come in, that's, that's really key. We've had some really, you look over the past 20 years, we've had some really high level kids. Come in and that that is key. So I think you got to get the level of kids and then can they enjoy playing together and play as a team? It's a team game, you know, so can we be athletic enough and then really support each other? Well, I think the girls love being part of a successful team, so they're all have to give a little to be great. And I think our girls have really bought into that. Hey, I want this team to be great and I'm going to do whatever I can to help this team be great, in practice and in the matches. So they celebrate each other really well. Um, and then they play as a team, you know, and so that's something we trained pretty hard of from my word choices to everything is about us. Don't single anybody out in front of everybody. It's just about us. We can play harder. We can do this. We're playing great as it, everything's about us as a team. And, um, if everybody buys into that, some pretty special things can happen. I love that. You know, a lot of coaches talk about that sacrifice, you know, sacrifice the me for us and we, and it sounds like you've really, in terms of how you recruit and then how you develop your kids really buy into that, that genuine, we really fast. Yeah, I really believe they do and it's the type of kids we get to that that matter, you know, they You know, I would say, Hey, if it's just, I only do this, then it's probably, this isn't probably the program for it. If you're like, Hey, I'm willing to do whatever. And we've had some of our best kids change positions the following year. Cause it was best for the team, and being willing to do it, with maybe it wasn't their first choice, but they trust us, you know, they trust the team process and then they're willing to do it. I love that. Talk a little bit about, I'm going to, I'm going to take you in game situation because this is a coaching podcast. And I think this is one of the hardest things was for me as a coach. And for me to teach young coaches is the other team just went on a 3 run. You call a timeout. What does that sound like? What are, what are some of the focal points you go into that time out with when you know, your team just kind of took a punch to the face and you got to get them relaxed. You got to get them refocused. What, what does that sound like in your huddles? Yeah, it may fluctuate a little bit in the match, you know, of what's been going on on the court, but, um, try to get their focus on maybe back to what we kind of came in doing, or we need to change a few things offensively of, hey, let's run this and this. So sometimes I'll get into the details that they're focusing on what they need to do coming out of the huddle and not why we messed up five points or whatever, you know, right. Right. And in our game, in college, all the other teams are pretty good. They're, they're good, they're going to go on runs. And so just try to reassure them that, Hey, we're, we're doing really good things, let's just keep doing this. And it's going to turn out just fine. Uh, because they need to hear from me that I still believe in them, I can't just rip on them, to be, Hey, we're, we're not passing well. Well, yeah, we know that, so I got to redirect their mind into where we got to go, that way. And fortunately in our game, we only got to win by two points. We don't, it's not like you have to be perfect. Um, and if you really mess up, sometimes it starts over at zero, zero, the next set and you try again, so don't get too caught up in just those. Yeah. If I took you back in a time machine to the first year, what, what did that coach look like is how much has he evolved and over the years, Yeah, I hope I got, yeah, but I know, man, I know the first preseason or something. I think by the end of the first week, I probably had like six healthy players. I was just beating the tar out of them. We were digging and diving and rolling and sprinting and running all over creation, uh, and they were all just getting hurt. Um, and, uh, I think we played a little too much defense, practice too much defense, I would say. Um, I always say if you practice a lot of defense, you'll be well prepared for what you'll be doing most of the match. Uh, you won't score a lot of points. You'll do way too much. Um, so I rotated a little bit away from that. Um, yeah, so technique wise, I think we've improved, uh, the games changed quite a bit over the 20 years also from, you know, the little barrels been added a lot of teams. Now the system, the second contact is run through the little barrel. Whereas when I first started it, it was out of the right front. So if you're set or pass it, the right front would set, um, where people put their better hitter sometimes change. I don't know the game's been really, I hate the word to use evolve, but it's really changing in a way that's been faster and more physical. So it's been fun to see. Yeah, it seems like it's fit your coaching mind that changes and you're how you see the game. Yeah, for sure. And I think, you know, I never wanted to be the coach. This is my 20th year. I don't want to be the coach that doing the same thing that I did 20 years ago. Right. Am I able to keep changing with how the game is changing? Um, so, um, yeah, whether that's recruiting or strategy wise, those types of things. I, I find it really fascinating coach because I, I coached men for 15 years and then I coached women for three or four and, and I really loved coaching women, I just, uh, their approach to practices, their approach to teamwork and caring about each other was just so different than I was used to. I'm, I'm intrigued by how did you get into coaching volleyball and, and. How did you get into knowing that you wanted to coach young women? Yeah, um, I grew up around the game. My dad was a high school coach for 25 years. Um, so I was kind of the gym rat kid that would just kind of hang around the game, you know, jumping the gym. And if anybody needed a partner, I'd want to pepper with them or something like that. So I kind