By Braeden Melton | Assistant Coach & Director of Volleyball Operations
This next guest bleeds black and gold — as a player he won a national championship with the men’s club team, as a coach on the men’s side he worked his way up the ladder to eventually oversee the entire program, and he has since joined us for the past two seasons as one of our four assistant coaches and our on staff Personal Coach — I present Will Brydon!
Fun fact(s): Will was my coach when I played in college, we spent two seasons at Winneconne High School together helping the Wolves win conference for the first time since ’85, and, obviously, our paths crossed once more with UWOVB. It’s pretty apparent that I can’t stand the guy!
Amid this pandemic, Will has currently shifted his passion for helping people more directly on his own product PEAK by Brydon LLC. We’re happy that he took some time to chat with us.
Favorite book: Hamlet
Favorite hobby: Spending time outside with my daughter and wife or watching movies
Favorite meal: Pepperoni pizza
Favorite place to travel to: England — there’s just so much literary history to enjoy!
Tattoo count: 12, I think…
Favorite volleyball memory: As a player, coming back from down 12–19 in the second set of the national championship to win 27–25 and secure the title! As a coach, it’s probably a tie between the out-of-region trips we take here with the women’s team — the locations themselves, the activities we do, the high quality volleyball we play, and the once-in-a-lifetime travel experiences we share are all incredible! — and reaching the sectional final for the first time in school history when I was the Varsity coach at Winneconne HS (special shoutout to Coach Braeden Melton, who was a huge part of that staff, too!).
What was it like to coach at your alma mater?
“Coaching at UWO after playing here was, simply put, amazing. My experiences as an athlete instilled me with the internal confidence and the external support network necessary to succeed in life after college, and it has been a privilege to hopefully carry on that legacy through my own coaching. I tried to build confidence on and off the court in the athletes I was lucky enough to work with, and I hope that each and every one of those athletes knows that I will always have his / her back. It is tough to express just how grateful I am to UWO volleyball for allowing me the chance to pay back some of the debt I owe it.”
Did you ever imagine coaching at the collegiate level?
“I’ll be honest, when I started coaching over a decade ago, coaching collegiality was totally off my radar. It is kind of funny you ask, though, because I actually got my start coaching as the JV2 coach at Lourdes Academy HS in Oshkosh when Head Coach Jon Ellmann was leading that program. Obviously, our paths would cross again here at the collegiate level, and there is just something I find so cool about that. Back then, as a new coach walking into my first ever athletic department meeting, I felt totally out of place and under prepared, but once I actually got into the gym, the coaching bug bit me hard! It didn’t take me long to realize that I wanted to coach for as long as I possibly could at as high a level as I could achieve. I set my goals up like dominoes: I first wanted to move from JV2 to JV, then from JV to running my own Varsity program, and finally from Varsity to the collegiate game, and thankfully I was lucky enough to have some great coaching mentors along the way (Coach Ellmann at the top of that list!) that helped me progress my skills and confidence to the necessary levels to do just that!”
You’ve been involved at every level as far as middle school, high school, college — and on top of that you’ve been on both the men’s and women’s side. So is there a main takeaway that you’ve come across from being exposed to all these different levels of the game?
“My main takeaway would be that volleyball is a rare sport in that fun and fulfillment can be found at every level and on every side of the sport. It is a game that inherently involves a community, and the volleyball community is like no other that I have ever encountered.
How has UWO stuck out from all your other stops?
Here at UWO, the volleyball family on campus is so strong, and that strength seemed to trickle down so that no matter what level of the game I was coaching at, that family atmosphere existed in some capacity. No one wins a match alone; it takes a team, and that doesn’t mean just the 6 on the court when the last whistle blows. I’ve ultimately learned the same lesson from every level I have coached at: if the whole team is bought into the concept of “we before me,” the family aspect of the sport, then that team will be a success, regardless of the wins and losses tallied by the end of the season.”
Do you have any advice for any up and coming coaches?
“Be a sponge. I would not be where I am today without having taken the time to listen to others, process their messages, and absorb those messages in a way that fuels growth. In my experience, sometimes younger coaches get stuck in one mindset (their own), and that closes them off to hearing messages from others that could help them develop their coaching skills. I certainly haven’t been immune to that trap. I’ve received feedback that I initially rejected, because “no way could that be true about me!” I’ve taught a skill “my way” because obviously I knew best. I’ve made decisions and communicated with others assuming everyone had the same mindset as me and would, therefore, react to the decision or receive the information in the same way. But, most importantly, I learned from those mistakes and became more receptive to others.
Young coaches can learn a lot from their fellow coaches, their program’s parents, and, it should go without saying, their players — but you have to be willing to open up yourself to that learning. The beauty of being a sponge is that you don’t have to keep every single part of every message you receive. You can squeeze out the parts that don’t move you forward while retaining the parts that do. If you’re able to do that, you’ll be amazed just how much you’re able to grow, and that growth can lead you to some pretty incredible places.”
What’s the most rewarding part of coaching?
