“I always try to put myself in uncomfortable situations about every five years.”
Vicki Brown, the head coach of women’s volleyball at University of Iowa, sits down with us in this episode of the 35,000 feet podcast going over her start in her career as a coach, some memorable travel experiences, her next adventures, and some words of wisdom for future athletes.
In this episode, we discuss:
How this past season went for University of Iowa Women’s Volleyball team (
How Coach Brown got into coaching (6:36)
Vicki’s favorite travel experience (12:22)
One thing that no one knows about Vicki (17:16)
Vicki’s advice to athletes wanting to play in college (18:52)
Vicki’s next adventure (21:40)
Highs and Lows of the Past Season for Iowa Women’s Volleyball Team
Morgan: Hi guys. Welcome back. It's Morgan. Today, I'm sitting down with coach Vicki Brown. Thanks so much for joining us.
Vicki Brown: Thank you for having me. I'm so excited. You know what? You're actually my first podcast.
Morgan: Oh my goodness, yay. We're so excited about that.
Vicki Brown: I just thought of that.
Morgan: We're excited to get to know you better, and thanks so much for joining us today.
Vicki Brown: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.
Morgan: Yes, and I guess I'm just to get this podcast started, one of the questions I wanted to ask you was about the highs and lows of your season.
Vicki Brown: Yeah, I was a former player in the Big Ten conference and coaching now going into season four, it's the most interesting roller coaster ride of a season. We started off at... I think definitely our first high was the first weekend. We traveled with, at that time, nine freshmen, true freshmen to JMU Tournament, non-conference tournament, which is with Washington State and Stony Brook. Both of those teams, or all three of those teams, have won their conference before they've gone to the NCT race. And then of course Washington State, being in the PAC-12, has some understanding of just how complex the conference schedule can get. So Washington State was ranked 22nd, number 22 in the nation and so, we went in there and we came out with three victories, and only between the three matches, we only lost one set.
Now, that was such a high. I'm like, "Oh my God. Okay." You never know, you get two weeks for freshmen truly. And I always believe we're going to win, that's just my competitive nature, but to actually go out and see it first weekend and especially against a ranked opponent, that was just such a high. But then we... After first weekend, everybody has some review. With the younger team, that's part of the learning curve through their first season was really just learning how to add something to your game every week. So we definitely learned that lesson against Wash.
Going into the next weekend, but then we kind of... We came back that third weekend, got some things going and we play South Dakota at South Dakota the last match. And our senior goes down with a torn ACL in the fourth set as we're going to the fifth set. And so she was such a significant... Megan was such a statistical impact for us, not only attacking but in service aces and passing and digs, we were looking at her like good lord, we got some big shoes to fill.
And so we go through work our way through the non-conference and then another high combined with a win was, they had announced me as the head coach and that Thursday that we're traveling to go to our Big Ten opener at Northwestern. So that was a fun bus trip. Got to know but not only excited personally, but just that relief of knowing what's next you could tell by our games that we played on the bus. I mean, I think I've heard every single freshman and well really the whole team sing some Justin Bieber or high school musical.
Morgan: That's so funny.
Vicki Brown: After an hour the first 30 minutes was great, but after an hour, it's just like, okay, there's a bedtime of 7:30. It was just an exciting time, definitely a high. And then we go on Northwestern and we beat them at home. So that was definitely a high peak, a low yet high throughout this another high, low really combined was when we played Nebraska at Nebraska and we went to five at their place. We complete... We just had a season of adversity, we're playing Nebraska at Nebraska in the middle of November. And at that point they're ranked six I believe. And so, we go in, we had to adjust our light up yet again, and we decided to do a six two, and our second setter was Ms. [Amylose 00:05:12] coming in at five. I'll give her five, six. And she's only sat here and there in high school and we're like, "Hey, let's... You're going to run half of our office arrested." And she, I mean, godly talk about a kid that has a gay face.
She just flipped on us. So where I'm like, "Okay." And we went to five with them and it was a battle fight, which was... It was a high because of how they fought through adversity with a new lineup. We only had about three days to work it out really too. And they fought through adversity and they came and it... There's certain venues that are fun to play in because of all the hype and things like that. And there's so many in our conference, Nebraska being one of them. But they came in as a young group with a new line up in the middle of November. And the high was like, "Wow, I'm so proud to be on this team. This is a team that I would want to be on as a player." And I don't say that all the time, because... Yeah. So, that was definitely a high, it was a low that we didn't get the win, but it was a high for our program of just like, if there's diversity day two, this is what we're going to look like facing it, or day three. So yeah, a lot of highs and lows, especially through a year of adversity.
