Post by CEZAR on Dec 25, 2013 14:24:02 GMT -6
Gerry Quinn of the IL Chill-Interview part #2
9. ILSOFTBALL.COM- How do you promote your program?
GQ-
We don’t promote what we do as much as we let the results speak for themselves. We compete well on a national level and our players go on to play in college. That is pretty good promotion. We do have a Facebook page and website that recites some of the things the kids are accomplishing. We also do a pretty impressive recruiting brochure for all of our teams that is sent out electronically to college coaches across the country and handed out in hard copy format at tournaments.
I spend a lot of time on the phone (and email) during the week communicating with college coaches about our players. Likewise, I spend a ton of time talking to our players and their families on how to target their individual recruiting searches. This is a year-round exercise these days and takes a tremendous amount of time and effort.
10. ILSOFTBALL.COM- Explain what you envision the off-season portion of your program will entail?
GQ-
Off-season is a great time for some rest and recuperation from the rigors of playing competitive softball from March until November. It is also a time to hone fundamentals, work with private instructors, and attend college camps. We practice once a week from December through February doing nothing but glovework, throwing and swinging our bats.
11. ILSOFTBALL.COM- How would a student-athlete describe you a year or two after she has played for you?
GQ-
Good question. People always see us differently than we see ourselves. I hope they see me as someone who challenges them athletically and intellectually to be their best. There are times when I feel I should be tougher on them than I am so that they are best prepared for college. On the other hand, if you asked them, they would probably tell you I am some sort of tyrant. Again, I may think of myself as too nice and they may think of me as not being nice enough. The fact the players are doing a great job in school, playing well in tournaments, playing well in college, still talking to me when they see me, would all seem to be indicators that what I am doing does not thoroughly repulse them. The one thing I believe is as a coach you have to be yourself. I definitely am myself when I coach.
12. ILSOFTBALL.COM- Some people say that a coach should be special, a role model that should be just as concerned about his/her behavior. Others would say that the coach’s life should be his/her own after hours. What they do on their own time is their own business. What do you think?
GQ-
I don’t think there is any doubt that a coach is a role model. Think back about your own childhood and you certainly remember all the favorable and unfavorable characteristics about your teachers and coaches. Those kids are going to be influenced by how you talk and how you act. In my opinion, there is absolutely no reason for speaking profanely to a player, an opponent, or an umpire. In addition, using words that are descriptive and varied can hold your players attention when you are in teaching mode.
As far as what a coach does away from the ballpark, I don’t suppose that should matter much to anyone. Obviously, if a coach engages in activities away from the field that reflect poorly upon his or her character that would be a negative and could detract from his or her message as a coach. I am a lawyer in my “spare” time and try to carry out my responsibilities as a lawyer ethically and diligently. I doubt any of my softball players think much about that though.
13. ILSOFTBALL.COM- What do you think of other programs that have come before or after yours?
GQ-
Obviously programs go in cycles. The ones on top when I started in 1998 are different than those on top now. Chicago area club ball has gone more global on a year-round basis and the programs that have embraced that concept have benefited.
Programs are only as good as the people leading them. That is why sometimes you will find a great team in an otherwise unremarkable program. The guy or gal who is coaching that one team has a plan and knows what he or she is doing even if the people running the organization don’t.
We (Chill) are positioned well right now both locally and nationally. It creates a lot of pressure to stay in that position, but up to now the players have embraced that and done the necessary work to keep themselves in the mix and our Chill program relevant. Competition forces you to greater heights. Having Bill’s Bandits in the neighborhood is good for us. The one thing I can tell you is success is not an accident. People have no idea how much time goes into what we are doing.
14. ILSOFTBALL.COM- What is your philosophy regarding varsity vs. JV?
GQ-
High school softball is different than what we do so I can’t say I really care that much. There are different reasons for rostering kids in high school than there are in travel so I don’t get hung up on it. Some high schools have a lot of talent and talented kids there may have to put in a year or two at the JV level. It is rare that one of our players plays JV so I have not had much firsthand experience with it in recent years.
15. ILSOFTBALL.COM- What are your thoughts vs PGF,ASA,USSSA NSA?
GQ-
I am going to play where the best are playing. Right now that is PGF. Five years ago it was ASA Gold and that is what we built our schedule around. I don’t really have a vested interest in any group’s success. PGF has a tactical advantage over ASA right now at the high end of the sport because its ownership runs high level travel programs or is well connected to them. It is strictly focused on fastpitch and has a small management team which allows it to move swiftly. PGF is centralized in its planning whereas ASA is somewhat decentralized. ASA was unchallenged at the top end of fastpitch for a long time and it seems to be having a hard time responding to the challenges that PGF is presenting, at least at the high end of JO fastpitch.
