Episode #98: Olivia Foley

🏐 Three Rings, One Mindset: Olivia Foley’s Path to Greatness at Juniata College

 She’s the setter who led Juniata College Women’s Volleyball to not one… not two… but three straight NCAA Division III National Championships. After her senior year, she was crowned National Player of the Year and celebrated on national TV alongside some of the biggest names in college sports.

In this episode of Significant Coaching, Olivia Foley takes us inside the mental and physical grind it took to stay at the top, the role her coaches, teammates, and her mom and older sister played in shaping her into the leader she is today, and the lessons she’ll carry far beyond the court. Mature, honest, and passionate — this is a conversation that will inspire athletes, coaches, and anyone chasing excellence.

💻 Learn more about host Matt Rogers’ work with athletes, families, and coaches at coachmattrogers.com.
📖 Be on the lookout for his upcoming book, The Volleyball Recruit’s Journal, arriving on Amazon in just a few weeks to help volleyball players take control of their recruiting journey.

Transcript

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As you can tell from the scores, from this past national championship, that's the closest anybody has been to beating us. And it was just because that mental side really, like physically we we're locked in, but mentally, it was just grueling, Welcome back to The Significant Coaching Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Rogers. What you just heard was Olivia Foley describing the mental toughness it took for her and her teammates to win. Not one, not two, but three straight NCAA division, three national championships, and she did it as the starting setter and leader for Jutta College women's volleyball. After her senior season, she was named the NCAA Division III National Player of the Year, and was celebrated on national television alongside stars like Yukon's, Paige, Becker's. That's Rare Air, but what makes Olivia so special isn't just the banners hanging in the gym or the hardware in the trophy case, it's who she's become in the process. She's mature. Honest and passionate. But as you'll hear today, her transformation didn't happen by accident. It's the product of an environment shaped by her coaches, her teammates, the mentors who have invested in her, and the unwavering influence of her mom, who has been a constant source of guidance and belief from the very beginning, the lessons Olivia has learned go far beyond the court. They've shaped her as a leader, a competitor, and as a person. I came into this conversation with high expectations, and Olivia exceeded every single one of them. She is truly a special athlete, but more importantly, she is a special human being. If you'd like to learn more about my work with athletes, families and coaches, visit coach matt rogers.com and be on the lookout in just a few weeks. My new book, the Volleyball Recruits Journal, will be available on Amazon to help volleyball players take control of their recruiting journey. Alright, let's get into it. Here's my conversation with the incomparable Olivia Foley. All right. Olivia Foley, it is number one. It's a great honor to have you on the show. Uh, I've been following your career and so impressed with everything you've done. How does it feel to be. Just a, a student, an adult, a professional. How does it feel, I know you're still working on your master's, but how does it feel that your, athletic career is over? It really does not feel real. I have a younger sibling that's going into, uh, be a student athlete in college and just with her workouts and whatnot, it was just crazy to be like, wow, I used to be in that position. I was ready to go, go, go and be on the run, do workouts, get up early, eat you know what you need to eat, right? And so be able to slow down and be like, I am able. To take, a break on my run, I'm able to walk instead of running the whole time. So,, it's been crazy, but it's, I'm still not out of that world completely. Does it, feel nice that your body doesn't hurt all the time? Yes, it is very nice. I don't have to go to rehab. I don't need to ice. I mean, I'll pop a few ibuprofen if you know, headache or, you know, knees hurt. But like I, I know that I'm not pushing my body to its fullest extent. So, yeah, I. I'm, I'm in my fifties, so I was a college athlete 30 years ago, and I went to the doctor this morning and they did, they needle my shoulder and did electric stim on me, and they go, have you ever had this done? I go, yeah, I was a college basketball player. I, I wouldn't have survived a day, a week without electric stim and stuff like that. So I, I get it. It's hard. Mm-hmm. When you look back on your four years. How would you describe your physical and your mental growth from your freshman year through your senior year? Oh, exponentially. I don't think I even knew exactly what I was. Was gonna throw myself into going into college athletics, especially during the pandemic, that was a whole nother layer of problems, right? But just the physical health, I think I really relied on that going throughout high school and then be able to get into college. But the mental health is where I really saw the huge growth. Um, obviously I knew I could put up with all the practices, I could put up with all of the lifts and conditioning, so one on my body was able to withstand that. But the mental side of it. Being able to choose your nutrition when nobody's there doing it for you, or to get up and go to rehab when nobody's gonna really push you to do it, but you have to make that choice, uh, your own. So that's where I saw the huge growth and being able to. Build on that and be able to become mentally strong rather than just relying on my physical health was huge. It was difficult. It was the hardest thing I had to do, but now it's so rewarding being able to go into the real world and be an actual adult. Uh, and you just have all these skills you never knew you were capable of having until now, working with a team and whatnot. Just, it's incredible. I'm a whole different person compared to who I was at 16, 17 years old. It's amazing what that experience can do for the rest of your life. I don't