“It’s okay to know what you want.”
Leslie Flores-Cloud, the head coach of women’s volleyball at the Eastern Washington University, sits down with us in this episode of the 35,000 feet podcast discussing her past season as a coach for Eastern Washington University Volleyball, her start in coaching, her experiences traveling over to Serbia and other travel-related experiences, and her advice to those wanting to pursue an athletic route at University.
In this episode, we discuss:
How this past season went for Eastern Washington Volleyball team (0:20)
How Coach Flores got into coaching (4:10)
Leslie’s favorite travel experience (8:21)
Leslie’s advice to athletes wanting to play in college (18:26)
One thing that no one knows about Leslie (22:33)
Leslie’s next adventure (26:12)
The Past Season for Eastern Washington University Volleyball Team
Morgan: Hi guys. Welcome back. It's Morgan. Today, I'm sitting down with coach Leslie from Eastern Washington. Thanks so much for joining us.
Leslie: Yeah, no problem.
Morgan: Yes. We're so excited to hear from you and hear your story. So just to dive into it, one of the first questions I want to ask you is just, if you can tell us a little bit about the highs and lows of your season.
Leslie: Absolutely. So, this 2019 season had some definite highs and definite lows. I would say, starting off with the lows, we had 10 new people this fall. And with that, we had quite a bit of injuries as first for three, four weeks. And so that was definitely a low for us as just rehabbing those girls, getting them back in. We started to hit our stride, which was really nice, was towards the middle of conference, started playing together, started running the offense more fluidly and playing as a group, which was very, very good for us and found some success there. I would say the biggest high for us as a team, probably our road trip to Pocatello. We just were playing so connected. And for us, that means feeling the person next to you, hearing the person next to you, using feedback and playing for each other.
Leslie: For me personally, the high of the season actually came the second weekend we played. It was kind of an eye-opening experience for me, but we went actually back to my university I was with prior to Eastern Washington, which was Drake University and we played Drake and there was a moment in that match that we were playing Drake that I felt so blessed. I was just looking around on the court and I realized that I had the opportunity to recruit every girl on the court on both sides with the exception of like three or four girls.
Morgan: Wow.
Leslie: It was an awesome feeling in that moment. And it was powerful for me to see that.
Morgan: There is so much about sports. They can be so... They take up your whole heart and I can tell the passion you have for the sport as a coach.
Leslie: Yeah. I think for me the biggest thing, I love volleyball. It's absolutely gotten me where I am today and it really has shaped my life. But the women that I've gotten to meet and help and shape and grow over... I don't even know how many years I've been coaching off the top of my head. It doesn't even matter. It was so awesome to look around and I had... After I talked to my husband about it, he was able to come with me on that trip. And I was just in awe. Like I said before, I just felt so blessed to have known that many girls playing at such a high level with such passion behind their play. I mean, of course the Drake team wanted to kick my butt, right? And in us Eastern Washington, we were just trying to find ourselves at that point. So it was a great time.
Morgan: It was one of those moments where it was super rewarding.
Leslie: Absolutely. That's a very great word for it. Yeah.
Morgan: I love that. Well, and you look for moments like that because during the season it can be really hard. It can be repetition. It's like, okay, [inaudible 00:04:20] like those things. And then it's those little moments that you're like, "Oh, perfect." It's like a little reminder of just like how amazing it is.
Leslie: Absolutely.
Leslie Flore-Cloud’s Start As A Coach
Morgan: I just love hearing your views as like a coach. How did you get to be a coach? What's your story there?
Leslie: I've always wanted to coach. Always. You could ask my friends in high school, you could ask my friends from junior high-
Morgan: Wow!
Leslie: ... I always wanted to be a coach. It never mattered to me what level I was coaching at. I just wanted to give everything I had to coaching. And one day I woke up and I looked around and I was like, "Whoa, I'm a division one head coach." Like, "What?" But it never mattered to me. I just wanted to keep learning. In college, as soon as I... At freshman year in college, I was coaching club and I was trying to learn and just get better. And I think that the coaching path for me was something that I always knew I wanted to do. I never knew anything different. I know there's some people that say like, "Well, I played the sport and I didn't know what to do afterwards, so I started to coach." But I was always coaching. I mean-
Morgan: You've always loved it.