16. ILSOFTBALL.COM- What role did your parents play in you coaching softball?
GQ-
I previously stated my father was a coach most of his adult life. That made sports a centerpiece of our family life. Riding on the team bus to a football game when I was five years old, or sitting in the crowd at a jammed packed basketball game had a huge impact on how I wanted to spend my “leisure” time. My mother actively supported all of our family’s athletic endeavors so she too was an “enabler”. There was no orientation growing up towards the sport of fastpitch, but there was definitely a climate for intense involvement in athletics. Softball became the sport of choice for me because it was where my childrens’ best skills appeared to lie.
17. ILSOFTBALL.COM- What do you think about women coaches in IL and the midwest? Who are some of your favs?
GQ-
I don’t believe we should categorize coaches based on their gender. However, I can think of great softball coaches that coincidentally happen to be women.
Locally, at the club level, I have not coached against a lot of women coaches. Jen Tyrell I have coached against a fair amount and I can’t say enough positive things about her. She does a great job preparing her team and then executing her game plan. Winning national tournaments takes a great coach no matter how great the talent level the team has.
Julie Folliard who coaches at Richards HS is a coach I have enjoyed getting to know. I don’t coach against her, but I interact with her at clinics and consider her a friend. She is very thorough in everything she does and she has had a great high school coaching career.
We are blessed that we have so many great collegiate coaches right here in the Chicago area that coincidentally happen to be women. I have been heavily influenced by Kate, Caryl and Courtnay at Northwestern. I have borrowed a lot of their drill work and it has helped my team develop into a very sound defensive team through the years. They are very open to sharing their knowledge and opinions with anyone who asks. I also have great admiration for Missy at Loyola and Michelle at UIC and their respective coaching staffs.
We were blessed this past summer to have two of our former Chill players, Olivia Duehr (Northwestern) and Lauren Moore (Loyola) help coach our 16s. They both have a chance to be outstanding softball coaches once their playing days are over.
I think there will be a great wave of outstanding coaches coming into the ranks as more and more of today’s players join the pursuit. The sport has come a long way in the last 10-15 years so it stands to reason that those women who are playing the sport now will be well equipped to coach at a high level when their turn comes.
18. ILSOFTBALL.COM- How do you see PGF growing on the futures and national level.
GQ-
I don’t really know what their end game is so it would be difficult for me to say. I am not sure they know what their end game is either. I think it is evolving as different opportunities present themselves. There is nothing wrong with that as many successful businesses branch off in multiple directions that perhaps they did not originally contemplate. They definitely seem to be trying to expand to markets beyond the very high-end of the sport. I know in the Midwest Bill has done a good job of getting energetic, responsible, and ethical people involved as regional directors. Having those people on the ground that have built solid relationships with the local programs gives PGF a good tactical set-up for expansion. I have my hands full with what I do so I don’t spend much time trying to analyze the whole PGF vs. ASA stuff.
19. ILSOFTBALL.COM- What teams in IL and the midwest do you think do a good job at competing and getting girls ready for the next level that you have played against or have seen?
GQ-
As I stated earlier, you can find someone doing a great job in virtually every club organization. Ultimately, players and parents gravitate to teams that fit their needs. It is the “market” system in its purest form. So, if you have a great player or a great coach in Organization A, they won’t likely stay there if the rest of the organization doesn’t match up with them. This is the crossroads that players and parents often come to as the player ages into what we might call the “recruiting years”. Do I stay with my friends and the team I have been with since I was 10 or move to another organization that has shown itself to be good at getting kids to the next level? Many parent coaches are not equipped to go the full distance with their kids so you can’t blame them for turning them over to a team with a solid track record.
I don’t think I need to mention specific teams as it somewhat obvious who has players that are good players and moving on to play at the next level. What I take pride in is that I believe we do a great job in developing players. It is rare that we have a one or two year player. Most kids spend at least three years with us so we have a significant impact on their development. Most of the time, they leave here doing things a lot differently (and better) than they did when they came in. Don’t get me wrong, the players deserve much of the credit because they are the ones who listened to what they were told and made the changes they needed to make. However, we use our experience and the challenges of our schedule to point the path out to them. When it is all said and done, I would rather someone say “look how much that girl improved since she joined the Chill” rather than “hey, look at all the games they won”. Usually one begets the other so thinks take care of themselves in the end.
