Currently, Georgia Tech is 19-3 (5-1 ACC) and ranked #20 in the USA Today/AVCA Division I Coaches Poll (Poll #7, 10/14/02).
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rollshot.com: What kind of name is Bond Shymansky?
Bond Shymansky: *laughing* Actually, what it boils down to is my mom had a crush on Sean Connery. [Editor's note: For the patently ignorant, Sean Connery is an actor who played the character "James Bond" in the 1960s and early 1970s. For what it's worth, his best Bond role was "Goldfinger" and "From Russia with Love."]
rollshot.com: Are you sure you're not a secret offspring of Connery? Are you sure you don't have some physical features resembling him?
Shymansky: I'm pretty positive. My mom has denied it but I'm pretty sure it was just a crush. But I can do a pretty lame impression of Sean Connery. [Editor's note: Yes, it was a pretty lame impression]
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| (Photo courtesy of the Georgia Tech Sports Information Office) |
rollshot.com: So, Shelton Collier leaves and you take over the head coaching job. Did you know it was coming? Were you prepared for the job?
Shymansky: Wow! I was shocked. I've held different head coaching positions, just not in Division I ball. I like to think that I'm competent and enthusiastic. I'm trying to feel more comfortable and do the things I like about volleyball. Just be yourself and relax. I told myself, you got the job so just relax. When I got the job, my players asked me, so, do we have to call you Coach Shymansky [Editor's note: he was doing an impression of one of his players]? Of course! Are we not allowed to joke around with you [Editor's note: he was doing an impression of a female version of Sean Connery]? Of course not! The point is, I'm still the same Bond Shymansky and just because I'm a head coach doesn't change things.
rollshot.com: How long is your contract with Georgia Tech?
Shymansky: One year. You know, when I met with my AD recently, he asked me when Lynnette Moster was going to be back and I told him about a week. [Editor's note: Lynnette Moster is Georgia Tech's top player who is out with an ankle injury for another week. She sprained her left ankle in the third game against North Carolina several weeks ago.] He said, you better get her back soon because you only have a 3-loss clause in your contract. I was thinking to myself, so what's the number of win clause in my contract? *laughing* The little things like how long am I going to be here, how much I'm getting paid, and what are my benefits aren't too important for me. I love my job. But after this year, I'll probably end up asking him for a multi-year contract! *laughing*
rollshot.com: Is this what you envisioned for yourself? Was coaching volleyball in your grand plans for your future when you were a little boy?
Shymansky: Not at all. I'm from Iowa and everyone knows Iowa is synonymous with volleyball! We didn't even have a boys team in our high school. I remember playing for my club in sophomore year at JO's and we didn't know anything! We felt so scared and so lost! Rotate? What's that? But we had a good high school girls team and so I followed the sport through them.
rollshot.com: Why would you follow girls volleyball?
Shymansky: Oh come on! There's an obvious answer! It was also partly because of my girlfriend. I also loved watching them compete and give everything they had. They had awesome players and made awesome plays and I loved seeing that on the court.
rollshot.com: How's the talent pool in Georgia? Or should I ask, where do you recruit from mostly?
Shymansky: We recruit all over the world. Everywhere. We recruit the best players we possibly can. But the beauty is, the talent pool in Georgia is getting better. I'm not allowed to say her name, but this year, we'll get the first ever scholarship commitment from the state of Georgia in the history of the Georgia Tech program. She is touted as a Top 20 recruit in the country and a lot of teams were trying to get her. [Editor's note: Based on our extensive research, it's Sarah Hale, a 6'3" middle]
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| (Photo courtesy of the Georgia Tech Sports Information Office) |
rollshot.com: Georgia Tech is known as a techie school, analogous to Cal Tech and MIT. How do you attract the recruits to come to Atlanta and play for your team? How do you get a kid who wants to major in sociology, communications, or kinesiology to play for you?
Shymansky: With "Tech" in the name, you're right, it sounds kinda nerdy. But we're #8 in the country in quality education and to parents who want their kids to get a great education, that's worth something. That piece of paper you get when you graduate will mean something at the end. You mentioned communications. Being in Atlanta, Georgia Tech has a close affiliation with a lot of mass media companies like CNN, Turner Broadcasting and Fox Sports. As a result, kids who want to major in communications have incredible internship and co-op opportunities with these companies. Atlanta actually does far more for the university than [either of the cities do for] MIT and Cal Tech. One of our former players Kyleen Bell did a summer internship with TBS. Even though we're a "techie" school, we have liberal arts and a strong business program. How do you get past the first impression of the school as a "techie" school? It takes some time. If a kid wants to go into acting, well, we don't have an acting program. I'm not going to lie to them. I'll tell them, good luck and I hope you find the school that's right for you. If you can't be honest, what do you got?
rollshot.com: Is this the best year in the history of ACC volleyball, with two solid teams, North Carolina and Georgia Tech, ranked in the Top 20?