Leslie: ... I've always loved it. Yeah. I've [crosstalk 00:05:54] been bossy from the start of it.
Morgan: Yeah. Yeah.
Leslie: You could probably ask my college teammates about that.
Morgan: Oh, that's so funny. No, I can tell just like the love and passion you have for the sport, and I think that makes a huge difference in a coach... The fact that you've like always wanted to, no matter what level, I think it shows that your hard work is paid off to end up like a D one coach.
Leslie: Yeah. Someone told me recently, I don't even remember who it was that I might be the only division three player that's a division one coach right now. And I used to know that Illinois State coach, the previous Illinois State coach, she was a division three player and she and I bonded over that. But right now, I'm not in the know with enough coaches to know if I'm the only division three player who is now a coach, but she was saying at one time, at least I was, so.
Morgan: Yeah.
Leslie: Yeah. It never mattered to me though. I just wanted to be coaching. And I think that I got picked up to coach junior college pretty quickly after college. And I had enough mentors to tell me... So right after my college career, I had referees who took me under their wing and said, "We need you reffing. You're just really serious about the game." So, for the first three or four years after college, I was lining for division one, two games. And then at that same time, I had a mentor out of college, my strength coach, who said, "You are going to coach, you need to go get your master's degree right now."
Morgan: Oh!
Leslie: So, I actually started the same program he was in at the time and finish that. And I finished that in a year and a half and went to assist someone at the junior college level and was a professor at the junior college level while I coached pretty much until I moved to Iowa to take that assistant job at Drake. So.
Morgan: Wow.
Leslie: Yeah. I think people saw it in me and they kept me going in it.
Morgan: Well, I love hearing coaches' stories because they all come from different places. But I especially love that you came from a D three school. You were able to work your way up. You didn't let anything stop you. It didn't matter because you had a love and a passion for it. And other people notice that.
Leslie: Yeah.
Morgan: Well-
Leslie: Yeah, they did.
Morgan: ... well, thank you so much for sharing that.
Leslie: Absolutely.
Coach Leslie Flores-Cloud’s Favorite Travel Experiences
Morgan: Yeah. Well, in your years of being a coach and even not as a coach, what are some of your most memorable travel experiences that you've had?
Leslie: I've been on two team trips that I think were really amazing. The first team trip I went on was with USC and their women's volleyball team when Mick Haley was the coach. And we went to Europe, we went to Italy, Slovenia.
Morgan: Wow!
Leslie: Serbia. We had a player in Serbia, so we went there and then England.
Morgan: Wow!
Leslie: And that was the first time I had ever gone out of the country. And so for me personally, just seeing all of that was very new to me.
Morgan: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Leslie: And I was still such a young coach being shaped. Mick is absolutely one of my mentors and it was a very eye-opening experience traveling through all those places.
Morgan: Yeah.
Leslie: And then interestingly enough, in 2008, I was the associate head coach at Drake and we took a team to Costa Rica.
Morgan: Wow!
Leslie: And that was such an amazing trip. I thought the girls not only dialed in so well on our pre-practices of just getting the most they could out of it, but then while we were there to watch them serve the communities that we went to, they had raised money and sports bras that we brought over and kind of gave out. And it was so rewarding to see those girls and them work. And then obviously we had a lot of fun as well at the beaches and the rainforest and that personally, I think that trip for me was the hardest thing I've ever done. And the reason why I say that is because I was on that trip with an amazing group of women and all the hard work that they had put in, the practices before, that was the best I'd ever seen them play volleyball at Drake. And it was awesome. At the same time for me personally, while I was on that trip, I got the offer to be the head coach at Eastern Washington.
Morgan: Oooh!
Morgan: And so it was such a pivotal point in my personal career to take that job at Eastern to watch and be able to coach Drake one last time. And then before we left to Costa Rica and landed in the United States, it had been publicized that I was the new Eastern coach and pretty much was moving to Washington after that.