Gerry Quinn
IL Chill Gold
9. ILSOFTBALL.COM- How do you promote your program?
GQ-
We don’t promote what we do as much as we let the results speak for themselves. We compete well on a national level and our players go on to play in college. That is pretty good promotion. We do have a Facebook page and website that recites some of the things the kids are accomplishing. We also do a pretty impressive recruiting brochure for all of our teams that is sent out electronically to college coaches across the country and handed out in hard copy format at tournaments.
I spend a lot of time on the phone (and email) during the week communicating with college coaches about our players. Likewise, I spend a ton of time talking to our players and their families on how to target their individual recruiting searches. This is a year-round exercise these days and takes a tremendous amount of time and effort.
10. ILSOFTBALL.COM- Explain what you envision the off-season portion of your program will entail?
GQ-
Off-season is a great time for some rest and recuperation from the rigors of playing competitive softball from March until November. It is also a time to hone fundamentals, work with private instructors, and attend college camps. We practice once a week from December through February doing nothing but glovework, throwing and swinging our bats.
11. ILSOFTBALL.COM- How would a student-athlete describe you a year or two after she has played for you?
GQ-
Good question. People always see us differently than we see ourselves. I hope they see me as someone who challenges them athletically and intellectually to be their best. There are times when I feel I should be tougher on them than I am so that they are best prepared for college. On the other hand, if you asked them, they would probably tell you I am some sort of tyrant. Again, I may think of myself as too nice and they may think of me as not being nice enough. The fact the players are doing a great job in school, playing well in tournaments, playing well in college, still talking to me when they see me, would all seem to be indicators that what I am doing does not thoroughly repulse them. The one thing I believe is as a coach you have to be yourself. I definitely am myself when I coach.
12. ILSOFTBALL.COM- Some people say that a coach should be special, a role model that should be just as concerned about his/her behavior. Others would say that the coach’s life should be his/her own after hours. What they do on their own time is their own business. What do you think?
GQ-
I don’t think there is any doubt that a coach is a role model. Think back about your own childhood and you certainly remember all the favorable and unfavorable characteristics about your teachers and coaches. Those kids are going to be influenced by how you talk and how you act. In my opinion, there is absolutely no reason for speaking profanely to a player, an opponent, or an umpire. In addition, using words that are descriptive and varied can hold your players attention when you are in teaching mode.
As far as what a coach does away from the ballpark, I don’t suppose that should matter much to anyone. Obviously, if a coach engages in activities away from the field that reflect poorly upon his or her character that would be a negative and could detract from his or her message as a coach. I am a lawyer in my “spare” time and try to carry out my responsibilities as a lawyer ethically and diligently. I doubt any of my softball players think much about that though.
13. ILSOFTBALL.COM- What do you think of other programs that have come before or after yours?
GQ-
Obviously programs go in cycles. The ones on top when I started in 1998 are different than those on top now. Chicago area club ball has gone more global on a year-round basis and the programs that have embraced that concept have benefited.
Programs are only as good as the people leading them. That is why sometimes you will find a great team in an otherwise unremarkable program. The guy or gal who is coaching that one team has a plan and knows what he or she is doing even if the people running the organization don’t.
We (Chill) are positioned well right now both locally and nationally. It creates a lot of pressure to stay in that position, but up to now the players have embraced that and done the necessary work to keep themselves in the mix and our Chill program relevant. Competition forces you to greater heights. Having Bill’s Bandits in the neighborhood is good for us. The one thing I can tell you is success is not an accident. People have no idea how much time goes into what we are doing.
14. ILSOFTBALL.COM- What is your philosophy regarding varsity vs. JV?
GQ-
High school softball is different than what we do so I can’t say I really care that much. There are different reasons for rostering kids in high school than there are in travel so I don’t get hung up on it. Some high schools have a lot of talent and talented kids there may have to put in a year or two at the JV level. It is rare that one of our players plays JV so I have not had much firsthand experience with it in recent years.
15. ILSOFTBALL.COM- What are your thoughts vs PGF,ASA,USSSA NSA?
GQ-
I am going to play where the best are playing. Right now that is PGF. Five years ago it was ASA Gold and that is what we built our schedule around. I don’t really have a vested interest in any group’s success. PGF has a tactical advantage over ASA right now at the high end of the sport because its ownership runs high level travel programs or is well connected to them. It is strictly focused on fastpitch and has a small management team which allows it to move swiftly. PGF is centralized in its planning whereas ASA is somewhat decentralized. ASA was unchallenged at the top end of fastpitch for a long time and it seems to be having a hard time responding to the challenges that PGF is presenting, at least at the high end of JO fastpitch.