think anybody understands it if you haven't gone through it. Right? Right. Yes. Yeah. So let's, let's get into specifics.'cause I have a 16-year-old daughter who's a volleyball player and a golfer. Um, I don't know if she's gonna play in college, but,, she's learning how to have a work ethic. If you could go back in time and you've got a, a younger sibling, you just talked about this, going through this, what are some of those things you would teach yourself to say, I gotta get this started, I gotta do this better now? So I can make bigger leaps when I get there. Yeah, of course. Uh, definitely to become a morning person, it's not, it's, it's a challenge. It definitely is. But become that morning person, be able to get what you need to get done during that time and that alone time, and just that sense of accountability, being able to wake up on time, eat a good breakfast rather than skipping it, and then jumping into your workout and be able to eat. Do and feel your body exactly what it needs to be fueled with, and then jumping right into your workout or lift or conditioning or whatnot, um, but be able to do something. Most days of the week, but also give yourself those rest days. I wasn't able to really fully grasp that of the rest days. I was really in the mode of just do everything every single day, go on a run, go on a workout, so on, and being able to be like, no, I think I've pushed myself enough. I think I deserved to, sleep in extra hour the next day, or just. Maybe have that dessert, you've been withholding yourself for, um, just a few days of focusing on your nutrition and health, but be able to balance that. I mean, you're still a kid at the end of the day,, going into, at your daughter's age and my sister's age. Like, it's just, it's different and you're, no, you don't need to be an adult right away. You have that balance, but also be able to, um, be able to manage yourself. Well, we talked about before we click record, you're finishing up your master's in public health. Yeah. And this is what you're gonna do for a living. You're, you're good. You're gonna be training kids and adults and teaching them how to live a healthy lifestyle. And there's, there's no better role model for that than you. When you, when you look at the things you learned once you got to Juta, how long did it take you, were you like. I've got the commitment, now I've got my routines down. I believe in this. I am a morning person now. What was that process like? And when do you feel like you really got there where you're like, all right, I know what I have to do. I'm gonna stick to this and I'm gonna keep, keep doing it the right way. Oh, it definitely took me a good year, year and a half. Yeah. Uh, the first year, of course was COVID, so the coaches really weren't in play as much. They weren't at the practices, they weren't at the lifts. It was really those upperclassmen, the team captains that were really holding us accountable, and it made yourself wanna be as accountable as they are. So it took me that good first year to be able to realize that. Nobody's gonna be here to hold my hand. I'm not gonna have, you know, say my parents there, or my siblings or my high school coaches being like, did you do this? Did you do that? And instead, I had asked myself those questions. So definitely a good year at least. Yeah. Yeah. I, I talked to college coaches about this all the time. When we recruit a kid. We, we, my mindset was always, if I can get them by midway through their sophomore year to really understand our processes and procedures and how we lift and how we eat and how we study and how we learn the playbook and, and where it's not. I. It's not mechanical, it's, it's a part of them. We've done something. Right. So you really hit on that. You know that that midway mark of the sophomore year is really when those things start to get comfortable. Do you think. You had the ability at 16 or 17 to grasp some of that earlier, or do you feel like you had to go through the process you did to get to that point? For me, individually, I think I had to go through it. I think I had to learn with experience. And I think there are definitely 16, 17 year olds that are way more capable than I ever was at that age. Um, which is awesome. I mean, they have the right tools, right. Mechanics there. Yeah. But for me, individually, I needed to go through that and. Thank goodness I did as early as I did, rather than in the junior, senior year. And it's amazing what you did with your career, considering it started in the heart of COVID, where you didn't have the coaching, you didn't have, the day in and day out access. And as a D three athlete, it's not like it was a 12 month thing. It, you literally started with your team on August 12th and you were basically done November 1st, and then you were on your own for the rest of the time, you know? Mm-hmm. So that's, that's really impressive. I'm gonna, make you put your public health hat on for a little bit. Okay. Let's, talk nutrition. What, do you think a good diet is? For a student athlete? What should they be eating in the mornings? We burn so much. Calories as an athlete, 10 times more than the average person. So what does that look like? Are you a five meal person? Are you a double snacker? Are you big lunch and dinner? What? What's a good diet for, for a, for a great athlete? Yeah, well I am a snacker, so I'm all about the snacks. Say a fruit snack, a banana, an apple with peanut butter, which is my go-to. Absolutely. But, uh, yeah. But yeah, definitely have a good breakfast. I really resort to like eggs, maybe some potatoes. I'm a stucker for bacon, so I have to have that somewhere on the plate. Um, but I also love having just a nice. Bowl fruit or a yogurt bowl. Um, lunch, I could go kind of, uh, smaller in size. I'm kind of a big dinner and big breakfast person with snacks along the way. Um, but also everything comes in moderation. I mean, you can follow a diet strictly and that could be the worst thing for you. You need to be able to venture out and be able to have that dessert or have that extra snack. Or, you know what? If you don't wanna have that big bowl fruit and you. Just wanna have, say more potatoes, more eggs, or anything like