Leslie: Wow!
Morgan: So it was a trip of a lifetime to say the least. And I'm so grateful for those women that allowed me to coach them there. And I was so grateful for the opportunity that I was about to jump into at Eastern Washington. And it was a whirlwind to say the least of the month.
Morgan: Oh, I bet it was bittersweet too.
Leslie: Oh, so bittersweet. Yeah.
Morgan: Well, I'm glad you had that experience before, that you guys were able to take that tour together because traveling just... I don't know, it brings you so much closer. Are you guys going to go on your next foreign tour then?
Leslie: Oh man, we are trying. Yes. That is definitely in the forefront for when we can get that nailed down. I think the circumstances of the world right now are a little uneasy for us all to say the least. I think that we are handling this with a lot of love and grace and hope. And I think if we can hold onto that stuff, we'll be just fine. So I hope that the foreign tour for us is really close.
Morgan: Oh, I believe... Like I have a hope that it'll get better.
Leslie: Oh, absolutely. If we don't have hope, what else is there?
Morgan: Exactly.
Leslie: So.
Morgan: Well, do you guys know where you're wanting to go on your next foreign tour?
Leslie: We have talked about a few places. We've worked with our international group on campus and had a few conversations with them about that, but we have not nailed down somewhere.
Morgan: Well, there's so many beautiful places in the world. So you can't go wrong.
Leslie: So many, many beautiful places, and as a conference, like if you look at Eastern Washington and the Big Sky Conference, we live in such a beautiful place of the United States, like how fortunate are we to be able to go into big sky country and just the places we're in. Like we get to go into Arizona and go to see Flagstaff, the one place it snows in Arizona-
Morgan: Yeah.
Leslie: ... we also get the opportunity to go to some amazing big cities like playing at Portland State in Downtown Portland is an awesome vibe. And then you have those small towns like Cheney where we are, that you get the whole town to kind of stop and watch and see what's going on. And there's just a lot of really cool places that we get to go to every year and enjoy our conference. And I think that's something that's really special that I didn't realize that I had in some other conferences that I've played in or coached in.
Morgan: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Leslie: And I will say I'm one of those coaches that I go stir crazy in the hotels. I cannot handle that. So I take the girls out a lot. We get up in the morning and we have breakfast and we are on the move. We need to get out and we need to do something. I think one of my most memorable trip was our first year. We went over to Sac State to play. And I took the girls to the Capitol because-
Morgan: Cool.
Leslie: ... obviously California is huge. I was born and raised in Southern California. I'd never had the opportunity to go up to Northern California and let alone visit our Capitol. So all the girls were going to come with me.
Morgan: Wow!
Leslie: Yeah. We went and did a Capitol tour and it probably took us way too long to do that, but it was amazing. We had the best guide and she came to our game later that night and it was phenomenal. And it's an experience that the girls can always say they did. And they may have been not as interested as maybe I would have liked them at the time, but I'll tell you what, they still talk about it. The girls that went with us on that trip that are here, they still talk about it. So they did learn something and they did have fun. And those are a lot of what our trips are like. You would be amazed what we can find to do in these small towns, in big sky country. It was always memorable. And I really think Don Flora for that. He was my coach when I played at the University of La Verne. And he took us to do things when we were playing. I remember going to the Cincinnati, I think Cincinnati Reds game, I believe. I remember going to Anheuser Busch Stadium to go on a tour.
Morgan: Wow!
Leslie: We weren't trying any beer, but to see those huge horses and to get us out. I remember he took me to my first farm. I don't even remember where that was now that I think of it. But I'm like such a city girl and he took us in the middle of nowhere to a farm one time. And I was like, "What is this?" It was such an experience for me to get out of my comfort zone and to be able... Like, that's the memory I have obviously. I don't remember what team we even went to go play-
Morgan: Yeah.
Leslie: ... but I remember going to that farm.
Morgan: Yeah. You're making experiences.
Leslie: Oh, for sure. And he shaped how I do travel trips. He left in a lasting impact on me for that for sure.