Coach Vicki Brown’s Start In Her Career
Morgan:No, I love that. And thank you for sharing that because I love seeing how teams work through things, and I love seeing the passion that you have in your team to just keep working through, keep grinding. So thank you for sharing that. Yeah. And how did you get to be a coach?
Vicki Brown: So after college, I went to the University of Illinois, and after I graduated, I was so happy for my degree, but guess what, I'm going to be a pro athlete till I'm 50. So I started my 40 year career and three years into it, just you run across people that have done that, like one of my last teammates, she was in her forties and you ask those questions of like, is it worth it? And things like that. And my balance in life, I realized that I needed to have more family and more personal touched cultural things. And so, I decided to retire after three years, I made it. But yeah, so I retire, I came back and my major, I've always wanted to be a... Because back then, like E-news was just the thing, like it just started and I was like, "Ah, I want to do that. I can talk about Paris Hill and Kim Kardashians, go to the taboo area or whatever. I can do that, that will actually be kind of fun." So I started, but I was like, "Okay, I want to do it in sports."
So I did a couple of internships with the Curves and the Pistons and did radio internship just to see exactly where and I just was not getting any long-term excitement for it. And so I go to my old coach at Illinois, who is now Kevin at Stanford, some days that's weird to say, but...
Morgan: Kevin
Vicki Brown: I'm like, "Dude, I don't know what to do." And he's like, "Why don't you get him coaching?" And I'm like, "Absolutely not, like you all your first year at Illinois was my first year. I remember what you looked like. You all were like young, good looking people with no gray hair. And then I graduate and you got bags and you got great meal absolutely not. I don't want to age like that in four years." And he's just like, "No, you just got to do it, try it as a volunteer." And I did a year because I'm from Toledo, Ohio. So I did a year of volunteer at University of Toledo. And I was so fortunate to have Greg Smith as a head coach because sometimes it's tough with volunteers of how much to give them to do, but we create a really good working relationship to where he really let me either get my hands into a bunch of different areas in the program or just gave me like truly mentored me while I was there.
And the thing about it that was like, okay, this is me, this is what I needed to do, was not only did I ooze happiness of practice, but it was also the real everyday stuff that coaches do as far as office works and office working and recruiting and just structuring a program, that gave me just as much enjoyment as I did with the on court, maybe a little more with the on course. But I loved every the whole day of being a coach. And so from then on, it just... I grew to know that my true passion in life is impact and empowerment. And I knew what the female, because I grew up with a lot of female coaches fortunately, and I'm realizing how unique that is. That was what I wanted to do. I saw how much impact they had in me. And that has always been some part of my extra activities like Sunday school teaching, yay.
Morgan: Yeah.
Vicki Brown: Always something, a team leader, whatever it may be. There's always some component of having more than just the score impact. It was like that balancing act of personal growth, and support, and through, and eventually grew, matured into empowering.
Morgan: Wow. No, that is so cool. I love hearing coaches stories and it was fun because your coach, Kevin, I talked to him today actually. So it's fun. I love seeing your views of how you got where you're at and just being able to inspire people because I can tell the passion you have.
Vicki Brown: Yeah. I mean, I have to admit, I literally have to watch junk TV, not to be thinking about the program. so I'm totally a real housewives. I'll tell you exactly what the last soap was. I love my purple TV, that's the only way I can't think about a TV. Yeah, I know, right? Like totally underrated if people are not into it. But yeah, no, I really do, I think it's... I'm so fortunate and blessed to find a passion and to be able to live in my passion every day. It's really a true blessing.
Coach Vicki Brown’s Travel Adventures
Morgan: Oh, I love that. Thank you for sharing that with us. What's one of your most memorable travel experiences.
Vicki Brown: Yeah. I would have to say, well with Iowa, it would have to be when we took the team to California for a tournament, on be say, we actually played Stanford that year as well.
And I didn't realize how many of our team players have never really been to California. And so, we're asking, we got some time it's the first weekend. "What would you all like to see?" And they just kept pushing for a Hollywood and I'm like, "Oh my God." And I'm like, "Are you guys sure?" And they're like, "Yeah, we really want to go to Hollywood." So I'm like, "Oh Jesus." So we get down there. And if anyone has been to Hollywood, like I love California, but people that have been to Hollywood get why I'm like to take a team there, first of all, with a charter bus and we have boosters and parents are joining us, it's just not the greatest place to take a team, and so we're walking around. And they have the different people that are either selling or performers, and his guy has a snake and it just... I'm like, "Oh my God, someone's going to get bitten by the snake." And that's it. Scene is going to be over.
