Making the move to Aggieland in December 2022, Texas A&M University Head Volleyball Coach Jamie Morrison is prepared to hit the court this fall and is ready to bring an exciting environment to Reed Arena for fans to enjoy.
Over the last 23 years, Coach Morrison has built an extensive resume in the game of volleyball with experience at the collegiate, national and international levels and is widely involved with volleyball programs across the country. We sat down with Coach Morrison to learn more about his transition to Aggieland and what fans can expect to see this fall from the Texas A&M volleyball team.
IN: Welcome to Aggieland, Coach Morrison! We are super excited to see how you continue to grow the outstanding athletics that Texas A&M has to offer. What about the university and team drew your interest?
JM: “I was very picky with the opportunity that I took. For me, I wanted a place where I could win and I can see that happening here and not just winning the SEC, but to win a national championship at some point. The second piece was I wanted a place that supported their women’s sports, who wanted to win a championship and were going to back it up with the resources necessary to do it — Texas A&M does that. Then, the third piece was my international travels have taken me to Japan, China and Brazil, where they’ll fill up 18,000 to 20,000 people in a stadium, and it’s an amazing experience and atmosphere to play at and I wanted a place where that could be built and the tradition of the 12th Man allows that to happen. We had an exhibition match and had 3,000 people and they were loud, we felt them and that was a big piece of what I wanted. Texas A&M checked all the boxes of what I want to build.”
IN: Coming into a new role, what is your coaching philosophy and how do you plan to help the players at Texas A&M grow?
JM: “The first thing is everything is birthed with vulnerability-based trust and I think that’s from teammate-to-teammate and staff-to-team. It’s a lot about relationships, making sure the athletes know that they’re cared for, but at the same time, making them mildly uncomfortable every single day so that they can grow into what they’re capable of becoming. In college athletics, obviously, we’re judged based on wins and losses, but we should be preparing our athletes for the world that they’re going to see beyond this. We talk a lot to our girls about professional volleyball, we want to prepare you for that and if you want to go off in the professional world, we want to prepare you for that.”
IN: How did your love of volleyball start and how did you get into coaching the sport?
JM: “I fell in love with the coaching side of it, the teaching and learning strategy. It was all birthed from the place of love for playing this game, and I love everything about it. I did not think I was going to be a coach, but I remember vividly having a thought in my head one day, who’s going to want me as a coach when I didn’t have a great playing career? So, my plan was to get into business and I had opportunities to go through that for a decent amount of money out of college, but I got a call from Nick Bailey at the University of Southern California and asked me to delay that and get my MBA so I was like, I’ll go into business in two years. Then, I got a call from the national team and I couldn’t say no to an Olympics and after three Olympics and a national team head coaching job — this has been the profession that I’ve chosen to spend the rest of my life doing.”
IN: Being a part of three Olympic medal winning teams, how did you get your foot in the door to such a large world stage?
JM: “I was really, really lucky to be put around some of the best coaches in the world at a very young age when I thought I knew a lot, but I didn’t know anything and as a result, I was molded into the coach that I am today.
I often talk to young coaches and I just say get really, really good at something that people can’t live without. I was really, really good at the statistics and video side of the sport and it got me a seat at the table of a national team. I often tell people it’s about being in the right place at the right time, but having worked really, really hard to have the right skill set also. I was lucky and blessed but it was also some hard work that got me in that room. Then, from there it snowballed, I learned more as a coach and started to become better in terms of that craft that led to no promotions within the national team and coaching.”
IN: You also have a passion for giving back to the volleyball community and have done so through your role in League One Volleyball, which is an organization working to build a professional league. What does your role look like?
JM: “After my time in the Netherlands, I was looking for a way to be involved in volleyball in a different way to give back to the sport and the biggest thing was League One Volleyball. They approached me about an opportunity to come in and educate coaches around the country, which was an honor to be involved with 30 different club level programs, but to build up the infrastructure of what a professional volleyball league would look like. And for me, the sport has given me everything — it brought me in and taught me the skill set that I have, it give me my family and my friends — I feel a duty to give back. So, this was a little bit of a passion project, along with an amazing opportunity with an amazing group of people to build what professional volleyball could and should look like in the United States.”
IN: You were named the 2023 Head Coach of the USA Volleyball U19 World Championships Team and just got back from leading the team to a gold medal in Hungary and Croatia, what does it mean to you?
JM: “I don’t remember necessarily the last three points of the match, but I vividly remember standing there with my clipboard over my head, just smiling, just being like what do we just do. It was one of the coolest, most joyous victories I think I’ve ever had and one of the gold medals I’ll cherish the most. It was a really, really cool experience.”
IN: Returning to the A&M volleyball team this fall after your Team USA coaching experience, what is something that you want to focus on that you think was important to your summer success?
JM: “If you go back to the USA group, our ability to serve and pass was most paramount and I think if you talk to any coach, that battle is going to be really important. Another thing that I really emphasize is I’m big on competitiveness, on our team getting after somebody else and on the battle of system — when we knock an opponent off the next can we defend better than everyone else in the world and vice versa when we get knocked off the next can we find ways to cause trouble and get kills.”
IN: As you head into the fall season, how have you seen the players transition from the beginning of your appointment as Head Coach at Texas A&M?
JM: “The work we put in the spring has made us into a really, really good volleyball team. The thing I love about sports that you don’t get in the business world is you get to test that out every single weekend. I’m looking forward to putting our girls on the court against somebody else and seeing how good we really are right now. It’s one of the beautiful things about this — there’s no gray area if we’re good enough if we’re not like we wouldn’t lose a match. That probably causes anxiety for some coaches, but for me, I think it’s an awesome thing that we get to put it to the test and if it’s not good enough, we get to go back to work on Monday.”
Our job as college coaches is somewhat volleyball and its somewhat X’s and O’s, but we’re taking people from the time that they’re 18 till they’re 22 and building adults and well-functioning human beings that can go off into society and do something great. I see that happening as well — people that are maturing, people that were freshmen last year, people that are getting to the end of their college career, I feel more confident that they’re going to be able to go out and rule the world and whatever it is they do.”
IN: Why would you encourage the community to come out to support the volleyball team this season?
JM: “One of the reasons why I took this job was because of the community and because of the tradition of the 12th Man and I think we can fill up these stands. Nebraska is filling up their football stadium this year with 87,000 people for a volleyball match — I don’t think there’s a lot of places that that can happen and I think one of them is here.
My goal is to create an exciting environment and that includes a really exciting brand of volleyball so from a recruiting standpoint, we’re looking for athletes that jump high and hit hard that can play the brand of volleyball that will draw people in and I think those things will feed each other. This group right now is going to be good — I just encourage people to come out and see what’s going on because I think we’re building something really special.”