Morgan: Wow. Well, and I love hearing insights about travel too, because especially with sports, it is those little things that allow the team to grow closer, those are the things you remember.
Leslie: Yeah. That's your experience. It really is.
Morgan: Wow.
Leslie: I don't think enough people, or I guess I should say recruit, I don't think enough recruits ask those questions. Like, what does travel look like for you? Because it's different for every program. There are some programs that stay in the hotel and try to not get drained as much as possible for that game that night.
Morgan: Yeah.
Leslie: And for us, we don't do that. We get up, we stay in our routine, we get out and we move around. You could ask my team, how many parks have we been to? If we can't find anywhere to go, we'll go to a park and we will go play on the park playground. And that's what we will do.
Coach Leslie Flores-Cloud’s Advice to Future Collegiate Athletes
Morgan: No, see, I think that's what matters. A team growing closer. And I love how you mentioned, like having the athlete ask more questions to the coaches because I feel like a lot of student athletes want to know, like advice for college sports. So what would your advice be to an athlete wanting to play for a team or university?
Leslie: My thing is just get to know the staff as much as possible. I think our recruiting process is really hard and I think it's hard, both ends. We, as coaches feel like we know these recruits and then they come here and maybe they're a little different than we expected. And then the same thing, vice versa. The recruit commits to a coach who thought that they were different. And I think find whatever that underlining item that you need is. And I think as recruits, it's okay to say what that underlining is, like for some recruits, it's that they need to play and that's the end-all, be-all for them. And that's okay to know what you want. It's okay to know that. If you're going to be really honest about what your top priorities are, then you will find a really good fit.
If you are just up in the air and there's so many things, but chasing money is unfortunately it's not successful for recruits and it's not successful in life. And let's just put that out there. Like how many times have people said money doesn't buy happiness. Yeah, it may buy you a boat, but it doesn't buy you happiness.
Morgan: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Leslie: And I think for some recruits, they end up taking that offer that maybe offers them money. And I'm not sure that's always the best thing. And I'm a huge advocate for division three. In fact, I was at the Hawaiian Combine this year and one of the division three coaches told me, "You are the best division three salesman. Can you do that speech again?"
I do it out of pure heart and what I got in that experience, I truly believe I would pay double the amount to have the same experience I had when I played again playing for division three. I had an amazing experience and it was worth every penny that I'm still paying off. But I think it's really important to figure out what that is. And I think it's a lot of people chase this dream. I was just reading this book and it's from a player that I coached at in her club. And it says, "I was chasing a scholarship and then that's what I got." And I was just like, "That's not really what I would say is best for recruits." Like it's so much better to just be really genuine in what your wants and needs are. And if that is money, don't disclude division three, don't disclude division two.
Junior colleges actually have the most scholarship money to give. So they're allowed 14 scholarships and division one is only allowed 12. So-
Morgan: Yeah.
Leslie: ... if we're really looking at, you need the most money, let's be really honest about that. That's not division one, because most colleges are fully funded, but there's only 12 scholarships there. And division two, you can break those scholarships up and you can add whatever package together. And then, obviously division three is a great place if you have good academics or you're in a situation where I was where you're a low-income kid and you're going to get lots of financial aid.
Morgan: Yeah.
Leslie: And I think not enough people know those types of things. So.
Morgan: Oh! No, I totally agree. And I think that'll be awesome advice for anyone to listen to because it's true. Don't just chase those things, but look around, look at your options, know what you want and what's best for you. I think that's great. So thank you for sharing that.
Leslie: Absolutely.
A Lesser-Known Fact About Coach Leslie Flores-Cloud
Morgan: Yeah. What's one thing that no one knows about you that you could share with us?
Leslie: Oh, man, you said this question before and I've been trying to think and I think there's a few things that are kind of like funny things that if you didn't know me, the first thing that I think is just hilarious and it's not necessarily just about me, but... So my last name is Cloud-
Morgan: Uh-huh (affirmative).
Leslie: ... and I was born as a Flores. So flower.
