Texas Tech University Athletics
Don Flora Press Conference Quotes
January 07, 2011 | Women's Volleyball
Jan. 7, 2011
Texas Tech Athletic Director Gerald Myers
"The first thing I want to do, I want to thank Beth Falls and Amy Gandy and Theresa Bowman, who is the Administrative assistant. Beth was the interim coach, and she just did a really good job of taking the program over in mid season, rallied our girls, they got a couple of wins and they really had a good morale and I think had a great experience with Beth. So Beth I want to publicly thank you for a job well done."
On the search for a coach
"We've had a really good search for a coach this year. We've had some good candidates, some really outstanding candidates. I also want to acknowledge and say my appreciation to Judi Henry and to Jody Roginson for their help. The three of us worked together and worked pretty hard on this job to get a good coach. We had some really good candidates and we think Don Flora is the best of the group to fit our situation. We felt that he is a really good fit for Texas Tech and for West Texas. We were extremely impressed with his philosophy and his style of coaching. He is a proven winner. He won a national championship at the University of La Verne. He won the conference championship about eight times. He is a proven coach with head coaching experience. He has been at New Mexico State the last couple of years and for those of you who follow volleyball know New Mexico State has been really good at women's volleyball. They competed with Hawaii for the conference championship down there and they have been good at volleyball for a number of years. We are really excited. I personally am excited, and I know that we all are who worked on this search to get a volleyball coach at this time. We are committed to our volleyball program. We are going to provide the resources, the support, the staff, everything that is needed to be competitive in the Big 12. As all of you know in every sport the Big 12 is tough. The volleyball is especially good. Nebraska has won 2 or 3 National Titles, Texas has been to the Final Four a couple of times, and so we are looking forward to building this volleyball program so we can be competitive with those teams. It is my privilege to introduce our new coach Don Flora."
On what he saw in Don Flora to be the new head coach
"From our standpoint we were impressed with his philosophy. He explained his style of coaching. He taught me a little volleyball. We visited about philosophy, teaching, and coaching and those kinds of things and I was impressed with his compassion for student athletes and for the way he coaches and trains athletes, and his overall knowledge of the game of volleyball. His experience of being a head coach for 10 years and I've noticed all the years I've coached and been in athletic administration, sometimes there is a lineage of coaches who have been around good coaches and great coaches and I was impressed with the people he has been associated with. Just the whole package, I thought he had that and that is why we are excited for him to be here to build our volleyball program."
Texas Tech Head Volleyball Coach Don Flora
"Well, you take a deep breath to be the new head coach here. This is something I've looked forward to all my life. So it's great to hear those words and I have so much appreciation Coach Myers for the opportunity to be here. I want to say thanks to Judi Henry and Jody Roginson. To have an opportunity to come on campus and get a feel for the community and the people of Texas Tech when I was here, you made this place seem like a place we could call home. I want to introduce my wife, Dr. Jeanne Flora. Jeanne and my two children are here. Annika is a first grader and Alexis is a kindergartner. They are here with us and thrilled to be in Lubbock. They were excited last night as we arrived here in Lubbock. You have said some words about Beth Falls, and I want to say that Beth is going to be a part of our staff and continuing this growth that happened this last five or six weeks of the season and what has happened since then. So I'm thrilled to have you guys as a part of what is head of us."
On the opportunity to coach at Texas Tech
"It is a great opportunity. I'm so fired up to have the opportunity to be the new head coach here. I think there is a lot in place. We've talked about a lot of the things that we are going to do, from structure and taking care of the needs in what we need to do in what we need to do to be a Big 12 elite program. We have set our vision high. I look at this conference and you see what we have in place, the athletes that are here and the opportunity to get in the top of this conference is right in front of us. We have a first year plan, a little bit of a 2-3 year plan, and from there you will see the success of how this grows and where we are going to get to sooner than later. I look forward to that opportunity here at Texas Tech."
On the challenges of taking over a program that has been down
"You got to get the culture. One of the things we are going to look for is how we establish the culture and the way we walk and talk every day. There is sometimes a mindset that comes from the past, and we will talk a little bit about the past to understand it, to identify it, but we are going to look forward and those are the things we can control. So we can control those things in front of us and get that culture in place. Get us to walk in talk the Tech way. How fast can we get the understanding from our staff and with the athletes and within the community? This community has a great volleyball tradition from Amarillo to Lubbock to obviously the state of Texas. This is a hot bed of volleyball. I come from California and we kind of pop off and think 'we are the volleyball mecca', but Texas has phenomenal volleyball talent throughout the state."
On what he wants to be recognized for as a team
"We are going to compete. One of things I think when people come and watch us night in and night out that we are going to compete night in and night out. We will go toe to toe with anybody in the country. We'll go play anybody in the country at their place or our place. We will take some time as we build into some of them teams, but the idea that when we put our product on the floor. When we get the opportunity to go live, game day is different then 6 on 6 in the gym or how we train every day. When we go to game day there will be a special product of athletes that know the systems, know the way to know about attacking the other team and taking care of what we need to do to be successful. But we will compete. There is going to be a joy of getting after the other team on the other side of the net."
On selling himself to the team
"Here is a new era. We are starting today. It is going to be fresh for them. I'm going to talk about the demands. There is a lot of pieces to what it means to be an elite national program. We are going to start about how we talk about that, then we are going to talk about how we are going to get in the gym and go after that, and then we are going to talk about the academic side. All of that comes together to make the athlete understand we have a plan in place and the plan in place is to be highly competitive and to be an elite program in the Big 12. Then we are going to talk about how we do that. There is going to be a way of how we walk and talk that is going to be different from what they have done before. I think they will see when they can understand and when we can start to measure our growth every day, they are going to understand how that makes sense and how that will help them reach their goals individually and how we can reach our goals collectively."
On Recruitment
"It is a major component of what we are going to do. We want to win our backyard. We want to be the best at getting the athletes that are near us to know that Texas Tech has a great opportunity for them to reach their goals. Every athlete has a goal and a vision of where they would like to be and how we can help them. If we can win our backyard then work on the region and then the next step comes. That is just a short snippet of our plan on the recruiting side. When we get together next time it will be a little more in depth."
On seniors Amanda Dowdy and Karlyn Meyers
"It's always nice to have a first team Big 12 athlete as a senior. I had the opportunity to speak to Karlyn, too. Our first priority is to make sure they have a fantastic senior year. That's important to them. So we have to get after that right away. I hate to be emotional about it but it's important right away that we get this thing going. So with that our other athletes, the juniors, sophomores, and freshman coming back, but I think u start right there with those two. We have had some fantastic conversations and I think we will have a piece of the puzzle in place with the leadership point, the passion on what they want to get out of this next year and then their understanding of where we are and where we can go."
