By: Sahasra Kalluri
pose after watching a game.
It’s not often that you see students working to coach other students. For sports like lacrosse and cross country, the coaches are parents and teachers. For others, it’s qualified individuals hired externally. Head coach of San Marin’s boys volleyball team, English teacher Adam Williams, chose to follow a different path. After observing a girls volleyball game, he approached two students to join him in coaching his team: current seniors Lindsay Johnk and Sage Kushner.
At the beginning of their coaching journey, they were unsure of how their presence would be received.
“When we first started, walking in as sophomores into a room with a lot of upperclassmen boys was very hard and they didn’t respect us very much,” Kushner said. “We had to gain their respect by showing that we were serious about our jobs.”
They showed their determination to be good coaches by doing most of the player-specific coaching.
“We do a lot of critiquing and a lot of making small changes,” Johnk said. “Williams takes care of line-ups and schedules and Sage and I do a lot of the technical work.”
Even though coaching was intimidating, both Johnk and Kushner decided to stick with it. Johnk’s love for the sport helped her continue.
“I love that the guys are fun. I just get to hang out with a bunch of fun people and teach them my favorite sport,” Johnk said. “The fact that it’s fun makes it easy to stay with it.”
Kushner shares the struggles that the volleyball team faces and how rewarding it feels to play a role in their success.
“When we started sophomore year, no one knew how to play volleyball. It’s so cool to watch people learn the sport you love when you’ve helped them,” Kushner said.
The work and effort that both coaches and players have put in these past few years finally paid off in a recent game versus San Rafael.
“That win was a big deal because it was a full-sweep and San Rafael has been our biggest rival. It brought everyone’s morale up,” Kushner said.
“It’s cool to watch people learn the sport you love when you’ve helped
Sage Kushner- Boys volleyball coach and senior
them. ”
Kushner also shares how the athletes are in a more difficult situation, and why this win means so much to them.
“A lot of the Marin teams have players that play club. None of the players on our team play club. They only really learn from school,” Kushner said.
Athletes on the team share similar sentiments and greatly appreciate the benefits two student coaches bring to their team.
“It’s fun and it makes it better,” defensive specialist Jacob Sahagun Rodriguez said.
Senior middle-blocker Holden Martinez is grateful for the easy transition two student coaches have provided for him as a new player on the team.
“Having two student coaches is definitely helpful, especially because they are usually as much or more present than [the] coach is,” Martinez said. “They’ve greatly helped me improve my technique.”
Williams greatly appreciates Johnk and Kushner.
“I think it’s great that all the players get more attention,” Williams said. “I think they excel at the one-on-one stuff.”
“They’ve greatly helped me improve my technique.”
Holden Martinez-Senior, Middle-blocker
Over the past three years, all three coaches have loved seeing their team grow and improve in their volleyball skill.
“They all hang out on Sundays and play at open gyms. I like seeing them enjoy it outside of school practices,” Kushner said.
