Rose basketball highlights
Cutler continues volleyball by coaching
TUES| 1-10-22 | SPORTS
Senior Riley Cutler has continued her volleyball season this winter in a very different role than usual as a player. She is now coaching for East Carolina Junior Volleyball Club (ECJVC), where she started her volleyball career.
“I feel like I [have experience coaching] because I’ve helped with middle school and ECJVC [clinics] before I actually started coaching, to get hours,” Cutler said.
Cutler has been playing volleyball since she was 11 years old and now plays on the Rose varsity volleyball team. She started her volleyball career at ECJVC, an indoor volleyball club, and switched to beach volleyball in the seventh grade. As a senior with a lot of free time and experience of the sport, Cutler decided to start coaching at ECJVC. She has little to no school work with two practices a week to coach and is currently coaching a team of 13 year olds. Cutler feels that playing for seven years has extremely benefited her when coaching.
“I feel like I can understand where they are coming from and obviously I’ve had a lot of the same technical problems that I see in the girls that I coach,”Cutler said. “It’s easier to help them understand what
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they need to fix and why they need to fix it.”
With the experience that Cutler has, she knows what drills will benefit the younger athletes and improve their skills. With a different perspective of volleyball while coaching rather than playing, Cutler sees the mistakes and knows how to help fix them. She feels that playing has actually made coaching much easier.
“Being a coach in that perspective and being a player is way different,” Cutler said. “It’s a good learning experience.”
Coaching has been an interest of Cutler’s and she was inspired by her Rose volleyball coach, Kelley Kraniak. Kraniak has helped her learn more about volleyball and now, Cutler is spreading the knowledge through coaching. Not only is Kraniak Cutler’s coach at Rose, but she is also the executive club director of ECJVC.
“I love coaching and my team because they’re so sweet and funny,” Cutler said. “[Coaching] is the best job, I think for me, so when I go to Kentucky, if there’s a place to coach there, I’m going to try.”
Cutler committed to Eastern Kentucky University in August of 2021 and will continue to play beach volleyball there. She genuinely loves coaching and hopes to continue, in Kentucky, if the opportunity arises.