“Take the punches, let’s roll with it, and see where this goes.”
John Newberry, the head coach of women’s volleyball at University of Central Arkansas, sits down with us in this episode of the 35,000 feet podcast going over the peaks and dives of the past season for his team, his start in his career as a coach, some memorable travel experiences, his next adventures, and some words of wisdom for future athletes.
In this episode, we discuss:
How this past season went for University of Central Arkansas Women’s Volleyball team (0:22)
How Coach Newberry got into coaching (4:37)
John’s favorite travel experience (9:30)
One thing that no one knows about John (13:30)
John’s advice to athletes wanting to play in college (15:52)
John’s next adventure (19:48)
The Peaks and Dives of the Past Season for University of Central Arkansas Women’s Volleyball Team
Morgan: Hi guys. Welcome back, it's Morgan. Today I'm sitting down with Coach John Newberry from the University of Central Arkansas. Thanks so much for joining us.
John Newberry: So glad to be here right now.
Morgan: And we're so excited to have you and just hear the story that you have to share with us about your team, travels, and just to get to know you better. So one of the first questions I wanted to ask you is if you could tell us about the highs and lows of your season.
John Newberry: Yeah. So one of the lows from the season was that... It's a high and a low at the same time, but you'll kind of understand that as I go along with this. So my former boss, Jeni Jones Chatman, so she was my former boss and she and her husband, who lives in St. Louis... It's a very, very complicated story, but she was kind of long distancing her relationship. She ended up having to stay at home because she was due with her very first child in early July, and so told me and my assistant coach with me, Marissa Collins, she turned us into associate head coaches, both of us, and said, "Hey, I'm going to spend family time, and you guys got this. Y'all have been here, y'all have done that." And next thing I know, so early October kind of comes around, and she's like, "Hey, I know I'm supposed to be back right now, but I'm extending my maternity leave. You guys got this."
And so kind of mid-November, she calls the both of us like, "Hey, can y'all talk?" And then all of a sudden, right after one of our games that we had, and she said, "Hey, I'm going to go ahead and resign. I'm going to call Dr. Teague, our athletic director, and I'm going to let him know right now." And I'm like, "Oh my gosh." And so she let him know, and we finished out the rest of the season. And at that time, I think we were two and six or something crazy like that. We were in the rust bracket. It was not a great season, but we were kind of mending some illnesses and injuries together. And then we ended up going on a seven game win streak, and we finished out the rest of our season winning everything. It was a great job by the team, little bit of settling nerves for me and Marissa and our side, we kind of knew what the future foreholds.
And then our athletic director said, "Hey, we're going to hire from within. It's going to be one of you guys." And that was good to know because it's my alma mater. I've been in Conway for 17 out of my 19 years since being in college there. And so it was stressful, sure, but it was also a good time because I've been a part of this program for so long.
Anyway. So that was kind of the high side of things of just on that seven game win streak. And then the low is, you've got a boss who you're extremely comfortable with. You've got a great thing going, because the previous year we finished second in conference, and in 2017 we ended up going to the NCAA Tournament. We beat everybody in our conference at the conference tournament. There's great things to come with that, and so there's that high side of that of having that camaraderie, and the low side of your boss saying, "Hey listen, I'm going to spend family time." Which we're excited for, but at the same time, we've got a great thing going. It hurts to kind of miss that on another side of it. So that was kind of the highs and lows of things of this last season.
Morgan: Oh my goodness. And you never know what's going to actually come in the season. So I love how you guys were able to deal with anything that happened. I don't know. I'm impressed by what you guys are doing. That's awesome.
John Newberry: Yeah. No. It's been a good time as far as a great learning curve for me and Marissa, my associate head coach with me currently. We learned a lot for sure, but at the same time, man, we went through a lot of trials. I can't tell you how many coaches I called like, "Hey, we're in this situation. What would you do?" And so I got to be able to pick brains of everybody else around me and figure things out.
Coach John Newberry’s Start In His Career
Morgan: That's awesome. Especially because you're relying on other people too. Because it can be tough being a coach and... I don't know. I have a lot of respect for coaches, especially the coaches I've had growing up. And so I see those traits in you that I really like. I was wondering, how did you get to be a coach, John?
