How do I tell my coach I don't want to return next year?

Question

I play volleyball for Mississippi State on a full ride. After my freshman season I know that I don't love volleyball enough to play at this level. At this level volleyball has to be your life and I just want to consentrate on my studies and go to a college closer to home(i'm from Texas-12 hours away). Also this season I have gone through shoulder problems and after 5 months of therapy my shoulder has not improved and I am scared of injuring it and having to have surgery. I know that if I quit I am throwing away a full ride and will have to pay for college but I don't enjoy it enough to put myself through 3 more years of this. I have a meeting with my coach tomorrow afternoon and I don't know what to say to her??

Answer 1

Tell her exact what you just posted on here, believe it or not, coaches are very understanding!

Answer 2

You have to be honest as it will definitely affect your future college life, wherever you go, and no matter you want to continue playing volleyball or not.

Volleyball is ALREADY part of your life, believe it or not. Your coach is already part of your life, which makes your talk tomorrow as important as a talk to your counselor.

Answer 3

dont tell him/her

Answer 4

It's tough to adjust to college life and living far from home, let alone the additional pressures from playing on a Division I varsity program.

In the short term, be honest with yourself and tell your coach how you feel.  You can't be the first college freshman to tell her about those feelings, so she can probably help.

In the longer term, read "Raise the Roof" by Pat Summitt, the Univ. of Tennessee women's basketball coach.  Summitt wrote she's not coaching girls, she's coaching women, and her job is to mold them.  Most of her players were high school standouts, for whom basketball came easily and never had to try very hard.  In college, they have to push themselves for the first time, and it's hard for them.  I think she wrote that made all her players cry at some point during their freshman year.

Sounds harsh, and it is.  But at some point in our lives, life starts knocking us around, so you may as well toughen up when you're young.  I'm 42 and struggled in college (severe skin problems).  But I graduated and newer dermatology treatments work effectively, so now doing well and happy with all the important phases of my life.  I have friends in their 40's who never struggled and now are incapable of adapting to adulthood.

Talk to other players, alums, counseling, family, whomever.   Get help at sorting things out and better adjusting to college.  If you've done your best at that and know you can't do it, then you have to quit and close that door forever.  But remember that if you quit this, you'll probably quit the next time things get tough, and next thing you know, your like some of my friends.

That's why, if at all possible, I urge you to hang in there, stick it out, and fight.  I've done a few bold things: biked across the country, ran a 50-mile race, took an improv comedy class, etc.  Each terrified me, but I finished.  I now have a swagger when challenges come my way.  I earned that swagger.  I think you need some swagger too, but you have to earn it.

I'm doing research into sports coaches, and all the good college coaches really care about their players.  They love and view them as surrogate kids.  They're proud of their players' growth.  I know it's hard, but you have to overcome your reluctance and trust your coach.  She really is there to help.

I wish you the best of luck.  If you found this at all helpful, my email address is my screen name + yahoo.com.

Answer 5

i wouldnt lie. Say what you know you are afraid of at the level. If your coach says no you can ask her(HIM) whay you cant and explain why oyu dont want to persue the sport...... all i really can say is dont lie..... you dont want to regret lieing about why you want to leave, you want to quit Thats ok........ No matter what her opinon is

Answer 6

just tell her exactlly how you feel

bout everything if you lost you fire for it& you wanna work on school as your main focus! good do whatever makes you happy because in the long run your gonna have a good job & still be a good player,so dont think of it as your quiting just think of it as your puting first things first!

so give someone else a try at volleyball and take a break  i

respect you for this because most ppl would ONLY play just because they have a fulll ride!

Answer 7

ok, u just tell them that u dont want to get seriously injured, and u think that going to a college closer to home wuld help u focus more on ur studies, because u dontn want to spend every second of ur college career focusing on volleyball... u want to get a good job wen u get out of college right.?? im sure ur coach will understand...

Answer 8

be honest about it. she won't be happy about losing a player, but i'm sure that she would understand your reasons for quitting.