State Teams – Richard “Sooty” Casutt speaks

The response to my post on the decline of SA’s competitiveness at AJVC has been overwhelming. A plethora of people from either side of the divide have weighed in, but perhaps the most intriguing insight comes from this response from former SA state team Czar, Richard “Sooty” Casutt – the central figure in Volleyball SA’s decision to radically expand the programme.

Not only was he the one behind it all, but his response introduces possibly the biggest piece of the puzzle in this discussion: the failure to secure “Buy-in” from some of our top coaches in the changes to the programme.

I disagreed and argued with Sooty on a lot of things, but this much is certain: he is a superb coach with countless successes in coaching a wide range of players and teams; he is an excellent beach referee on the FIVB tour; and he gave of himself tirelessly to improve the sport…

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SOOTY

Well it is an interesting read on the theory of the 2 or 3 state teams. As one of the insitgators in the change way back in 2001, i give the thoughts at the time of why and what….I believe i was lucky (or unlucky) being an outside from nz, coming into one of the believed stronger state team programmes in Australia. my views and experiences were different that the people i was working with, but i knew this was a great oppotunity to learn from some of the legends of volleyball in australia in the 80s and 90s.

when i arrived in sa, i noticed several things which i think may or may not hold back volleyball in SA inthe future:
1 – the state teams of SA in 2000 (i coached nz that year at ajvc) and 2001 were significantly shorter than the other strong states – QLD, VIC
2 – the u21 mens and womens teams were struggling for numbers and barely had 6 players to match their counterparts.
3- Junior league was strong in 2001, with quality the of players evident
4- state league was dominated by teams and players that were older – 28 plus in age, with a spinkling of talented youth.
5- the philosophies of the Australian national programmes were changing to align with international tendancies for elite volleyballers.
6 – a lot of the state coaches had been in their roles for a long time, and there had been limited succession planning to replace them.
7 – a shortage of coaches at state league level

with these factors higlighting issues – the risk was taken to expand the teams, with me driving that change ….. which believe me was a difficult task with some of the characters which exist, and control volleyball at youth level in SA. The change would hopefully alleviate many of the forseeable problems in the near future.

but – i was not in sa to do what they already do, as it looked to me and other leading coaches in the Australian programmes that there need to be change.

the concept was simple…
1 – we needed to develop more quality coaches through exposing them to real situations.
2 – we needed to increase the number of athletes that fitted the national team programme criteria – why – because the state programme is not just about winning, but also developing potential international athletes.

3- other state had a higher percentage of athletes in national programmes, already, consequently you would expect them to dominate at juniors level. If we did not produce some athletes of this calibre (athletic ability that can play the ball high above the net) we would not compete when the pressure came on in the future as we would not match physically.

For this to work ,we needed the ‘buy in’ of some experienced quality coaches, to help guide the lesser experienced coaches through the tough times, without taking full control.
Unfortunately some key people here did not buy in.

it was very obvious that SA teams were picked on stuff that wins junior volleyball, great serving, solid passing, and a determination to play great defense. one player or maybe two would have potential to play for Australia in the future.
Unfortunately at the other states could not compete on this level, so went to where they have an advantage – larger population more taller athletic athletes. it has taken a while to work out how to manage a taller athelete when they are young gangly and not as coordinated as a 15, yr old. but as a 20 yr old, they dominate 21s, AVL and not play overseas on contracts. Victoria, and queensland have taken full advantage of this now.

the change was envisaged to really start working in 3-4- 5 years time, with the right leadership, and continual input and support from the knowledge bearers in SA.

also because of the quality of these people, it was also believed that 2 SA teams could be the finalists in one single age group of the national junior championship.

i question the support of some people to help the inexperienced coach, and players. They were more concerned about their own agendas, and not there for the good of all!

For SA to be strong we needed more involvement from more participants, with better athletic ability. Unfortunately the programme i believe did not receive the full support it granted, consequently the quality of the 3rd team coaches may have been questionable…..but i only believe this because of the lack of support given by people whom oposed the change on their views, and were not prepared to give it a full go. With proper support these people would develop, into potentially expert coaches.
question – was a top coach now, a top coach when they started coaching?

my last year of these programmes was 2005,
sa dominated the tournament – yes it was at home,
but
u17 mens – should have won
u17 women – won with 5 players whom did not make the u16s the year before but played in the u17 nd or 3rd teams
u19 women – won well – 3 players fron the u17 team the year before, and one from the 3rd team
u21 womens – silver – undefeated till the final, should have won,
u19 men – won – 2 players from the u17 nds, plus 4 from the u19 second team the year before
u21 men – struggle to put a full team on the court at home, but ended with a respectable 3rd, and a great win against a stacked vic team.

i truly believe sa should have won 5 golds and 1 silver, out of 6. which would have been the best results ever by sa teams at national juniors.

many of the the tournament team players that year were players whom may not have played volleyball if they did not get the opportunity to play in a 2nd or 3rd team at state level in previous years – mel cross, greg sukochev, becchara palmer. I also think players like chris mchugh would not be playing now if they did not have the opportunity they got in a second u19 team.
AVL was won by USC lion – which was made up of some beach players, and a lot of younger athletes whom got oppotunities they may have not got in the past – they had potential but had not developed the game awareness and statistical accuracy to compete at the top level … yet.

unfortunatly time was up for me, and i headed back to nz.
from a lot of accounts the leadership and direction, and support for coaches from has been reduced in the programme, exaggerating the excuses and incidences of unprofessional behaviour, and development of coaches. consequently creating the negative views of having more…..
the top teams in each age group … are still the top teams .. are they not?

stateleague evolved, and a the old players retired (except slugger) so a lot of young people have had opportunities at state league to shine.

SA is still dominating the national beach programmes…..

i am not convinced the reasons given by people to stop opportunities for athletes to compete,regardless of their level plus the comment like “the athletes know they are in a state team so they do not work as hard”, “the “coaches and programmes are not good because the coaching is poor”, “the national champs is devalued by having these weaker teams that only lose” …. etc are a reason to stop 3rd teams from existing… making sure these things do not happen, by contributing and supporting instead of criticising and questioning

as a reasonable successful coach – beating australia u19s 5-0 in 2001, in the transtasman (sorry for dropping that in) i know as a coach i am responsible for guiding my atheletes and educating them on what the requirements for this team is….if they do not buy in, and deliver, they dont get selected, regardless of their perceived ability. set the standeard, and work only above that, and success will be achieved.

so to finish my ramble….

what if all the great peolple and coaches in SA bought in to the state programmes – and a concerted unconditional effort was made by all to ensure all coaches, athletes, new or experienced got support and were developed considerable from 2001-2008, regardless of their age, gender, perceived ability …….
would their be 2 SA teams competing in the finals of juniors in u17, u19, u21s, mens and womens in 2008?

with the system of pre 2000, not a chance…..

cheers sooty