John Newberry: Yeah. And this is probably the most peculiar story, and I'm going to bullet point as much as I can. I played football all of my life. I grew up in Southeast Arkansas, so Louisiana was nine miles away from me, and the Mississippi River was 30 miles away from me. There's no volleyball there. Even to this day, that's unheard of. And so for me, I relied solely on my wife. Well, let me back up just a year. So 2004, when we were graduating from college, I went to go play super league and volleyball. And I'll never forget. I went up to go hit the ball as hard as I can. I swung. I was on the outside hitter position, and I missed the ball with everything I had. And I landed on both of my feet, which is key, and the ball hit my head, which was bald.
The ball landed on the other side of the net, over the blocker and I scored a point. So that was my very first kill. I went for it, completely screwed up, I missed, but I still got the kill. My side of the court landed on the ground, we were laughing so hard. And honestly, from then, it's been a struggle for the next two years after that. Because I never understood why the most athletic person has to leave the court sometimes. The biggest total jock move, it'd be like, "Why can't this person take every ball?" And so my wife just wants to punch me in my face.
So while she was coaching club in high school, when I got done with my work at my house, I would go and help her out at her high school, here in town, in Conway, Arkansas. And I'd go and serve and chip in some balls, just some down balls, and I got really good at it. It was easy. And then I would come home like, "Brittany, why would you do this? This doesn't make any sense." And she would argue back with me. And then it got to this point where she'd quit arguing with me. And so being from Central Arkansas and UCA, I turned to the head coaches at the time, which was Steven McRoberts, and I turned to him, and then David McFatrich at the time, which was my former boss back in the day, turned to him a lot.
And he let me coach a 16-year-old team, and I was like, "All right, guys, here's what we're going to do. So my middle back is going to be my free safety. My two wing defenders, you're going to be my quarterbacks." Total football terminology, because that's all I knew because I played football in college. So we're going to play cover one, which honestly, that's a typical defense for volleyball, but in football terms. And I was like, "Here's what we're going to do." So we did this and we won a lot. The parents were frustrated, but we still won.
So on the relationship side of my life, the new head coach at the time, David McFatrich, he invited me to come be a part of his coaching staff as the recruiting coordinator. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was highly relational, and I was genuinely very, very excited. And everybody's always told me that, "Hey listen, all this high that you're on right now and all this video you're watching all the time, it's going to fade." I'm here to tell you right now, it's never faded. I'm very excited. I wake up genuinely very, very excited every single day for whatever's going to happen, because I have no idea, but I love my... It's not a job, but that's the way it's been since day one for me for coaching volleyball.
Morgan: Wow. Oh my goodness. That's crazy. Wow. And I love how you said you played college football and now here you are coaching college volleyball.
John Newberry: Yeah. It's quite the turn. There's a lot of parallels to it. And I've been through this recruiting process myself, going from top, top, top Division I. I mean very high level. And then ending up at a Division II school at the time, which was UCA. Now we're Division I. But ending up at a Division II school and having the time of my life and earning very high accolades and everything, I'm very thankful for the process that I've been through and can relate to a lot of people now because of that process.
Morgan: Yeah. That's so cool. Thank you so much for sharing that. I always love seeing where coaches come from and how they get to where they're at because everyone's story is so different. So thank you.
John Newberry: Right. Yeah.
Coach John Newberry’s Most Exciting Travel Experiences
Morgan: Yes. And I guess what are some of your most memorable travel experiences?
John Newberry: All of them are going to be NCAA tournament stuff. My very first tournament, we went 29 to 4. The next year we went 30 and 5. And then the third NCAA tournament, we went 29 and 4 again. And so my three out of the last seven years at UCA have been very memorable because we've had a lot of great success. And so those NCAA tournaments are the best. You get to go as the underdog, as a mid-major sport, and fairly new to the Division I realm. And so my first year we got to go to Washington. Our mascot for volleyball is called the Sugar Bears. Now I need to let you know, I am all male. I am a manly man, as I like to say. And so having Sugar Bears is very difficult for me across the front of my shirt, but I have embraced it and we have done well, and we've beat the crap out of some teams that did not expect us to beat them.
But going to the NCAA tournament, my first year going to Washington. My second year, we were the third seed team and ended up having to play Purdue, and ended miserably because they got everybody back. They were completely endless of injuries, everybody's back. I'll never forget that game. I talk to Dave Shondell every single time we see each other like, "Man, remember that game?" And I'm like, "Yes, I do, Dave. Thanks."
And then our most recent tournament was 2017. We went to play USC in the first round, and we had a four-set match with them. In our conference, that was the second time in conference history that our conference had ever gone past three sets ever. It was the second time. And so that was a memorable game. We thought we had USC, and we had them in the first set. And we were up 23 to 21, and just honestly, they had some great, just lucky things that happened to them. And that's part of the game, but it let all the steam out of our sail and we ended up losing that game. But I'll never forget it. We had five different defenses we ran, and it worked to perfection. Offensively, we just couldn't match up with them. They had two all-Americans on their side of the court, plus 18 others that could've been all-American.