That's more of my kind of... I don't want to call it mommy Mo. But I'm just like okay, great not going to get bitten. And we had literally maybe two and a half hours, two and a half three hours to chill. And I'm just like, "Oh my God, Hollywood is legit 45 minutes, stop, this is going to be a lot." And so they ended up seeing why were like, "Are you sure? Are you sure?" They were pretty much done with Hollywood after about 30 minutes again.
Morgan: Yeah.
Vicki Brown: So, but yeah, it was fun, and then of course getting out of Hollywood was a nightmare, which we knew going in and out was going to be a nightmare in the right time window. But it was also a kind of a cool time for us to interact with the players on the bus. That would have to be one of those, and then I had mentioned it earlier with our season this year, the bus trip to Northwestern. Well actually, no, our bus trip back from Iowa State last year, two years ago, we ended up doing improv, forgot about this. I always do this. We started doing improv because we had just be Iowa state and went three and all, it was a big moment for program-wise. Because we go back and forth to Iowa state because of the Cy-Hawk series.
And it's... We kind of been up and down with beating them at home, and so it was a nice win at Iowa state. So we were stoked. And so it's probably... It's right around a three hour drive, but this is how excited we were. Players were coming upfront of the bus and to be upfront with the players and coaches for that long, that was so cool. Because normally they're just such a big gap between the coaches and players sometimes when it comes to travel. And so, we ended up doing improv and we like, okay, you give us a topic, and then we got to create this skit and then in same or reverse. And then it turned into mimicking different people on the team. And oh my God, I've never... When I laugh out loud, I'm the crying emoji laughing out loud. I'm uncontrollably crying for like 30 minutes. So, I literally fell almost out of my row on the bus, because I was laughing so hard. It was just such a fun feel, 30 hours that I really ever had with a team. So I would say any of our bus trips have been kind of legendary not going to lie.
Morgan: Wow. No. And that's what I love about any sort of travel is just the people you travel with, you get so close to. So I'm glad you guys had that.
Vicki Brown: Yeah. We have a good time.
Something Noone Knows About Coach Vicki Brown
Morgan: I love that. I love that. I guess one of the questions I wanted to ask you is, this one's kind of harder than the other ones, but one thing that no one knows about you that you can share with us.
Vicki Brown: Okay. I was thinking about this because I always get this question. I get stuck. Because I, unfortunately, am an unfiltered person.
Morgan: You know about me.
Vicki Brown: Oh, okay. Most people don't know that I am a great aunt. Let's see, two, four, six times. I'm a great aunt.
Morgan: Wow. That's cool. Wow.
Vicki Brown: Yeah, yeah. My older siblings, my oldest brother just turned 50 last year, and so his kids, he had kids early, and so his kids married and started having kids.
Morgan: Wow. Oh, that's a great aunt. That's awesome.
Vicki Brown: Yeah, from a distance is not bad, but darn Christmas, it's a nightmare to some degree because that's a lot of gifts.
Morgan: Yes. Yeah. That's true.
Vicki Brown: Yeah. And as they get older, you can't get them the little cute giraffe toy that you might pick up in a toy shop. They want like the Nintendo Switch with four games. So...
Morgan: That's true.
Vicki Brown: So it's cute right now, but...
Morgan: But when they get old.
Vicki Brown: When they get older, it's going to get more expensive.
Morgan: That's so funny. Thank you for sharing that with us.
Vicki Brown: No worries.
Coach Vicki Brown’s Words of Wisdom
Morgan: Well, perfect. And I guess one of the questions I wanted to ask you also is if you're an athlete wanting to play for a team or university, what would your advice be to them?
Vicki Brown: Yeah. I was actually in a zoom meeting with different coaches and return coaching philosophy and just like, hey, this is actually a coaching philosophy is really for those that are hiring to get to know what kind of decision-maker you are. And so I think in relation to athletes wanting to play, I think they really should interview us more. I'm not going to lie, as much as that, I'd rather be the one doing all the talking, but I think they... I love it when parents come with questions, I have one parent that came with 50 questions and the first part of the visit, we got this lunch and then a six-hour visit almost plan. And from the first hour, here's my 50 questions. I'm like, "Okay, we're going to answer all of these on the day, but okay."
Morgan: Yeah.
