The phrase that many around the Salem athletic department would use to describe Spirit volleyball head coach Bouaketh Chanthavisouk would be "jack of all trades." She can fix anything ranging from electronics to motors and is willing to take on any task that is in front of her.
Chanthavisouk was named as the program's volleyball coach by Salem College Director of Athletics Trish Hughes on Friday, July 19, 2019. Her roster was primarily built around its four seniors—Madelyn Chappell, Hannah Delcamp, Taylor Moulton and Alexis Sunderland. Chanthavisouk also inherited three juniors—Kathryn O'Connell, Anna Schneider and Corrin Shores—who will be looked upon in 2020 to provide experience for the Salem volleyball unit.
Her first year at Salem resulted in a 14-14 overall mark and a 10-6 record in USA South Conference action. Chanthavisouk guided the Spirits to a season-long four-match winning streak between Sept. 17 and Sept. 28, which came by virtue of triumphs over Piedmont International, Methodist, Mary Baldwin and William Peace. Just over a month later, she led Salem to consecutive wins against N.C. Wesleyan, Greensboro and Pfeiffer.
Chanthavisouk helped the Salem unit to the third-most single-season kills (1154) and highest kills / set average (11.31) in program history. With the play of senior setter Delcamp, the 2019 squad had the third-most assists (1078) in Salem history.
Chanthavisouk also witnessed Moulton becoming the program's leader in kills (1,106) and digs (1,369). When Moulton drove home her 1,000th career kill in a 3-0 victory over Methodist she became the first player in Salem history to finish with at least 1,000 in each category. O'Connell was also prominent in Salem's success in 2019 after ranking in the Top-5 of 11 major statistical categories.
O'Connell wrapped up the season by receiving Second Team East Division honors from the USA South Conference and CoSIDA Academic All-District honors for Chanthavisouk's team. She was joined on the Second Team East Division team by Moulton, who received the honor for the third straight season.
In a recent conversation Chanthavisouk took time to discuss her passion for volleyball and her life and provided the following responses:
When you think back to learning volleyball at a young age to where you are now (coaching it at a college level), what fundamentals do you focus on every day in practice and during the offseason to better the players?
Chanthavisouk: Ball Control. Getting to the ball, and getting to the ball in good body position are two different skills and we work on them every day. These are important skills for every volleyball player at every level. Ball control seems so mundane and so basic, but if you can't make the ball go where you want it to go, you're going to find volleyball isn't very fun to play.
Who are the individuals that have had the biggest impact on you as a coach and why?
Chanthavisouk: My next oldest sister, Neth (I'm the youngest of five) is eight years older than me. She was my first coach. I tagged along to sandlot kickball, and raced on the playground. She taught me a bunch of games and how to play sports. She never let me win. I'm grateful for that. She was kind enough to teach me, but left it up to me to get better and figure it out. I don't think I would have tried so many different sports as a kid if it weren't for her. All of that trial and error, all of those mistakes, and all of those let downs helped me grow as a person and helped make me the coach I am. I think this is why I'm not a fan of early specialization. A little failure is good for learning.
This is going to sound strange, but I had a band teacher in middle school, David Shemancik. Mr. Shemancik was a huge Star Trek fan. The guy embraced his weirdness and made sure that we appreciated our own quirks and skills. He taught me that you can be yourself unapologetically and excel as a team as long as you understand your part and practice so that when your moment comes, you can grab it. As a coach, I'm always trying to maximize and use the talent we have rather than wishing for talent that may never come. You can't put your team in a box. You can shape the culture, and set expectations, but the team needs to figure out its soul organically. I can't force that. I have to be ready to adjust my coaching to match that. I am always uncomfortable in that regard.
At what point of your life did you know that you wanted to be a volleyball coach and what led you to making this decision?
Chanthavisouk: I wanted to be a soldier for a long time. I wanted to stay in the Army forever. But my body wasn't ready for it. After knee surgeries, concussions, and other health related things, I said I was done. I saw what physical labor did to my dad's hands and I didn't want that. I slid over into IT and software. While I enjoyed solving problems, and the pay was excellent, I saw that I was sinking into this mundane routine. I didn't enjoy my work, the people I worked with, or the person I was becoming. During this time, I was coaching volleyball part time. I liked the athletes, other coaches, and the problems I was being asked to solve a lot better. I was way happier doing volleyball things. I got laid off from my software job and decided to commit to coaching volleyball. In 2010, I moved to Erie, PA lived off my savings and did courier work and other odd jobs while I coached at Gannon University. That same year I stopped calling myself an IT consultant and started calling myself a volleyball coach. I did that for six years before I got my first full-time coaching job.
Now that you have had time to reflect on the 2019 volleyball team, name some things that you took away from the season.
Chanthavisouk: I'm a better cook than I thought. My mom and my sister (mentioned above) are always giving me a hard time. And that I only know how to make PB&J and heat up food. I was surprised when my team enjoyed my cooking. I've never cooked for a large number of people before since I'm a bit of a hermit, but they all seemed to enjoy my breakfast casserole.
I like being the underdog. I like coaching teams from that perspective. It makes victory that much sweeter.
I'm terrible at dressing myself. I wear a lot of gray. I wear so much gray that my team gifted me with gray crocs.
During the offseason do you watch a lot of volleyball matches that you try to apply in your own offensive schemes?
Chanthavisouk: I do watch a fair amount of NCAA DI/II/III, beach, and International level volleyball (men's and women's). Our offensive schemes are uniquely ours. I don't try to put my team or my players in a system. I build the system around them. I do see other coaches that do that at the higher levels and still those doing similar things as us. But there's always some measure of difference or uniqueness based on the athletes they have available and the differing skill level of those athletes.
I watch other sports like cricket, college softball, rugby, and tennis. And while these are wildly different sports athletically and strategically, it's fun to watch and think about the moves coaches and athletes are making to get an opponent to bite or fake an opponent out. We're all playing chess, each board and the pieces involved are the only difference.