Morgan: Yeah. Yeah. My goodness. Wow.
John Newberry: So that's it. That's my most memorable sides of volleyball so far.
Morgan: That's amazing. No. And I love that you guys just pushed through and kept going. And I love listening to how teams just keep working hard. I've noticed a lot of even with travel of any sort, whether it be to a different team's court or a different country or anything, you grow so much closer as a team.
John Newberry: Yes. Absolutely. It's funny you say that. If I can go back and say the most memorable times, it wasn't about the game. It was about the chemistry of that year. Yeah. We had some athletes, but... And I say some. We had athletes. I'm just comparing them to these top Elite Eight, Power Five schools that we played against. And yeah. We're touching 10'2", 10'3" on our highest day. And these guys are touching 10'8", 10'10" on a normal day. And so yeah. We had everything up against us. But at the same time, the chemistry is what made it beyond anything else.
Morgan: It's true. It's true. That's what you remember. That's what you remember, those team bonds. And I feel like that happens when you go through adversity as a team and things like that. So I couldn't have said it better myself.
John Newberry: Exactly.
An Interesting Fact About John Newberry
Morgan: Yeah. What is one thing that no one knows that you, that you could share with us?
John Newberry: Oh Lordy. Oh my gosh. And I knew you were going to ask this question and I don't know where to go. You know what? I'm going to say this right now. I can go in a minute several different directions. So on one side of things, I'm very musical, but a lot of people don't know this side of me, but I used to do prison ministry full-time before I got into volleyball. Full-time. And so the very first people that ever found out that I was going to move from prison ministry to full-time volleyball was four ladies on Texas women's death row.
Morgan: Whoa.
John Newberry: Very, very few people know this. It's a very deep conversation. Me and my wife got to spend breakfast with four ladies at Texas death row. And I know all four of them. I've never visited with them in prior years, but I know their story. And this is 2012 when I visited with them. We had breakfast with them. My whole entire intention was to just have fun with them. That they are facing a sentence that is about to end their life. And they made some pretty poor decisions in their life, to say the least of it. And so I just wanted to go in there, into this little meeting area in Gatesville, Texas, and just be able to make them laugh. Because I'm sure that they are facing something that we, me and you and billions of other people will never face. But I wanted them to laugh because I know that laughter it's a great medicine for everybody. And so they were the very first people to find out. So that's something that no one really knows.
Morgan: Wow. Yeah. And I think that's awesome that you wanted them to laugh because I think it shows that you care. And I think that translate over to being a coach. It's caring about your team, that's going to take you guys far.
John Newberry: Yeah. That's so true. It is true.
Coach John Newberry’s Advice to Future Collegiate Athletes
Morgan: I love that. Well, thank you so much for sharing that with us. That's so cool and unique. The next question I have for you is, if you're an athlete wanting to play for a team or university, what would your specific advice be to them?
John Newberry: Ooh. Another great question. Okay. So for me, and I'm going to go back to my experiences. My freshman year in college, I weighed 142 pounds, 5'11". I'm not a big guy. Now granted, I'm not a middle linebacker, I was a punter and a kicker. But still like, I'm still an athlete. Come on, give me some credit.
Morgan: Yes. Yes.
John Newberry: I still had to catch the ball in order to pun it across the [inaudible 00:16:51]. Yeah. So my thing is that forget the naysayers, forget the people who are saying to you that you're too small or you're not going to be good enough, you're not going to be big enough. Forget them. What's going to motivate you? Is it to play in college or is it to play at your highest level in high school? What is it? What's going to drive you? And the thing about it is that college is just a small part of your life. It's a great tool for you to grow and get ready for the adulting life, as we say, but what's going to help prepare you the most. And if you're an athlete on the side of things, then do things that are extra. And I hate to say to people to compare yourself to the person next to you, but at the same time, be better than the person next to you.
What are they doing? In your own terms, do something that's just a little bit greater than them or a little bit better than them. And challenge yourself on just a little bit of a 1%, just challenge yourself on something that you're not great at. And go from there and learn how to have that instinct, killer mentality or an aggressive mindset, that grit mentality as a lot of people say. One of my favorite quotes, and I say this all the time in my gym is from John Wooten. And he says that, "You'll never rise to the occasion. You'll always sink to your highest level of training." And to me, that resonates so much because I can only prepare my team so much. And then yeah, I'm not a sitter when it comes to game time. I'm standing up on it. I'm in the 10 foot line, right there in the down refs.
