Williams tabbed Jaguars’ varsity volleyball mentor

NORTHROP -- After four years helping get the Martin Luther/Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman Jaguar volleyball players ready for varsity action, TJ Williams has taken control of the program.

Williams, a Truman High School graduate, returned home five years ago and began coaching the Jaguars' B-squad team. When the varsity position opened up this summer, he said he applied right away.

"I love volleyball and I wanted to stick with the girls, because once you're a coach, they're more than just an athlete. They're kind of like your own kid," Williams said. "It just seemed the right thing to do and when I came back, I was kind of hoping to have the opportunity to apply for the varsity coach."

Before returning to Truman, Williams spent time coaching at Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, where he started as a C-squad coach for credit in a coaching class he was attending at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall.

"They didn't offer a volleyball coaching class, so I took the basketball one," Williams said. "And on the first day of class, the teacher, who was the head women's basketball coach at SMSU, she asked everybody what they wanted to coach. Everybody said basketball, I was the only one that said volleyball.

"She said to meet her after class and I thought, 'Crap, that's not a good way to start.' I talked to her and she was friends with the varsity coach at Russell-Tyler-Ruthton and they were looking for a C-squad coach. … The next day, I walked out of class, got a call from the AD and they offered me the job because I was the only one who applied."

After one year as the C-squad mentor, Williams moved up to the varsity position and immediately changed the team from a sub-.500 squad to one win away from the state tournament. He said he hopes some of his coaching mentality will help a similar change in the Jaguars.

"It was because we could play defense with anybody and forced the other team to make the errors," Williams said of his quick success. "We didn't have to kill them all. We weren't real tall there, and we're not real tall here either. It's a defensive first deal. … We have players that are good passers, but all around, everybody needs to be able to step up and pass the ball."

Along with his defense-first mindset might come an idea that you must be error-free, Williams said. But that is directly the opposite of the main lesson he wants to teach his players.

"I want them to know that errors are OK," Williams said. "Because if you're error-free, you should be playing at a very high level. If you watch the Olympics, they make errors, you watch the best teams in the world, they make errors. … I want the takeaway to be that, when the game is over, win or lose, they gave everything they had."

Williams is taking over a program that ended the COVID-shortened 2020 season with a record of 2-9 overall. The Jaguars' program has not had a record above .500 since the 2016 season when it ended with a record of 14-11-2.

Williams said there was a University of Minnesota sports motto he brought into the season because it fits both on the court and off.

"It was one of their mottos that they had a couple of years ago," Williams said. "I think it fits with volleyball and everything else, it's just, 'Be better today than you were yesterday.' I'm hoping that we can kind of get that mindset that no matter what, always be better today that what you were yesterday. In volleyball and in life."