Morgan: Uh-huh (affirmative).
Leslie: So my brother's last name is still, obviously Flores. My sister married a Rios, which means river. And I married a Cloud. So my mom has three kids. Their last names are Flower, River and Cloud. And I think that is just the funniest thing. Something that people don't know about me personally, I get energy from cooking.
Morgan: Wow!
Leslie: Yeah, I think that my husband hates this time right now. Like we're in COVID-19, right? So stay home, stay safe. We are going to gain so much weight because I'm just cooking my little heart out because every time I get frustrated or every time I'm like, "Oh, I've got like a mental block. I need to cook something."
Morgan: That is funny.
Leslie: So it's really, really hard for me. I can only cook three meals a day and my four-year-old thinks this is hilarious. It's like, "Mom, you're cooking again?"
Morgan: Oh, it's hilarious.
Leslie: So, yeah. I really, really love cooking. And that does not mean I make anything good just because I like to cook-
Morgan: That it's great.
Leslie: Yeah. We have a lot of team meals at our house. One of the reasons we bought the house we did was because it was close to campus and it's got a big open area where we could have the team over.
Morgan: Wow!
Leslie: Because it's just the three of us. My husband, myself and my daughter but we love having the girls over. And so, I bet you that they'd have a better perception if I'm actually a good cook or not. I know that there has been some things where I'm like, "I want to try this." And the team was like, "Nope, failure coach, wanted to try it. And I still cooked it.
Morgan: Oh, I bet. Okay. You cannot be good if you practice that much. I guarantee.
Leslie: Oh, you'd be surprised. I really think that people get to know people over food. So I think it's really important for me to have that and have the team over and have a meal together. And our head football coach, Aaron Best actually laughed at me in my interview when I was interviewing for Eastern Washington, because he asked me the question, "How do you get to know the women in this program?" And I was like, "Over a meal." Like, "Duh, isn't that easy." And he looked at me and he was like, "Well, then I must just be the person who's..." Like I just must be a great person to know because obviously I love eating and he was a little heavier at that time and-
Coach Leslie Flores-Cloud’s Next Adventure
Morgan: Oh, that's so funny. Oh, that is hilarious. Well, thank you for sharing that. No, those are awesome. Good to know your points. Thank you. Leslie, what's your next adventure?
Leslie: Oh, well I think COVID-19 has allowed us to take an adventure together. So, just trying to stay positive during this time. For Eastern, our quarter starts Monday. Our spring quarter starts Monday. And so, really just reassuring the girls that we are all here still. And let's get through spring quarter.
Morgan: Yeah.
Leslie: Let's do that together because it's going to be different and it's going to be overwhelming. And there's going to be times where we want a hug and we can't get one. It's going to have to be that virtual hug.
Morgan: Yeah.
Leslie: So I think our next adventure is spring quarter and unfortunately I wish it was something cooler-
Morgan: I know.
Leslie: ... but I know we've got some things planned for this fall that I'm really excited about. We're going to head over to Troy University in Alabama, and-
Morgan: Oh, that's awesome.
Leslie: ... on our way there, we are going to stop in, I believe it's Montgomery where Martin Luther King's Memorial Museum is, and I'm really excited to take the team there and give them an opportunity. We don't have anyone on the team that has been there yet.
Morgan: Wow.
Leslie: So we've got some things for this fall that I'm really, really excited about that will shape us as a team, but also as people. And I think that's the most important thing. Like are we getting women in this program and sending them off as better people? And that's really important for me.
Morgan: Yeah.
Leslie: So, hopefully, we get to do a little bit of that this fall and just keeping my fingers crossed and prayers that we get to have this fall season.
Morgan: Yeah. Oh, no, I couldn't have said it better myself and it's been so fun to listen to your insights and get a glimpse into your wonderful team. So thank you so much, Leslie, for just doing this podcast and letting us get an insight into your team. Thank you so much.
Leslie: Absolutely. I had a lot of fun. So thank you.
Eastern Washington Volleyball
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Theme Song - I’ll Just Be Me by Gravity Castle