Vicki Brown: But I loved it because it actually allowed me to talk about more than what I normally would on a visit. And I think it really helped us to connect and looking back, I was actually kind of happy we did it at the beginning because that was a completely different visit moving forward. So I like it with parents interview because this is your child, and I always look at college as the last stop before it really counts of being an adult. Because even as, especially as a student-athlete, you still have a lot of safety nets. And so I really do take ownership of having that responsibility, but I think more of parents should have a list of questions and it's even more impactful and athletes come... No, you don't even need 50. If you come with 10, five to 10 set questions that you want to ask, that is the most impressive thing a student-athlete could do. And for me, that also... We're always trying to find moments and conversations and signs and things like that to kind of give us insight of what do you really think of me? What do you think of the school? What do you think of the team? And that right off the back, if you want to tell a team, "Hey, I'm really interested in you, ask some questions."
Morgan: Oh, I love that. It's true. It shows that they care about the program that they're getting into. So I love that advice. Great advice.
Vicki Brown: Good.
Coach Vicki Brown’s Next Adventure
Morgan: Yes, and what's your next adventure?
Vicki Brown: You know what, I've been actually thick, because I always try to put myself in uncomfortable situations every five or so years, and my last thing was skydiving.
Morgan: Oh, wow.
Vicki Brown: Yeah. So one cell after five years, you're going to want to do it. I don't have that inkling, that longing to do it again. But I really... One of my coaching mentors, Melissa Myers, who was at Illinois state, she won, when was it, during a winter break, she had climbed Kilimanjaro. And when we came and recap how our break went, when she was walking us through day by day, it was like, when she was cold, you can actually see her feel cold, like being cold again. And just the light, like self reflection that she got from that climb. I'm like, "Man, that would be so cool to put myself." And so I've been wanting to do a trip to the Grand Canyon because they have different groups that we'll do camping and hiking trips for a week or a weekend or something like that. So I've been wanting to do that for some time now, the tough thing is I got to find someone to do it with, because it's not everybody's going to want to do it.
So once I can figure out a plus one in that then I think I want to end up going, but that's what I'm... That's my next thing that I've been thinking about doing, and I want to travel a little bit more, just be like a tourist in some areas instead of working there.
Morgan: Yeah, no, I totally, I totally get you. And all travel is amazing. So I think it's awesome that you want to go places.
Vicki Brown: Yeah, it was so cool. I took my folks to London and Paris. They've never... My dad has just gone from Texas to Mexico border, he's never really done anything. And so... But it was so cool to like... My mom has always wanted to go to Paris and we're on the train ride to Paris from London, and my mom is just crying because she's just like, and we get to Paris and she's like, "This is where I was supposed to be, you guys can leave me." But I think it's so cool, people that end up, once you take one good trip, it's just like a domino effect, you want to see what else is there? What else is out there? How can your trip be different? Who can you travel differently with? As much as I tell my... I'm like look, "If you have an inkling to go overseas for one year, just go. You get the travel, everything is cheaper, or if someone offers you a ticket that you know, let's be stranger danger, let's be safe, but take opportunities that you can to get outside your comfort zone. So I love traveling. Always go, go wherever you can.
Morgan: No, it's so true. It's so true. And I know with a lot of universities they have the four year foreign tourists, where are you guys planning on going next?
Vicki Brown: Yeah, we were supposed to go to Brazil and Peru in June, but of course, you know what circumstances we're in now we had to pun it, cut that trip until next year. But I always wanted to do something different with our team just because a lot of them now are going on these foreign tours with their club teams. And I'm like, "Okay, where would I... What's on my list? What was on my list when I was a college student or my friends." And it was always something in South America, but I'm like, "I don't know anybody." And so I told them that we were going and they were so excited, because it is kind of on your list, but you just... You don't really feel like you'll be able to go. So I was like, "I know you guys can get to Europe probably with like another time or for the first time, that'll be an easier one to do on your own."
But this one, like what a cool team opportunity to not only connect, but just to really see something completely out of their comfort zone. So we'll be doing that for 21, but yeah, that would have been a good one, this summer especially what they've been in... Well we'll see an Olympic year. We're going to be at the Brazilian Olympic training center.
Morgan: Oh, wow.
Vicki Brown: Yeah. And it would have been cool because we had three student athletes that went and tried out for USA women's national team in February. And so I was like, "Oh, this would be cool to compare."
Morgan: Oh yeah, for sure.
Vicki Brown: Yeah. So it was a nice plan, but it is what it is.
Morgan: Yeah for sure. Oh my goodness. Well, no, I just think any opportunity to travel to be a part of a team is wonderful. So thank you seriously. Thank you so much for joining us on our podcast and letting us get a chance to see what your team's like, an insight into your life. Just everything. Thank you for joining us.
Vicki Brown: Thank you for having me. And I always say this with a full heart go Hawks.
Morgan: Yes, go Hawks.
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Theme Song - I’ll Just Be Me by Gravity Castle