16. ILSOFTBALL.COM- What role did your parents play in you coaching softball?
GQ-
I previously stated my father was a coach most of his adult life. That made sports a centerpiece of our family life. Riding on the team bus to a football game when I was five years old, or sitting in the crowd at a jammed packed basketball game had a huge impact on how I wanted to spend my “leisure” time. My mother actively supported all of our family’s athletic endeavors so she too was an “enabler”. There was no orientation growing up towards the sport of fastpitch, but there was definitely a climate for intense involvement in athletics. Softball became the sport of choice for me because it was where my childrens’ best skills appeared to lie.
17. ILSOFTBALL.COM- What do you think about women coaches in IL and the midwest? Who are some of your favs?
GQ-
I don’t believe we should categorize coaches based on their gender. However, I can think of great softball coaches that coincidentally happen to be women.
Locally, at the club level, I have not coached against a lot of women coaches. Jen Tyrell I have coached against a fair amount and I can’t say enough positive things about her. She does a great job preparing her team and then executing her game plan. Winning national tournaments takes a great coach no matter how great the talent level the team has.
Julie Folliard who coaches at Richards HS is a coach I have enjoyed getting to know. I don’t coach against her, but I interact with her at clinics and consider her a friend. She is very thorough in everything she does and she has had a great high school coaching career.
We are blessed that we have so many great collegiate coaches right here in the Chicago area that coincidentally happen to be women. I have been heavily influenced by Kate, Caryl and Courtnay at Northwestern. I have borrowed a lot of their drill work and it has helped my team develop into a very sound defensive team through the years. They are very open to sharing their knowledge and opinions with anyone who asks. I also have great admiration for Missy at Loyola and Michelle at UIC and their respective coaching staffs.
We were blessed this past summer to have two of our former Chill players, Olivia Duehr (Northwestern) and Lauren Moore (Loyola) help coach our 16s. They both have a chance to be outstanding softball coaches once their playing days are over.
I think there will be a great wave of outstanding coaches coming into the ranks as more and more of today’s players join the pursuit. The sport has come a long way in the last 10-15 years so it stands to reason that those women who are playing the sport now will be well equipped to coach at a high level when their turn comes.
18. ILSOFTBALL.COM- How do you see PGF growing on the futures and national level.
GQ-
I don’t really know what their end game is so it would be difficult for me to say. I am not sure they know what their end game is either. I think it is evolving as different opportunities present themselves. There is nothing wrong with that as many successful businesses branch off in multiple directions that perhaps they did not originally contemplate. They definitely seem to be trying to expand to markets beyond the very high-end of the sport. I know in the Midwest Bill has done a good job of getting energetic, responsible, and ethical people involved as regional directors. Having those people on the ground that have built solid relationships with the local programs gives PGF a good tactical set-up for expansion. I have my hands full with what I do so I don’t spend much time trying to analyze the whole PGF vs. ASA stuff.
19. ILSOFTBALL.COM- What teams in IL and the midwest do you think do a good job at competing and getting girls ready for the next level that you have played against or have seen?
GQ-
As I stated earlier, you can find someone doing a great job in virtually every club organization. Ultimately, players and parents gravitate to teams that fit their needs. It is the “market” system in its purest form. So, if you have a great player or a great coach in Organization A, they won’t likely stay there if the rest of the organization doesn’t match up with them. This is the crossroads that players and parents often come to as the player ages into what we might call the “recruiting years”. Do I stay with my friends and the team I have been with since I was 10 or move to another organization that has shown itself to be good at getting kids to the next level? Many parent coaches are not equipped to go the full distance with their kids so you can’t blame them for turning them over to a team with a solid track record.
I don’t think I need to mention specific teams as it somewhat obvious who has players that are good players and moving on to play at the next level. What I take pride in is that I believe we do a great job in developing players. It is rare that we have a one or two year player. Most kids spend at least three years with us so we have a significant impact on their development. Most of the time, they leave here doing things a lot differently (and better) than they did when they came in. Don’t get me wrong, the players deserve much of the credit because they are the ones who listened to what they were told and made the changes they needed to make. However, we use our experience and the challenges of our schedule to point the path out to them. When it is all said and done, I would rather someone say “look how much that girl improved since she joined the Chill” rather than “hey, look at all the games they won”. Usually one begets the other so thinks take care of themselves in the end.
Gerry Quinn
IL Chill Gold