of grew up that way. And, um, when I was in high school, I played some other sports, but in the summertime would play some, um, sand volleyball. We don't call it beach here in Iowa, but sand volleyball, uh, would do that. And then, uh, Got to college, uh, started playing on a club team and then, um, I assisted the college coach, uh, the women's coach. And when I was there, where was that at coach? Um, uh, Dork college. Oh, Dork. Okay. Yeah. Oh, that's where I went to school and then learned it there. Um, And then started my career as a, um, middle school PE teacher and then kind of got into, I like coaching, you know, it was, it was a lot of fun coach, a lot of different sports, but I felt like I understood volleyball the most out of all of them. Sure. And then, um, really started enjoying, I think my personality fit. Um, the, the women's game that way, um, coaching the women was, was great. I enjoyed it. Um, so that's probably my background with it, of how I got into that. That's great. It's amazing how many coaches, kids follow their parents into coaching. And, uh, you know, my daughter loves volleyball because from the time she was born, she was in the gym with me watching practices and just the, what the girls, the impact those. Those tall, strong women did on her brain has never left. So I, I love that. It's the biggest part for me, not have being in a gym every day. It's just my kids don't get to experience what that's like every day. And I think that's a huge advantage as a parent. What, what are some of been some of the most rewarding things for you, coach, when you look back at your, your illustrious career? Or are there moments that pop in your brain that always come back to you? About, about that career. There's certain, certain experiences that you'll never forget. You know, yet when you think back, you know, you, you remember the people first, you know, you remember those types of personalities and you kind of get a smile on your face when you think of, you know, different teams, um, you know, whether it was bus rides or experiences or who you play, those types of things. When the girls come back, say, hi, man, you know, it's, it's fun to, to reminisce. The games aren't talked about. Overly much. I would say every once in a while, they'll say, Hey, you remember that? But you kind of just catch up on life and the relationship part. So that part's pretty neat to see, you know, to, to have those relationships. And I've had a couple of former players now be on our staff and man, just really enjoying them of what they bring and the love they have for our program. It's pretty fun to see, you know, um, games on the court, you know, the, the wins have been pretty fun. You always, you can think of a few of them, the losses sting a lot, you know, as a coach that, yeah, what could I have done to help our team? You know, those things are head scratchers, but, um, I look back, you just smile at the type of people you get a chance to coach. Yeah. Yeah. I'm with you. I, I can still, I can still remember a game that we lost in the last seconds. That I, I had the, I had the time out and I didn't take it. You know, why didn't I take that time out at that point? So I'm, I'm with you there. I, I'm interested because I coached at Maryville University in St. Louis for a long time. And I, you know, you sit on enough panels with parents and go to enough college fairs and things like that. And everybody wants to go to the big schools, the, the Iowas, the Iowa States. And I don't think families really understand what a Northwestern degree does for Their daughter, when, when you look at your 20 years, what are some of the careers your girls have gotten into and, and, and have done really well because of that degree at Northwestern? Oh, yeah, there's, there's all kinds, you know, from, um, you know, like one of the coaches on our staff, she's a, uh, pediatric dentist, you know, and went to university of Iowa after, after being here and she said she was unbelievably prepared, you know, for that. To a PA to, you know, we have, we have a really elite nursing program at Northwestern also that couples really well with our volleyball team. So, you know, we have probably seven, eight nursing majors every year. Um, in our program, you know, teachers, um, um, business leaders, um, they're assisting the Congressman in Iowa, you know, just phenomenal. Young women that are leaders, you know, powerful leaders, you know, in their fields. unbelievable, you know, christian leaders for their churches to, you know, in their homes for their families, you know, we're pretty proud of them. And, you know, I think Northwestern does just a great job of helping them prepare for the future. Yeah. And I knew you were going to have a list that if I gave you more time, you could go on and on and on. I just find it really fascinating. How, if you've got somebody that wants to give you an education in a school like Northwestern, I went to co there's so much you can do with that education. It doesn't matter what that name is on your diplomas. It's what you do with it and how you take advantage of it. And it sounds like your kids take advantage of Northwestern's education as much as they take, take advantage of your coaching. Yeah, for sure. So. Really, really good institution for sure. Yeah. I want to get into recruiting a little bit, but I want to, I don't talk a lot about this much, but I think it's so important for any young coaches that are going to step into the college program for the first time to really understand the relationship between athletics and the administration, your president, your VP, your deans, Your athletic director, what does that look like in terms of your relationship with those people at Northwestern and how impactful they are to your success? Oh man, that's huge. You know, as I talk to other coaches and stuff, and man, we're, we're really blessed at Northwestern. Our president is Greg Christie, and, um, he supports us while he's. He knows a lot about athletics. He cares about athletics. So, um, it's been awesome and, um, he gives us, you know, the freedom to be