that, do it. If you wanna have that one soda a day or more, do it. I mean, it's not gonna hurt you. And eventually your body will learn to understand how you need to feel yourself in order to be the best version of yourself, whether it's an athlete or as an individual. But, and I'd say the biggest takeaway would be just everything in moderation. I was a head college coach for so long. You're recruiting so much that I found myself in gyms at night so often that for many, many years it was a hot dog and a bag of popcorn. That was my dinner, you know, and right, and I, I got, I started putting weight on, and about three years ago I lost 30 pounds because I. I got all that garbage outta my diet and I really bought into the fruit too. I've always been a fruit eater, but now, man, I, I eat green grapes and bananas and apples, like they're going on a stop.'cause I'm an addictive eater. I'm a, I can sit down and eat a, a pint of ice cream and a bag of chips. Mm-hmm. Of fries and like nobody else. So for me, when I'm craving, I go to grapes and I go to apples and, and I'm a big smoothie eater too, so I love a kale smoothie with some fruit in it. And so I love hearing all that. Let's talk about the mental side, because I know that's really important to you. Yeah. Okay. What did you learn as a 17, 18-year-old about your value system and your self-worth? And, and talk a little bit about how your coaches helped you with that. Yeah, so at that age of coming right out of high school, 17, 18 years old, um, I saw my self worth really in the form of an athlete. I didn't really, um, separate the two in a sense. I just saw as Olivia as an athlete, and that's how she's going to, Go to school. That's what, really drove her towards the school and that's how she has been throughout her life. I was a four sport athlete during high school, so it was just a big part of my identity. Um, but going through that and the coaches at Junior, they were able to separate that within. My mind of like, it's not the same thing and we see you more than just an athlete. Um, and just as an individual as a whole. So being able to realize that and understand, you know, there is more to myself than just that one aspect, um, was huge for me. So I think it's. Great that there are 17, 16 year olds that are able to, uh, decipher that and able to distinguish that. Uh, I'm an individual. I play sports, whether it's volleyball or golf or any other sports out there. Um, but I am way more than just my sports and I, I'm a well-rounded individual rather than just one aspect driven. Yeah, you are. And, and it shows. Mm-hmm. It, I, you know, I haven't dug deep into your social media, but I don't feel like you're a big social media person. Is that true? That is very true. Yeah. Okay. I love that. Okay. We let my daughter start a couple of things a couple years ago, and I have a little bit of regret that we did. I, I wish we wouldn't have let her start some of these things. Not that it's been a hindrance and her grades are great and she's still a good kid, but I worry about self-esteem that I see on social media, especially with young girls. I, I, that's, it's been so prevalent now that you have to show skin and you have to act a certain way and you have to do all that. What do you see? Is there some advice you give to young girls that you think they need to understand about all those things that they're putting out into the world? Oh yeah. It, our first thing is we look and we compare,, we don't look and say, oh wow, you know, that's great that she's doing this and that, but it's rather, why am I not doing. What can I do to do that instead of being like, I'm my own individual and I'm not gonna live her life. She's not gonna live mine. And that kind of leads into, athletics where there's a lot of, uh, high school kids that are really posting on their Instagram or TikTok or any other social media platform. Snapchat. Oh, yes. Everything. I don't even have Snapchat, but I just, I feel like it's. It's like the stock market on my daughter's phone. It's just a rolling scroll that's always there. You know what I mean? Yes. And really ultimately, at the end of the day, it is pointless, but it just, it draws in that crowd, I mean, I have all the social media platforms and it drew me in and it's, you know, kept me this long. But just seeing what other people post and how young girls are comparing themselves and whatnot, I mean, it's. It's heartbreaking. But then there's also aspect of where there are 16, 17 year olds that have that self-worth and they're able to identify their selves as more than just their sports. And they're able to see these individuals post and these same girls as their age and they're able to support. So I think there's both cons and pros to social media, but when the cons are there and the comparing sets in it's, it could be down a rabbit hole. I've, listened to a number of your interviews and you kind of watch from a distance and, and I'm so impressed with the fact that you just, you don't seem to have insecurities, so at least they're not on the, on the forefront for you. We all have insecurities. We're all, we all want to make sure our hair looks nice and we, we dress nice when we go out, especially when we're on camera. You know, we wanna look good. Where did that start for you? And, and am I misreading it? No, uh, I think I have, of course, like I try and present myself in a way where I don't have as many insecurities as say I am, you know, have inside. Um, but I think it definitely started with my mom. I mean her and then my older sister as well. Like, they were just like, I am who I am, and either you like it or you don't, and that's that, I'm not gonna change myself or. Who you need me to be, you know? So I think that's really where it stemmed from and just family members being able to be confident within themselves and yeah, that's that. And I'm sure you have a lot of friends and you know a lot of people that maybe didn't have that growing up. And this is me bagging as a parent for any type of direction. So, you know, what would you tell parents about how to approach. These years, especially with a teenage daughter, it's like I'm trying to learn Latin and Greek at the same time. Yeah. So what advice