Don Metil has a history of success at the mid-major level, boasting nine 20 win seasons over the last 10 years, six at UMES and the last three at Towson.
In his 15 year career, Metil has turned in 11 20-win campaigns, including a 30-9 mark at Lees-McRae in 2004. He has done stints at Notre Dame of Maryland (2002, 2003), Lees-McRae (30-9), Coppin State (2005, 2006), UMES (2007-2012) and Towson (2013-16). His teams have made three NCAA berth, including back-to-back appearances in 2011 and 2011 following MEAC championships at UMES. He boasts a combined record of 333-175 including this season.
In 2017, his Towson Tiger team was one of four remaining undefeated teams heading into Week 6. The 16-0 Tigers stumbled against Hofstra and Northeastern, but VolleyMob.com still wanted to sit down with Coach Metil and peek inside the streak, his roster, his philosphies and what has made his programs so successful over the years.
You have a history of coming in and building programs or at the very least coming in and pushing an already successful program to a higher level. What do you think is the secret to your success?
I think that I had some pretty good mentors that I still reach out to. I think whenever I need to I know how to surround myself with good smart people. For me, I have a teaching background and I think that really helps me communicate with the student-athletes and really convey what we are trying to accomplish in a positive manner and in a teaching/educational manner. I don’t know what it is, but the methodologies that we are able to put in place, no matter what program I have been associated with, it seems like the girls buy into the philosophy and methodologies of how we want to play the game. It has really proven successful over the last 15 years or so.
You have found your success at the mid-major level and never made the leap for the brass ring of a major conference. Is there something special about rebuilding programs that has kept you at it?
I have really just take the opportunity when it has presented itself to move on when I felt necessary. When I was at UMES, we won two championships and made it to the NCAAs in back to back years and I really just took a step back and asked myself, ‘have I done all I can do with the resources that I am being provided with?’ If that answer is yes or close to yes, then I look for the next opportunity.
My wife is from Baltimore. I was actually an educator in the Towson area for seven years before I made the leap of faith into coaching, so I kind of feel like I have gone full circle from when I started to where I am now. I am pretty happy with the resources Towson has to provide to the student-athletes, so I am not necessarily looking to move unless they are unhappy with the job I am doing.
What have your five years at Towson been like? Obviously the first year was a bit of a struggle, but the last three years it seems like you have found your footing with three straight 20-win seasons.
I think a lot of that deals with our team culture and how we try to improve it year after year. We are actually in the second year of a cultural enrichment handbook that we created as a staff. It gives the girls an opportunity to communicate with us on a weekly basis. Sometimes athletes are a little cautious about provide information to you holistically and we cover six areas of our athletes lives on a weekly basis. They are able through journal entries and weekly meetings with us.
I think our team chemistry is better. We have a much smaller team than in years past. I think the oneness that we are able to feel no matter if we are on a bus ride or on the court or in a film session, the togetherness that we are able to provide one another is a big reason why we have been so successful since that first year. The first year was definitely a learning curve for the athletes that were in the program and the athletes that we invited to be part of the program. But now that we are able to present that to our recruits that we are interested in, they know up front more of what Towson volleyball is all about.
Tell us more about the Cultural Enrichment Handbook. What does it entail?
What we did was we took about eight months and went out to what we referred to as area experts, people that influence our young ladies lives on a daily basis and talked to them about what they expected from our student-athletes when they were with them. We talked to our strength coach, sports medicine, academics, liaisons with tutors and specialists, we talked within our own coaching staff. We sat down and talked about our expectations. We talked to our SWA (senior woman administrator) about what she wanted to see from our athletes off the court in other areas like community service and SAAC (student-athlete advisory council) representatives, etc.
Through about eight months of dialogue, we created six pages of standards of behavior. I used to have a lot of rules, but as I have three boys, I have found that rules are perceived to be broken or twisted or how can I get around them. So now really operate on standards of behavior. We have five different categories from exemplary to non-negotiable with the midline being borderline. There are some athletes that can survive at Towson if they just operate on the borderline standard, just operating at a baseline. But, we are striving to get 80 to 90 percent of the athletes in our program to perform above that. I think that them knowing what our expectations are rather than having rules has helped us take the team to the next level holistically.
You mentioned a oneness you feel with your team. Do you think that comes from the expectation of everybody buying into the same thing or have you done some specific activities to create that chemistry?
We have a leadership council that we are in constant communication with that tries to talk about issues before they become larger issues. So we are able to sit down and talk through some things and talk about how we want to handle them as a team. I think that involving the team in a lot of our decisions allows them to feel like it is their program, which it is. We are just kind of leaders of it. They feel like they have a voice in a lot of the different issues we discuss, it allows them to stay together and want to play for each other.
Last year’s squad was 21 girls and through graduation and some injuries and some transfers as well, we were done to 14 girls. And now due to injury we are down to 12. So, it is a tight knit group. Sometimes the smaller the group, the tighter they become and this year is definitely a testament to that.
We know coaches don’t like to talk about streaks, but your team was one of the last four undefeated teams (16-0) heading into last week. That had to feel good for your players, if not for you as well. Talk about the streak.
