Quotes from John Kessel

Volleyball is like going to church ... many attend, but few understand.

Profit by your own mistakes and profit by the mistakes of others. The referees were calling ball handling violations like they were getting commissions.

Good players win volleyball games for you, not tall players.

Too many players are so afraid to do anything that they seldom venture to do anything.

Most of us are referees at heart; we like to call throws and errors on someone else.

Being left-handed has its advantages in volleyball. Few people know enough about your spike and serve to give you advice.

The pessimistic coach complains about the play. The optimistic coach expects it to change. The realistic coach adjusts what he can control.

Nothing makes a player more productive than the last minute.

An advantage to volleyball is that you have a scoreboard to tell how you have done as a team. The thing is, in life there is no scoreboard, at least not one that you can see.

In volleyball there are many reasons for errors but not a single excuse.

Less effort in this game makes more results.

There are three choices in life and sport - either you do it, you don't do it or you think about it. Most humans think about it. We will do it.

Never mishandle hope or self-confidence - those are elements of life, not just a game.

The conventional Aristotelian plot proceeds by means of a protagonist, an antagonist, and a series of events comprising a rising action, climax and denouement.

No jockey ever won a race by carrying the horse across the finish line; no coach ever won a volleyball match by touching the ball during play.

A coach must sometimes see players with his heart, and hear them with his eyes.

There are two basic situations in volleyball - either you got the ball or you don't.

It is ok to err, but it is not ok to stop playing; it is ok to lose, but it is not ok to give up.

Think positive, real volleyball happens too fast to think any other way.

Kids on a team are like flowers in a bouquet, there is always one that wants to face a different way than the arranger desires.

There is nothing less important in life than the score after one game of a two out of three game match.

The substitute that thinks his place below him, will certainly be below his place.

If there is something a coach might wish to see changed in a player or team, the first place to check and see if it could not be done better is in yourself.

Don't ask yourself what you did wrong; ask yourself what you did right.