do you give to parents about raising a female student athlete and all the pressure that's on you and all the pressure they're seeing on TV and on magazines, and especially social media? What advice do you give us? Yeah, I would definitely say try and get that phone out of their hands. I know it's, it's way harder than it is, you know? Yeah. And of course, I mean, it's hard for me to even put my phone down, you know? Me too. And I'm able to realize that it's, it's too much of our lives. Um, but just try, just try and get them out. I think keeping them, say in like a club environment with athletics. Being able with them to have like friends in different schools, different towns, different states, just so they're able to venture out and meet people through,, the old fashioned way, rather than texting them or DMing them on Instagram, something like that. Just get'em out of the house. Be able to build those connections with the team and. The players and whatnot, um, but also be able to go out and be like, you know what? We're gonna go and we're gonna go kayaking, or we're gonna go play volleyball outside, rather than stay indoors in the gym. Because, it's grueling, especially with volleyball, just staying in the gym, playing, you're not. Able to be exposed to sunlight or to any other individuals that aren't in the gym. So just get'em out of their normal environment, get'em out of their comfort zone as much as you can. But also know that line of, especially with teenage girls, they're gonna let you know when enough's enough and so listen to them. Um, would also be the other part of that. Yeah. That's, that's the hard part for us parents is shut up. Just shut up for a little bit, you know? Right. Listen more. And, that's, that's the one thing I've tried to get better at, is just being quiet, giving her the space to find her voice with me and, and, um, let her lead the conversation or, so it's, it's hard. It's really hard as a parent. Yeah. It's a tough balance. It's, it is. All right. So. Your, your future is gonna be great. I, I'm so excited that we're getting somebody like you, Olivia, that's going into the world of public health and wants to be a teacher, want, not necessarily a teacher, but you're gonna be a role model for the rest of your life. You're gonna be someone that's gonna guide others. So I'm excited about that. What does that look like and how did Giata help you become that person you want to be? Yeah. Uh, the Juliana coaches, they were able to recruit such a wide variety of individuals, and not only did they come with their own, strengths, weaknesses, but they also came with their own like leadership style of like, are they a leader? Are they not? If they are a leader, what's their leadership style? And if they. Able to let someone else take the reins, then what do they need for like constructive criticism or where's the balance of, do you need to be constructive or do you need to be a little bit harsher in a sense of just straight to the point, more strict? That was a big tool that was able to gain from all of those individuals that we had on the team and be able to understand like. A look at someone's face or their demeanor, where is that balance to just be like, okay, I'm gonna shut up right now. Instead of just badgering them, nonstop. Uh, just being able to understand that balance and everybody's so different. So being able to take those curve balls from everybody, you don't know what you're gonna get every day and you're not gonna be your best self every day, and that's just, that's just, you know, reality. So being able to understand that, uh, I think is really gonna help me with prevail my future. I, I love that you went there because for me it was, it was always so important for me to build a melting pot in my program. I wanted the team to look different. I wanted them to be from different cultures. I wanted small town kids. I wanted city kids. If we could get kids from other countries, if we could get kids from different economic backgrounds, I just knew if we get that group to work together, what we were gonna do was gonna be amazing. And, and I know coach does that at Giata too. When I watch you play, there's a different animal that shows up on film than what I'm seeing. Mm-hmm. Okay. I see you bark. I see you get real serious. I see you not afraid to get into your, in your teammate's faces a little bit and, and teach and coach and bark and, and be that leader. Where did that come from? I seriously have no idea. I think just something, inside me was just like, there's a switch and when you get on the court, like even in, I mean you saw it mostly in games, but in practice too. Like it just, it went on and when. The practice was over or the game was over, it would turn completely off. Um, I think that was kind of the core of my recruiting class, so not particularly me, it was just how the pieces fit together. It was just like the perfect puzzle. I mean, there was three of us in the graduate class at Juliana and so being able to just like trust each other that we were like, when we are on the court, we. Or someone else. And if you say something, don't take that message personally, because we just wanna win and we'll do everything in our power to do that. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I love it. And you, you don't accomplish what you did as a group without that mentality. All right. So let's go back, let's, let's talk to these young women out there that are listening to this Yes. Who are afraid to say to a teammate, Hey, you're not working hard enough. We need more outta you. We need you more explosive. We need you to find that fire. We need you to, we need you to get down and be more consistent. I see that outta your team. I see you pushing each other and there's so many young girls in club level that are afraid to do that. Afraid to push a teammate, afraid to ask more of that. How do we get'em there? How do we get'em to accept that? That's how you get to be great when you can. You can be honest. Right. I think we established it right off the gi. I mean, uh, the coaches at Juliana, they let us be a team led team, essentially. I mean, the coaches were there, of course. I mean, they're the coaches, but like we, we