Shymansky: I sure hope it is. The level of play has gone up. Doing so well, we're proud to be carrying the flag for the conference. From top to bottom, the whole level of play has improved and better coaches and players are coming into the conference.
rollshot.com: What is the worst thing about playing in the ACC?
Shymansky: At the bottom of the conference, the teams could be a little stronger and when you play them, I feel we're not getting pushed. Overall, the teams are competitive. When NCAA play comes around, I feel we suffer because of that. But there isn't a lot of parity. The Big Ten, I think, has parity and that's only because the traditionally strong teams are down this year and the other teams have moved up.
rollshot.com: What is it like to play in your gym?
Shymansky: Playing teams both home and away, we have a chance at winning games on our home court. Playing in our gym, we have an awesome home court advantage. It's an old school type gym that reeks with tradition. It gets so loud that I have to yell over the school band and the fans. I have a sore throat after every match. By the fourth game, I sound like a guy going through puberty. My players literally can't hear me sometimes and so I have to use sign language or write on the clipboard.
rollshot.com: Normally, everyone benefits when you play in a strong conference, not just in the NCAA tournament but also in recruiting. Is it true that coaches in the same conference help each other out with recruiting? Do you all share information with other coaches in the ACC to help improve the conference?
Shymansky: The theory sounds right but in reality, it doesn't work that way. Normally, if a recruit doesn't come here, they're going to Clemson, North Carolina, or Duke. I would much rather have a kid go to a Big Ten school [than an ACC school] if she's not coming to Georgia Tech because I don't want her to play against us all the time. There's actually more info sharing with coaches from out-of-conference schools. It's almost like biting your nose off to spite your face. I want the conference to improve but they need to do it on their own.
rollshot.com: Are you a screamer or snoozer in practice?
Shymansky: Let me think of another "S" word. *laughing* I can be excited and critical in a game. But I can count with one hand the number of times I screamed at them and that's one. When we're in practice, we're very technical with drills and game-play situations. We use quantitative methods to measure performance. For example, we would run game play drills where they would have to get so many kills without an error or during serve receive, out of 10 balls, they would have to score a 2.4. Well, if they fall below the goals we set for them, they have to run sprints or shuffle drills. There's a cost for lack of performance. The accountability is on them. If they don't perform, it's not our fault. They can't get mad at us because they have to achieve those goals or else there's a penalty. In the past, our modus operandi was yelling at them and making them run. Now, we're not yelling at them. We cheer them on and help them attain those goals.
rollshot.com: But it depends what those goals are. If they are 500 kills in 5 minutes, they will never achieve those numbers.
Shymansky: It's funny how coaches know exactly what number to use. *laughing* We use numbers that are attainable and achievable. We want them to succeed.
rollshot.com: You've had five 5-game matches. How do you keep that hair on your head?
Shymansky: What little I have. *laughing* They're either gone or graying. It's hard. There's nothing like the 5th game in volleyball. I get excited to begin with, from the first point to the end. The only time I got angry was against Clemson. We won the first two games and were up 2-0. Then we lost the third and fourth games. I was angry. But I ripped into them. Clemson played well, of course.
rollshot.com: What was your impression of the North Carolina match? Moster goes down with an ankle injury and you lose the match in 5 games.
Shymansky: North Carolina didn't beat us. We felt like we lost that match. We'll get our chance to play them two more times, probably, this year so we'll get our chance again. When we played Northern Iowa, they clearly beat us. They were the better team. But with North Carolina, we felt like we lost the match to them. When we're at full strength and they're at full strength, we're the better team.
rollshot.com: You've only coached for half a season, but what has been your proudest achievement so far?
Shymansky: First, defeating Michigan State at the South Florida tournament. Second, defeating Kansas State at the same tournament. Third, Lynnette Moster was named AVCA Player of the Week. Fourth, losing to North Carolina. In that match, one of our best players Moster goes down with an injury in the third game. So, we had to find a way to play without her and the players showed a lot of guts and fought till the end. At the beginning of the season, I asked the girls what their goals for the season were. They mentioned things like beat this team or that team, winning the ACC, finish with such and such record, and we put them up on the board. I got up and erased all the quantitative goals they listed and told them, let's focus on the intangibles. If you have fun, go after balls, try to improve in practice, then all the other things you mentioned like the win-loss record and winning the ACC and things like that will work out for us.
rollshot.com: So, after 10 years, will you still feel this way? When will you get jaded and worldly?
Shymansky: I was talking to Sally Schulte, our assistant coach, and asked her, at what point am I supposed to feel important and so sure of myself? I can't take myself that seriously. I have a great job and it's a heck of a lot of fun, but I'm also married with two kids, so there is a life outside of volleyball for me.