ourselves and, um, and just helps us that way. And then you go down, our athletic director is Tony hoops, and this is the second year here, and he's just brought a, um, a really good, uh, uh, aura and presence to our programs that. I've been awesome and helped, you know, go to bat for us for different things that we need. So, uh, to be successful. So, you know, I always tell our girls a lot of times I said we, I mean, our facilities are unbelievable. And a lot of the fundraising that advancement does and, um, President Christie does to allow us to have success. You know, so sometimes I tell our girls, we got everything but an excuse right now to be successful, you know, because the facilities are awesome. The weight rooms are great. You know, the administration cares about us. So. Um, we just get the flexibility and the freedom to play free then. Yeah, it's, and I've worked for great presidents and I've worked for presidents that really didn't know much about athletics and it was kind of an afterthought. And when you have an administration from the top down, that really understands what athletics is doing, the revenue it's bringing in, how many kids are filling beds that are athletes that are in the classroom that are athletes, the. The free marketing that goes on every time you win a game or win a championship or advance to the national tournament, those things are just irreplaceable. So when you have leadership that really gets that and buys into it, it makes your job so much easier, I would imagine. Yeah, you're spot on. Way, way easier. You know, we feel supported and there's not tension. It's huge, you know, and then you can just go and coach and know that they're behind you. Yeah Do you guys try and do a big trip every couple of years? Do you try and do some traveling? What what does that look like? Yeah, we typically about every three years. Um, Two or three years trying to get out and travel the varsity team We have a jv team also part of our our groups. We always have about 28 girls, but We'll take a little smaller number on a trip. So this past year for this season, we went out to Montana, uh, did a trip out there and we have some alumni out there that housed us to help make the trip even more affordable for us. But, um, man, those are just kind of neat bonding times as the team, you know, you're just hanging out together for a couple of days. I think we've gone to California three or four times. Um, there's starting to be less NAI schools out there. So it's a little tougher to go out there and the competition, the NAI competition. So, but yeah, but every three or four years we try to get out. Nice. That's so much fun. Those trips and you get to know the girls that are just completely different level when you get to go on those big trips. Um, does. Is that a part of your recruitment strategy, letting them know that you're gonna make sure they get different cultures and get to see outside of small town Iowa and get to get to kind of understand the world a little bit better. Is that a big part of your recruitment strategy? Uh, I would say a little bit, not not a ton, Matt, I would say, you know, we'll mention it a little bit, but. It seems to me now like a lot of the club kids, they've been traveling a lot, you know, they go to Kansas City and Indianapolis and Florida that they've seen a lot, maybe more than maybe 5, 10 years ago. So, um, you know, a couple of girls will ask, hey, You guys go on a trip or whatever, but, um, so it's probably a little bit less than I talk about. Yeah. Well, you've got such a great base that you recruit from in Iowa and around the surrounding areas. So a lot of those kids are probably drawn to the education and the opportunity to compete at a high level as much as anything are, what is your recruiting strategy? So I would imagine, I think you and I talked, you're probably already in to the 26th, as I would imagine. Are you doing anything with the 27s and 28s at this point or just kind of collecting names when they pop up a little more collecting names? And, you know, we have a pretty good camp in the summertime where a lot of girls will attend, you know, that have interest in us or we have in them. So we'll invite them there. But, um, you know, just it's not heavy recruiting as freshmen and sophomores yet. But juniors, yeah, we'll kind of start on them, you know, especially after this season, you know, I know some of the higher level ones will start deciding, you know, second semester of their junior year of high school, you know, they'll start thinking pretty hard about it. So, um, but yeah, recruiting feels like it's almost nonstop, you know, there's always something going on for sure. Never stops. What, what does your board look like? Whether you have a physical board or a, you know, uh, the idea of a board, how if you need. Obviously you have a JV program. So you're probably bringing in eight to 12 new kids every year. Yep. That's about right. Um, what does that board look like in terms of, do you have a tiered system where like, okay, here's the varsity kids who want, here's some kids we'd like to get in and develop, or are there 25, 30 kids, if you need, you know, you need an outside hitter for varsity. Are you looking at a top 30, a top 40? What does that look like for you? Yeah, you know, um, there's, we start compiling names, you know, all the time just putting girls in and out and we get probably three or four emails a day from players, you know, like, hey, here's my film, you know, those types of things. So, but, you know, for me, They got to, they got to fit Northwestern, you know, they got to, they got to fit who we are because then, then I know they're going to stay and play four years or however long they want to play. At least I know they're going to love being here, you know? So that's key one. So I try to be faithful to the girls who I think fit Northwestern really well. You know, then obviously there's different levels of. players all the time, right? And, um, you know, we can't have 28 lead singers in this band. It'd be a great band, you know, we got to have a little bit difference