were the ones that brought people in. If we didn't think that there was a. A drill going, right? If it was up to our standard, there were individuals on our team that were like, we're gonna bring it in, hold the balls, bring it in, guys. This is not up to our standard and we are gonna hold every single person accountable. And then we would disperse and we would just do it. I think it was just a decision that everyone had to make within themselves. Um, our gym, we didn't play normal volleyball. We were playing things off the wall, playing things off of ball carts, basketball hoops, and we were like. The play is not over until the ball hits the ground. Love it. Essentially it can hit everything but the ground. Yeah. We're playing it off. Faces, shoulders, I mean, just craziness. So being able to push ourselves past, like the actual rules of volleyball. It came. Almost easier to play within the boundaries of the game of volleyball. We were like, if you're not gonna get the ball this time, you're gonna make the diving play. You're gonna have the best effort you can, but next play, you're gonna get one inch closer. If you're not gonna get it, you're gonna get closer. Yeah. Essentially. And being able to give that Criticism of like specifically, I remember one example where there was a, a girl she ran after a ball, she, she ran after she gave an effort and we came into a huddle and I said, I appreciate your effort. I really do, but I think that you can get that ball. You know what I mean? It was just like giving belief and support into the girls around you was just, it was huge, especially for like a huge team of young women, you know? What about that teammate that's not ready to accept it yet? The criticism, the, the coaching, the barking. What if mm-hmm. That's, that's the kid that we need to get, that's the kid that we need to turn over to the, the right side. How do we get right? How do we have the confidence to keep pushing her to say, we need more out of you. And she's fighting you. She's fighting that. We would, there would always be those individuals on your team. Of course that would say would be more. Challenging in a sense of they're gonna gain your face. They're the ones that get in your face. So we would have those individuals choose those young freshmen or underclassmen, like the ones that you're describing, and we would be like, that's your big sister. You're gonna take her and you're gonna try and get her into this. You're gonna try and morph her almost into understanding that the criticism is beneficial. Yeah. Uh, we would give her that time to be able to adjust because nobody. Not everybody's going to get that experience in high school. Someone might get a coach that's just gonna hold their hand across the whole time and, give only positive reinforcements rather than giving the, also the constructive criticism that they need. So being able to understand that they might need time to adjust to that. Once that time, that honeymoon phase almost is over. It's back to business because essentially at the end of the day, I mean, college athletics we're there to not only like meet new people and build chemistry, but the coaches, they wanna win. The school wants to see sports succeed, of course. So being able to understand that balance of that girl might not be ready. But we'll give her time to be. And then if she's still not ready, we will try and give her the support and the criticism that she needs. But sometimes it might be beneficial to split your ways of between the program and between the team. Uh, sometimes it's just not the right fit. And of course, this transfer portal has opened up Windows for individuals. There's people that have come to Juta, people that have left Juta and have found perfect fits for them. So understanding that it might not be a good fit at the end of the day, and that's okay too. Understand that there's so many solutions that can come out of it rather than just continuously barking at that one individual. I love it. I love it. It's a great mindset. We have to treat everybody the way they need to be treated to help them figure out their own path. Let, let's, let's go back to the mental health side of that. Kind of the flip side of,, not, not the kid that's got the ego that we need to kind of get him to understand this is a team first, but let's talk about that kid that's dealing with things that maybe we don't understand. There's abuse, there's, there's a sadness, there's a depression, there's stuff going at home, stuff going on in relationships, stuff going on with substances. Uh, maybe it's L-G-B-T-Q-Q stuff that they're dealing with and not sure how to express that or the fear of that. How do you be a leader for the, those kids? Yeah. I think there's certain people on a team that are able to. They're more equipped almost to deal with that and how there will be certain people, whether it's an upperclassmen or a team captain, or if it's not, if it's someone in the same grade as an individual that's dealing with some sort of trauma like that, that those individuals will bond with who they choose. And so being able to really. Hone in on those relationships and don't force something, don't force that upperclassmen, don't force that team captain onto an individual that is really struggling, but rather let them find their way and provide the perfect fit rather than the ideal fit, I guess is what I would wanna say, um, to that. Yeah. So how did, how did coach handle that in terms of giving you guys the license? To be open-minded openminded to, to, to think about other people, to think ab, to have that humility and think about others. Before you thought about yourself, what, what are some of the things co your coaching staff did to help you get there to, to feel comfortable being those type of teammates? We had a continuous amount of meetings about this. We would just talk and talk and talk about it and, sometimes the meetings would get very. Annoying in the sense, or just boring of like, we've heard this a million times, but she would change it up in the sense of, we're gonna talk to this as a team. Don't think of us as coaches. Say what you want. Go freely, and there'll be no, like, of course there's no punishment when we're