But my job as a coach is to prepare my team to be able to sink to their highest level of training. And so if you can do that as a coach, great. But as a player, sink to your highest level of training so that whether you can do that in crunch time. You don't have to rise to the occasion. You don't have to put all this extra pressure. You've been there, you've done that.
Morgan: Oh, I love that. No. That's so true because if you've been practicing, that way it's going to come out naturally in the games.
John Newberry: Yeah. Yeah. You've been there, done that. And championships are won through that grit mentality. If you talk a lot of championship mentalities, they've been there. That team chemistry is already there, but what's that extra little thing that just ticks inside of your team. And I think that it's all that preparation that you had from all that grit mentality and all that work that you put in prior to that preparation.
Morgan: Yeah. And I loved also how you mentioned work harder and push yourself harder. Because I think what helps people be different and stand out are those people that are working extra hard to be above the level. And I think that's an awesome insight.
John Newberry: Exactly.
Coach John Newberry’s Next Adventure
Morgan: Yes. Well perfect. John, what is your next adventure?
John Newberry: Yeah. So this is going to be my very first year, this 2019 season, as a head coach. And we're in a very peculiar time with this Coronavirus going on. We are literally, as we are talking right now, we are in the absolute peak time of it, according to all the news media and all that stuff. So I don't know. I genuinely don't know. Have I prepared enough as a person? Have we prepared enough as a staff? Has my team prepared outside of the things that I'm not allowed to help be prepared for? There's a lot of questions right now. And I genuinely cannot answer those questions. I don't know. The only thing that I know right now is that I can only build a relationship with the girls through this phone conversations that I have and FaceTime and all these Zoom meetings that we have on a weekly basis. I can only do that for myself, and then my staff as well.
We had a little bit of a spring, but we didn't get into the heart of it playing other teams. It's a little bit of a low, but at the same time, we're part of history. And so I feel like there's got to be this side of me that's got to be optimistic instead of pessimistic, and be like, "Man, this is awesome. Everybody's going through the same thing right now. And let's enjoy this." So my wife right now is six and a half months pregnant. I'm expecting my very first child at the end of June, early July. And so honestly, I'm genuinely very excited for this Coronavirus. Otherwise, I would be full of camps, full of just non-stop admin stuff. And I'm getting it done right now.
So I've got to think on a positive side of things and be very accepting and agreeable of the way that we are right now as an economy. And yeah. We're going to have some budget cuts. We're going to have to do some things, but all it is, is that we get to have more fun and just do it in a different way to me. And so just take the punches, let's roll with it and see where this goes. So I don't know. That's a scary side, but at the same time, who cares? Let's just go with it and have a great time with it and we'll do what we can with it.
Morgan: It's true. It's like, I can see that you're taking a leap of faith, just trusting it's all going to work out, but enjoying the moment while it's going on. Which I think is key to enduring through the coronavirus situation.
John Newberry: Yeah. Yeah. We can only do as much as the NCAA allows us to do. And other than that, let's just have a great time. So our Zoom meetings with our team, they're funny, they're posting videos of... All of the things that no one else gets to see, I get to see them of like, "Oh my God, you're such an idiot," kind of deal. Those are the best moments we will always remember as a team, but no one else gets to see. And so we're getting to enjoy those things as a team, whether it's TikTok or Instagram or something like that. Those are some fun things that right now that we are remembering. And it's building rapport within the team. They might not see it, but they are.
Morgan: No. It's so true. I love your view point as you're allowing this time to help your team grow closer rather than the opposite because you aren't together physically, but you can still be together over Zooms and... I don't know. Still getting closer and pursuing those relationships.
John Newberry: Yeah. Absolutely. And that's the most important thing is that relationship side. Knowing that they've all got each other's back, knowing that they're all going through the same thing together, they're challenging each other. And we as a staff, we're just kind of rolling with the punches like, "Oh shoot. This sucks." But it is what it is. Let's go. All right. Gloves on. Let's fight.
Morgan: So true. Oh, it's so true. And John, thank you so much. Thank you so much for just sharing these things with us today. And letting us get a glimpse into your wonderful team. It's been great talking to you and I've loved hearing your unique stories and your insights just on the wonderful sports and travel.
John Newberry: Awesome. Thank you so much for having me.
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Theme Song - I’ll Just Be Me by Gravity Castle