“Great statistics are the best substitute for judgment.” This is a sticker Al Scates has affixed to the side of his briefcase.

Former Davidson College Head Volleyball Coach, Tim Cowie, is now a distinguished sports photographer. He was our catwalk at the Winthrop Coliseum and snapped this photo of my clipboard. He must have been curious the statistics I was keeping during the match. You can find that exact offensive statistic chart in the presentation/PDF below.

Last season, while out recruiting, I was standing court-side with Shelton Collier and we talked a bit about statistics. He brought to my attention the purpose of bench statistics to help win the next point or next set, versus statistics kept as a summary of what happened in a match. Quite a valid point! I’ve since altered my use of statistics during a match to help my team win, but I must admit, I do take some statistics during a match that provide an overview of a set. Continue Reading

Volleyball’s Wizard of Westwood will be calling it quits

Al Scates is in his 50th year of coaching UCLA, with 19 NCAA titles and more than two dozen Olympians as his legacy.

By Helene Elliott, LA Times

Photographs cover almost every inch of wall space in Al Scates’ office, a gallery of faces forever young. Books, plaques and keepsakes from his travels cover his desk and crowd the ledge beneath a window framing the view he has enjoyed for 50 years.

“This is pretty filled up,” he said. Continue Reading