talking about issues within the team and trying to build our chemistry and whatnot. But also, they would schedule a meeting and they would leave. They would just let the team go. Whether it was a just a. Kind of a barking meeting where everyone's just going at one another or whether it's more constructive of being like, I think that this would be better for you. Or if, I think if you would change your attitude in this manner, I think it would not only help you but the team. So being able to get yourself out of your head. I think with those meetings, I mean, that's what coaches at Genea did great. And being able to understand that yes, the coaches are there. They are in charge, of course. Also, if you need them to fix something, they would always schedule personal meetings with us and like a check-in of some sort. And one of their last questions was, what do you need from us? Like, of course they need stuff from us. They needs to play better, need better attitude, so on and so forth. But what could they do better for us? Whether that was, I need you to approach me in this way. Or this manner, if I need criticism or if I give you a certain look or if I tell you like, just not today, they're able to understand. Okay, thank you for telling me your boundaries and establish, those and being able to back off when things are tough. It just speaks volumes to what you guys accomplished on the scoreboard to where that all started. It, really does. For the last 10, 15 years. I'd always tell my teams and, and the individuals, when we do individual meetings, your job is to kind of figure out what kind of relationship you have with me. It's gonna be different than Tom, it's gonna be different than Susie. It's gonna be different than Darrell. What was your relationship with Coach? The first two years compared to the second two years. And what role did you play in getting it to the relationship you wanted it to be? Because you can see on the floor how much confidence you have that your coaching staff has faith in you. So I, I'm interested in where, where you turn the corner there to get to that point, to have the relationship you wanted to have. Yeah, I think the first few years it was distant, you know, especially that COVID year, they were never really around because they couldn't be. Yeah. Um, so it was just kind of like a, oh hey coach and, get out the gym and really wasn't, we wouldn't really divulge in any. Conversations until like halfway through sophomore year or even into junior year. And it, I thought of conversations with your coach as just, sports, but they saw it as like, how are your classes, how are you feeling today? I knew you were sick last week. Like it was just about you rather than a player. And rather like, oh, hey, you're hitting percentage isn't up, or We need a location on that set a little bit better. It just, it really grew from there. So it was really me being willing to actually talk more to my coaches rather than, uh, just see them as individuals there to help me get better ac or athletically, but they were there just to make me better as a person. So that's where my mindset switched. And then all of a sudden, relationships grew, connections were made, so on and so forth. And that's really where it started. And of course, I'm the same age as coach's son, so we were able to kind of go through like the recruiting of, what colleges. Are you looking at? Why are you looking at'em? What are you looking for in a college? Um, so, you know, my parents and herself, they were able to kind of connect on that level. So it just, it did start from the beginning, but myself, it didn't start till probably about sophomore and junior year. How much of it was fear of your coach? Uh, probably 80%. I, I don't need you to talk so much about Coach Pavlik'cause I know she's a, she's fiery and she, she gets after it. Yes. But I was like that too. And I think it took my players a couple of years to understand who I am on the court. Is different who I am when we walk just like you are. Yeah. You know? When did you start to figure that out? That there was more to coach p than, than, what you saw in practice every day. Well, I think some, sometimes I just like forgot that she also was a college athlete. Not only just in general, but at Juliana. Like, she knew everything, the traditions, the culture itself, you know, values. Yeah. And so just being able to realize that she's not just. Like some coach, like she was a player. She was not only a center, you know, same position as I am. Yeah. And it was just, it was just perfect being able to connect with her on so many levels. And I was able to get outta my head about this fear. Like she's not like, yes, she's the coach, we should be fearful to a certain degree. Right. But also like. I kind of saw of like a mother figure in a sense, a second mom, away from home and so on and so forth. So just like she, like, she's great. She's a great coach, but she was also a great player. Like it's just, I have so much to learn from her, and I did, and it was perfect. That's great. You know, and I, I was like this as a kid. I don't know if I ever got past the fact that my coaches were my coaches and I don't know if I ever accepted, they're a human being. They're a parent, they're a former athlete. Mm-hmm. They've been through everything I'm going through. Everything. They're making me do that. I hate somebody. Made them do. Exactly. Yes. So now they're just doing the cycle over again. It's just, and they, they realize at a certain point that they could handle it. It was a good thing. They're trying to get me there. Right? Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's great. It's, it's just a couple of human beings trying to get, you know, with some similar goals and we have to share those things. Right. Um. You tipped on recruiting a little bit. We're gonna get into recruiting here in a little bit. Yep. So, I, I've got so many questions I wanna get into from where you, where you just went, but I'm gonna hold onto'em. Let's, let's talk about winning championships. Let's talk about, let's talk about going undefeated, right? Mm-hmm. You went undefeated this year, right? Yes. The two years. Yep. I mean, you haven't lost the game since what you were six, seven, so she feels Yeah. It's so hard. Okay. I, get off the phone with coaches all the time and I just got off the phone with a Hall of Fame baseball coach, and they lo they, I think they went like 58 and one. Mm-hmm. And I gave him the date that they lost that one game. And I go, tell me about that date. And he goes, he goes like. Was that our only loss? And I go, yeah. I go, how important was that loss to winning the championship? And he said Everything. We needed to realize that we were infallible. We needed to realize you guys haven't had that in two years. Nobody's beat you. Right? What does that feel like when everybody's bringing their A game, their A plus game to you? What does that feel like every day? It felt terrible. Honestly, like it just, the pressure and just the noises just became louder and more heavy to carry on your shoulders. Um, so as the days went on, we, we kind of, as a team, we just collectively were like, we hear the voices, but you know what, we're gonna tell'em to shut up. Like, whether it was parents or other Julietta fans or just people on campus, like just in your ear always about these streaks and keep it alive, don't lose it. And it was just like, I love you, but. Please shut up. I don't wanna hear about it. I really don't like, right. I'm only focused on, say this practice, if it was a random Wednesday, like, I'm focused on this practice, I'm not even thinking about the game come this weekend. So I think that as a team, we were just like, oh. We're gonna do this for ourselves. We're not doing it for the streak, we're not doing it for all those, voices and, uh, family members and just friends that were just like, oh, I can't wait to see it live or hope you don't lose. It was just like, people are gonna either hope to see us win or they're gonna hope to see us lose. We just wanna hope to see us grow. Like as long as we get closer, we had certain goals that we would set, whether it was we're gonna side out with this percentage, or we're not gonna miss this many serves, or we're trying to ace them as much as we can. Just, we had certain standards and boundaries that we were able to establish in goals, but as long as we kept it within the team, that's where we really saw the most growth. So it was, it was really tough to play throughout that. Like it was just, you would think about it and sophomore year was just way more fun, we would say just because there we were no buddies, we were the underdogs, you know? Yeah. Everyone's rooting for the underdog. So we had all this support, but once you're there at the top, it's grueling, it's just like, please put on my earmuffs. I don't want to hear anything more about these dumb streaks. Um, we're not doing it for that, so why does it matter now? Yeah. And that's why you'll, whenever you see a national championship, oftentimes you'll see the, an energy after the win where it's almost like they're kind of raising the middle finger as they're walking off the court. Exactly. You know what I mean? Yeah. Because we did this. You all were against us. You all made this so much harder. So I, for years, I would send out communication guidelines to my parents. When I was a high school coach and a college coach, I would just say, this is how you talk to me. This is when you don't talk to me. And I would, and I would put in there your son or daughter. I. It's gonna be a part of something that you may not understand whether you are an athlete or not. You don't understand what they're going through. They have this separate family, so when they're not talking to you about certain things or they kind of shut down when you want to talk about certain things, you need to understand that that's okay. They need that because they're dealing with something with 18 other people that nobody else understands what they're going through. And you have to be okay with that. You have to be able to say, all right, I know your boundary. I gotta step away. That's not my team, that is not my family. That, that you're a part of. Right. Right. Right. No ex It's mostly that mental game, for us, I mean, we could, we proved to ourself, we proved to the entire country that physically we can be anybody. And we did. You did. Yes, we, we were like machines, but it was after the game, or it was even during the sets, in timeouts. It was just, you could really see that mental piece. Like either fall apart or really come together. As you can tell from like the games, the scores, you know, from this past national championship, that's the closest anybody has been to beating us. Yeah. And it was just because that mental side really, like physically we we're there, we're locked in, but mentally, like it was just grueling, playing the same teams over and over again. And it was like, it's, it get, it's just really tough to beat a team, three, four times in your whole career. So all that was coming to the end right there at the last national championship. And we proved to ourselves and proved to all of those individuals that were just hating on us and waiting for our downfall. Uh, just say, there you go. There's the day middle finger, and we did it, and we're gonna walk out with our third. And you'll never see us again. I watched the Teamy beat the championship more than anybody else that you played all year. I, I probably watched him play live three times, on TV three times. And I watched him play and I was like, I don't think anybody's gonna come close to beating this team. And, and the fact that, what'd they take a set from you? Yep. And it was the first set anybody had taken from you in a while, right? Yes. Yeah. That streak too. And that was snapped and that was broken. Oh my goodness. That, that's what's amazing to me because it's when you're on that type of streak, when you're on a set winning streak the way you were mm-hmm. You hadn't, you guys hadn't given up, nobody had gotten to 25 on you. Right. Long, long time. Mm-hmm. So the fact that you lost a set in that championship game and, and had the resilience to come back and do what you did the next two sets, that's what was impressive for me. Yeah. What was that conversation like in the huddle after losing, because it was set two. Uh, the last game? Yeah, we lost