here. So, uh, and scholarship wise, and everybody's going to get the same, it's all going to change a little bit with, with that. So, but yeah, we're going to need a varsity group of players. a JV group of players. An JV group, um, can develop or make the varsity, you running a 62 this year an pl We take pride in our JV, um, doing well this year. They went 16 and one, you know, um, two years ago, they were undefeated last year, they lost twice. So we really try to train those girls well, so that they can make the jump, you know, to varsity and, and, um, yeah, hopefully they can keep developing as players. So we never want that feeling of, oh, they're just JV. It's like. You're playing like keep getting better at this. You know, you never know what's going to happen. Is there any value for you from an RPI standpoint to schedule D3s and D2s? Or is that something you look at? No, we, we really haven't done that too much. We haven't maybe 10 years ago, we played a D three, you know, that was close by, um, D twos. We really never played them just in the off season. We do our, we'll scrimmage them before the season. Yeah. Does your, you and your staff, do you dip into junior college recruiting transfers, the portal, uh, or how much of your, what percentage of your energy goes into those types of kids? Yeah, um, you know, on our team right now, we have, you know, one junior college gala libero played for for Iowa Central for two years, and she's here playing softball and volleyball. She's a shortstop for, um, softball and our libero. So pretty elite player at both. Um, You know, I would say if the, if a gal show interest in us and we think they fit from, from the junior college, then we'll, then I'll look pretty hard and have them come for a visit, but it's not like we're scout, you know, look, that's not going to be the foundation of who we are, but, you know, everyone's going to fill in a piece, but the transfer, you know, um, yeah, you know, a few years ago, we had a transfer, um, Anna Keel, her married name is Waitle, she played at Iowa State for a year and then came to us, you know, But she grew up in Orange City, um, and so she wanted to come back home. And then the same thing this year, we have a senior, um, Jazz Dahan, her married name is Dama now, and she played at Wayne State D2 school for a year and then came back home. So yeah, we have that some where girls come in and they're obviously really elite players and fit us really well. And um, so yeah, so that's kind of how we've done the transfer stuff a little bit. That's great. You're open minded and you use it to where you need a fit and you're always listening. And I love that. That's great, coach. I'm so impressed with you. And that's why I want to talk to you. And it's funny how many parents just asked me they want they want to hear, from every division level coach and a bunch of parents asked me to talk to some NAI coaches. They said, Well, I'm going to start with you. he'll, if he'll talk, we So I really appreciate it for you before I let you piece of significant advi to my audience, mostly pa kids, and it doesn't even volleyball. Is there some of live by and you talk t You know, I think, um, you know, for coaches coach your own personality, uh, I think is really key. You know, you got to know who you are. Um, second advice for coaches would be, um, know who you brought to the dance. You know what I mean by that? Like when you're coaching, know what your players can do and know what your players can't do. Okay. Probably the third thing for coaching would be as the best player is a confident player. So how is you as a coach, can you make them confident? That's it's, you know, and I found that the girls are pretty good at being hard on themselves. So I don't think you need to rip on them and tell them they're screwing up the game or whatever, but can you make them confident? Maybe it's a technique change, maybe it's a little encouragement, maybe it's writing them a note. You know, all those things, can you, can you make them really confident that way? And they're going to play really hard then for you, you know, um, I would say for parents enjoy this time of life. It's a blast, you know, uh, it's a lot of fun watching them. Um, keep, keep a big picture in mind, you know, um, you know, it's, and don't maybe always talk about the game afterwards. Let the kid kind of drive the ship of that. Um, you know, cause, cause yeah, you know, they want to, the kids want to know their love no matter they win or lose, obviously. And as parents, we love our kids. You know, at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter if they're winning and losing the match. We love our kids, you know, um, so, and then, you know, when you're choosing a college think big picture of the school, you know, like, is that the right fit? You know, because they're going to have a phenomenal experience if they fit the school, you know, because you never quite know what's going to happen. Volleyball wise, at least for me, I haven't really get injured, you know, but are they so pumped to be at that institution at that school? Then they'll have a great experience. That's great, coach. Thank you so much. I know you got a big one tomorrow night. I hope you guys do well. We'll be cheering for you. And if there's anything we can do for you down the road, don't be afraid to ask. All right. Thanks for having me on, Matt. Thank you, coach. That's a wrap for this episode of The Significant Coaching Podcast. I'd like to thank coach Kyle VandenBosch for talking about the fantastic opportunities available to student athletes. at the NAI level and how he's built a national powerhouse at Northwestern College. If you're enjoying these conversations, please click that subscribe button and share it with a friend. If you're a parent of a student athlete looking to play in college or a school administrator looking to help your families with college recruiting support, you can schedule a free strategy session with me at CoachMattRogers. com whenever you want. Thanks again for listening. Have a significant week. Goodbye, until next time.