Obviously I think we played some decent foes during that stretch, some that tested us. We are obviously always concerned about RPI and strength of schedule, but we thought with the amount of new kids in our program that we needed some early success to build some confidence. Obviously we are fighting through some injuries now, but whether we were healthy or not, we may have experienced those losses this weekend (L 3-0 vs. Hofstra, L 3-1 vs. Northeastern), because they are pretty good programs. I think the CAA (Colonial Athletic Association) was the eighth-best conference RPI wise in the nation last year, so there is some pretty competition day in and day out.
I am actually kind of glad that we had some losses, because even though it was unspoken, I think that there was undue pressure the girls were feeling that they had to perform a certain way. Now we can get back and learn from our mistakes and know that we can still get better and hopefully our goal is still to make the postseason in the CAA.
Your team was picked to finish fourth in the CAA. Do you still see that as attainable or even surpassing that as feasible?
We talked about that early on, but we really haven’t mentioned it since. I get that question a lot from people in our own local media. Our goal is just to make postseason. The top six teams make postseason for the CAA. And in the finals last year, the No. 6 seed was in the championship match. So, we have some goals we set forward at the beginning of the year, some statistical baselines that we are trying to meet day in and day out as we perform. We feel that if we are meeting those goals, then it gives us a really good shot to be one of those six teams that will go on and play for the championship in the Colonial Athletic Association.
I think all things considered, looking in from the outside and also knowing my own program, that is a really reasonable goal. I don’t think anyone really got it wrong. Being fourth or fifth, I would be happy with that. Obviously if we do better than that, it just improves our seeding. With the amount of turnover that we had, a new assistant coach, five new girls in our program – three of which are starting, that is a pretty good, realistic goal.
One of the players that is going to push you toward that goal is right side hitter Jocelyn Kuilan, the CAA Preseason Player of the Year. What does she bring to the team?
Jocelyn actually has the ability to play six rotations. Her biggest asset is her ability to play a pretty solid terminal arm on the right side as well as a top spin jump serve. When need be, we can actually call on her to stay in the game. She plays good defense. She was in serve receive for us a few rotations last weekend. She is a true six rotational athlete. It is interesting that she can do that on the right side for us. She is a threat to a lot of teams and as teams realize how much of a threat she is, that gives us the opportunity to open up our offense along the net elsewhere.
What other players are going to help you achieve your goals? What are the keys to success to make the postseason this year?
We are running a 6-2 and 50 percent of our offense is running really well and the other 50 percent needs to improve. It is really a difference in when we switch to our other setter right now, so we are continually working in the gym to make sure our setting efficiency is very equal when we go from one setter to the other. So, we are being mindful of that right now.
Our serve receive needs to get a little more sound. Looking at some of our girls right now, we are passing between 40 and 50 percent perfect and we want to be at 60. Hopefully as we turn to the second half of the conference season, it will be. Teams have been able to serve our weaknesses a little bit and that gets us into a little bit of trouble.
Other than that, when we do pass the ball well, we have some really good, but new middles. All of our middles are new to our program this year, but they are taking care of the ball well and maintaining some pretty high hitting efficiencies when we can get them the ball. Our goal is to pass well in system and establish the middle early and often and I think that allows us to have a pretty terminal offense.
Looking ahead, this weekend may be your most challenging yet with CAA favorite College of Charleston on the slate. What challenges do they and the rest of the league bring your team?
They all pose different problems. This past weekend, Hofstra was very talented and very physical. Northeastern is probably one of the taller teams in our conference. Hofstra has some really talented serving which gave us some trouble. Northeastern gave us trouble at the net with their physicality and ability to block.
Charleston is just a well-balanced, well-trained team. They have some good ball control. They also lost 3-1 to Northeastern, so if you compare apples to apples, so if we play well, it should be a competitive match. I think you saw it last year in the CAA. There were three or four teams tied with the same record at 10-6. The parity in the league could cause you to be the second seed or drop to the fifth seed with technically the same record. That is why it is important for our girls to strive to be among the top six teams and then let the chips fall where they may.
In the CAA, you are all grasping for one bid to the NCAA Tournament. What challenges does that bring?
In 42 years, the CAA has not gotten an at-large bid. So, although each team tries to raise its RPI for the good of the conference, I just don’t know how much we need to do get considered for that at-large bid. I did my own study last year, and out of the potential at-large bids, only six did not go to schools in the power conferences. There is a really thin margin trying to get one of those bids if you don’t win the conference. Obviously we need to put ourselves in position to compete for that championship, and then, if that doesn’t come, we put ourselves in position to be considered for the brand new NIT for volleyball, which hopes our postseason effort.
Having taken your team at UMES to the NCAA Tournament twice, does that give you something to strive for and show your team as a possibility or do you just focus on making the CAA postseason and go from there?
We share both experiences with our team. Last year when we knew that we were a lock for the CAA Tournament, we starting sharing with them some things like photographs of teams I had taken in the past and shown them the nostalgia and the excitement of being a part of that, and bringing in championship rings, etc.
We also have a daily delivery called Tiger Tales, which is motivational quotes and dialogue that we slide under their doors as motivation or to inspire them when are on the road, which help them get pumped up for the match. So, we try to do our part to keep them engaged and really looking forward to being a part of the whole experience and not just the time on the court.
On that note, we couldn’t help but share Coach Metil’s many faces, courtesy of Towson volleyball twitter.
Wishing a Happy Birthday to a man of many faces who inspires others to dress up like him for Halloween (top right) – head coach Don Metil! pic.twitter.com/tqG1CnKwg6
— Towson Volleyball (@Towson_VB) March 23, 2017
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