set three and four. Okay. So what was that like in the huddle? What were those conversations like? I'm intrigued. Yeah. Well, okay, so after set two, we go and we have a little break. Yeah. The two teams do, we have like the five minute break in between and we were like, we're just gonna, we're just gonna fricking finish'em. We're done. Like we we're done messing around, we're just gonna do it. And all of a sudden, they come back stronger than ever, kudos to them. It was fantastic. But after that, like the conversations and the huddles and the timeouts, it was just like, guys, we know we can do this. Why are we letting them take it from us? Like we obviously worked so hard for everything that we were, rewarded for up until that point. And we were like, we've never let anybody take anything from us. We've never been able to just lie down and have things given to us, so why are we doing it now? And it was just almost like this anger. But not like directed anger. It was anger. Like, we wanna win and we're so focused and we fueled on our anger. And that's how we eventually pushed through. You know, in the timeouts we were like, we would always come together and most times, you know, you come in a huddle and you put your hand flat. Everybody was putting a fist in. I think we just wanted to punch something. I think we were just, we were ready to go swing it for, you know, the walls. And that's that. We came out ahead. I think it really went back, you know, all the way back into 2022 when we won the first national championship and we beat them out of anger because they were the last team to beat us. And we were like, we're never gonna do that again. They will never beat us. And we kind of forgot about that. You know, people can beat us. People are, they're a great, great teams, great individuals around the country, and they have the great capabilities of doing it, but. When we get angry, there's just a switch that goes on and we hit a different level of volleyball on that. I don't know, I didn't know exist truthfully. Um, but yeah, it was really just fuel by anger. And for the most part, I love it and I, I could talk to you all day about this, but we're gonna, we're gonna stop here and we're gonna get into your, your recruiting segment here, but, oh, yeah, but I, I want to talk about this'cause this is such a big deal. This is what the average high school athlete doesn't understand. Okay. Mm-hmm. I just watched this great movie, um, about the woman that swam the English. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about? Yes. She played Ray in the Star Wars movie. Yeah. I can't remember her, her name, but she's just awesome. I just love her as an actress and this movie was great and it's that mentality that, that you have as an athlete. You have to overcome. I've, I've, I've swam, I just swam 20 miles. I just won 39 games in a row, and I'm exhausted. I got, I got nothing left, but I'm gonna find a little bit more. Mm-hmm. I'm not gonna quit here. Right, right. Can we teach that? No. I don't think you can. I think individually it cannot be taught collectively. I think it can be learned. I think once you have certain mindsets and certain attitudes, you know, mesh together, I think that's where it came from. I think that's where it sprouted from. But individually, I don't think it can be taught.'cause we're not talking about golf here. We're not talking about swimming. We're not talking about track. This is a team sport you're playing. Mm-hmm. So collectively is the key word there that you used. Yes. You know. You know you've got it. But if you didn't have 6, 7, 8 other girls that had it on that team, do you get there? No, because, you know, you come out with that anger almost, and if it was just one or two people with that same anger, it would just be like, oh, I cannot play with Olivia. I, I can't do it. She's mean, or she comes off too, too much. She's too much for me. She's, you know, raising my stress levels. But when you have, you know, four or five people and you're able to reign in that anger rather than directing it towards one individual, but you're trying to bring it together collectively as a team. Direct it towards the other team that you're playing. Yeah. And you're like, we're gonna do it, you know, against them. It's kind of like siblings teaming up and you're like, we're gonna do it against mom and dad. You know? So that's kind of where it stems from. But I think if you have the right chemistry and collectivist and nothing's ever gonna stop you. Ownership, right. It can't be one person taking on that ownership. Mm-hmm. It's gotta be, it starts with a small group and then it grows. And then those ones that haven't been a part of it yet are like. I'm tired of being last in every sprint. I'm tired of, I'm tired of not getting on the floor. You have to get to that point where you say, I'm sick of this. I'm going to be up there. I'm gonna, I'm gonna start being the pusher instead of the tanker. Exactly. Yes. Yeah. I love it. Olivia Foley, you are fantastic. I'm so impressed with you. Uh, I can't wait. We're gonna talk recruiting here, so anybody that wants to come back on Monday, and we're gonna talk about Olivia's recruiting journey, but thank you for doing this. Thank you. That's a wrap on another great episode of significant Coaching. Huge thanks to Olivia Foley for a transparent, thoughtful look at her championship journey. From three straight national championships at Jutta to being named NCAA Division three, national Player of the Year, and most importantly, the person she's become through it all. If you enjoyed this conversation, there's more waiting for you@coachmattrogers.com. Past episodes, articles, and resources for athletes, families and coaches, and keep your eyes open in the next few weeks for my new book, the Volleyball Recruits Journal, arriving on Amazon to help volleyball players take control of the recruiting journey week by week. And don't miss part two with Olivia coming Monday, August 18th on significant recruiting, where we dive into her recruiting process, what she learned, and her best advice for young recruits, parents and college coaches. Until next time, keep leading with significance and we'll see you back here soon.