For me, it’s the joy I feel when others succeed. As I mentioned before, success isn’t always a win (sometimes it definitely is though!), but there is just something so special about playing a part in someone else’s journey. I love when a team pulls out an upset victory or goes further in a tournament than they expected. I love when an athlete executes a new skill to perfection in a match. Those kinds of moments are emotional tank-fillers, and they are the reason why I stayed coaching as long as I did. Success as a player was rewarding, but helping others succeed is even more so to me.
What’s the hardest part?
“The hardest part is not committing too much of yourself to the sport. I’ve always had a “I can be doing more” mentality, but it has occasionally backfired on me. Obviously, coaches should want the best for their athletes, and that means doing everything you can to help them be successful on and off the court. It is hard to know where to draw the line sometimes, and I think over-committing is something that can be really difficult to avoid. I once found myself coaching 4 different teams at the same time at levels ranging from middle school to college, and, suffice it to say, it was a lot. I got to the point where I just ran myself into the ground trying to keep up with that pace. I wish I would have realized that doing everything you can for someone sometimes means taking care of yourself. I believe many coaches have the personality types that lead them down this kind of path, but I’m here to say that it’s ok to say, “No,” every once in a while in order to keep you at your best.”
Who are some of your role models that really helped you along the way.
“The biggest role models in my life have been my parents. My mom has selflessly dedicated herself to the nursing profession for the better part of three decades, and my dad has done the same for his counseling practice. Being raised by two people so committed to helping others almost certainly led me to where I am today, and I hope that I live in a way that makes them proud and honors the precedent they set.
The other major role model in my life is my amazing wife, Elisabeth. I saw her for the first time at a summer event for incoming freshmen students at UWO, and I have not been able to get her out of my mind since. She is patient, kind, compassionate, nurturing, and so much more. She is a photography teacher at the same high school as me, and the way she inspires her students and the passion she imbues her classroom with is impossible not to admire. I hope I am half the teacher she is, and, moreover, half the person.”
So I want to let you talk about PEAK a little bit, can you explain it to me like I’m 5 years old?
“So PEAK is the company I founded to bring my personal coaching services to others. I really want to use my life to have a positive ripple effect in the lives of others, and PEAK is a new way for me to do that! You see, aside from coaching volleyball, I’ve also been a high school English teacher since graduating, but despite living out these two dreams, I still wanted to do more (see the last question for the rationale there, ha!). I felt like I could better help individuals instead of entire teams or classes of students if I trained to become a part of the up-and-coming profession that is personal coaching. So when I took a year away from the classroom to care for my wife’s and my new daughter, I kept working on this goal and trained in order to eventually become a professional, internationally-certified coach.
I’ve heard of Life Coaching, so is that what Personal Coaching is?
“A basic definition is that personal coaching is partnering with people in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal, academic, athletic, and / or professional potential. As I coach, I serve others by helping them design the mindsets, habits, and actions they need to be who they want to be and achieve what they want to achieve (which I define as reaching new “peaks” in life!). The way coaching works is simply through conversation, but it’s a conversation truly unlike our typical daily chats with others. My role is to be an empathetic listener that then asks powerful questions to draw out your natural brilliance that can then be harnessed for whatever purpose you want!
I believe 3 things about people above all else, and I used these beliefs to create the foundation of my coaching and PEAK:
1) My role is to help you gain clarity on what you truly want before you create actionable plans to get you to those goals. You’re in total control of the conversation.
2) There is nothing to fix in people, because no one is broken. You are whole, and you have everything you need to navigate life already inside you, which leads me to belief number 3…
3) You have all the answers. My role is to merely reflect and foster your already innate knowledge and talents.
So with this foundation, I am now extremely fortunate to partner primarily with students, student-athletes, and athletic programs on their climbs towards their next peaks, although I do also serve other demographics like young adults entering the workforce or even adults looking to find more fulfillment in or possibly change their profession — it’s a wonderfully diverse mix!”
Finish this statement then, “I should contact PEAK by Brydon if I ________”
“am ready to move towards my next goal — whatever it may be! If you’ve been struggling, stressed out, stuck, or simply wanting more out of life, I am confident that you will find what you’re looking for by partnering with me.”
Now that PEAK has really taken off, what are your long term goals for it?
“The long term goal is to make PEAK’s ripple effect as wide as possible! Right now, I’m the only coach, but I have plans to expand by bringing on other coaches in the future once I reach my maximum capacity. I also see another domino in my future, and that domino is making the jump from working with high school and collegiate athletic programs to professional ones. Along the same lines, I would love to partner with colleges to support their students in a more strategic way. Those leaps seem almost impossible right now, but hey, so did coaching collegiately at one point in my life! In the end, if PEAK can continue to help people find whatever it is they want out of life, then I’ll be content, but there will always be that side of me that’s seeking growth. I see big mountains on my horizon, and I’m excited to reach those peaks with PEAK!”
I think I can speak for the whole program about how grateful we are to have Will as one of our resources both on and off of the court. Thanks, Will! Stay tuned for Chapter 3 of Through The Net — see ya next time.
Want to learn more about PEAK? You can find contact info for Will on his website — https://peakbybrydon.com
