Julie Darty is introduced as Mississippi State's 12th Head Volleyball Coach.
Julie Darty Introduced As 12th Head Volleyball Coach Wednesday
January 10, 2018 | Volleyball
STARKVILLE, Miss. – Director of Athletics John Cohen introduced Julie Darty as the 12th head coach for Mississippi State volleyball Wednesday.
The 32-year-old met with her new team on Tuesday afternoon, and many were in attendance at the press conference.
"We were looking for somebody who was charismatic, driven, focused, and a people person," Cohen said. "I can assure you that after three days of being in Starkville, Miss., Julie is that person. She is so personal with everyone. She is a rising star in her profession and we were looking for that type of person. She has a vision for our program and she's eager to enhance our volleyball brand here at Mississippi State."
Darty has eight years of coaching experience with two of those years coming within the Southeastern Conference at the University of South Carolina. The AVCA 'Thirty under 30' two-time award winner also led her Jacksonville University squad to a NCAA tournament appearance in her first season.
"Every single person that I've met is genuine, warm and friendly and just unbelievably helpful and supportive," Darty said. "I can tell, there's something very special about this place. We've got so much potential; we've got so much growth. We're at ground zero, and I think that's a good place to be. There's a lot of work to be done."
Below is a full transcript of the press conference:
Director of Athletics John Cohen on Julie Darty …
"This is a great day for Mississippi State. It's a great day for our athletic department. We want to welcome Julie to the Mississippi State Family. The question you get asked as an athletic director is 'why did you choose this person?' I'm going to very briefly go over the process with you. We were looking for somebody who was charismatic, driven, focused, and a people person. I can assure you that after three days of being in Starkville, Miss., Julie is that person. She is so personal with everyone. In fact, we were at The Little Dooey yesterday, and she did a really good job meeting all of the fine folks there. She is a rising star in her profession and we were looking for that type of person. She has a vision for our program and she's eager to enhance our volleyball brand here at Mississippi State. She comes to us with eight years of volleyball coaching experience, including two years in the Southeastern Conference. We feel that it is very important to have an understanding of what it is like for big time intercollegiate volleyball at the highest level. Certainly, there are several leagues that are very good and the SEC is one of those. In 2014, she took her team in Jacksonville to the NCAA tournament. That's our goal and vision here. During her tenure at Jacksonville she coached 11 all-conference players, including five first team selections. She was twice recognized by the American Volleyball Coaches Association for the 'Thirty under 30' award lists, which recognizes young rising stars in the volleyball profession. She spent two years at Villanova as a recruiting coordinator. She is a timeless recruiter. She has been on the club scene of volleyball, which in the recruiting circle is an important factor in terms of getting the best talent. With great pleasure and pride, I want to introduce you to our next volleyball coach at Mississippi State University, Julie Darty."
Darty's Opening Statement
"Thank you for being here, everyone. It's nice to see some familiar faces. It's been a whirlwind three days, but I've met some amazing people. I have to start off by thanking John Cohen, Dr. Keenum and the search committee that gave me this incredible opportunity here today. Thank you to every single person that I've come into contact with and everybody that I will meet on this great campus.
"Like John said, I was at a great situation – an NCAA Tournament team. One day, I'm at the Final Four and I get a phone call from Jared Benko, and my life gets turned upside down. But I could not be more excited to be here. This is a special place. From my first day on my interview, after some travels through Atlanta, it's just gotten better and better. Every single person that I've met is genuine, warm and friendly and just unbelievably helpful and supportive. I can tell, there's something very special about this place.
"I'm young, so I don't think it's the right thing to do to open the history books and look back at the history of the program. I think it's a fresh start and a clean slate. We've got so much potential; we've got so much growth. We're at ground zero, and I think that's a good place to be. There's a lot of work to be done.
"Some of the pillars that we are going to focus on: we're going to be great. I know that's a word that's used a lot, but I think we've got to toughen up. If we're going to get beat, we're going to be tough to beat. If you're going to come play in our gym, it's going to be tough to play in our gym. I love the volleyball facility. I think it's a really hostile environment if we can get it loud and be proud to play there. So great, just durability as competitors, as people.
"Yesterday was the first time I got to meet with my team – I see some of them over there, the ones that didn't miss class. I asked them, I said, 'You have to figure out who you are as a competitor. Do you love to win, or do you hate to lose?' And that's the one question that they're going to bring to me today when we start individual meetings. You either love to win – you find a will to win – or you hate to lose so much that you're that motivated to not lose. I've been fortunate enough that I hate to lose. I hate it. So you've got to figure out who you are. If you can find the will to win or find that motivation that you're not going to lose, there's a match that's going to help us figure out our identity as competitors. That's what I asked them to do, and that's their friendly reminder to take care of that task before I see them later today.
"We're also going to carry ourselves with a lot of grace. I want these young women to be poised student-athletes who carry themselves with confidence. They have to find a balance as student-athletes. They are Division I student-athletes in the Southeastern Conference. They have people surrounding them that are here to help them have a wonderful experience. Sometimes you don't realize how many people help you every single day, and you have to work to find that balance. It's a lot; I know their workload is a lot. But we're going to be poised. We're going to carry ourselves in a way that when anybody sees us on campus, they're going to know, 'That's a volleyball player. That's a Bulldog volleyball player right there.' We're just going to have a swagger that we carry ourselves with.
"Lastly, we're going to have gratitude. We are going to be a team that carries ourselves in a way that every person at a hotel is going to know that we're going to say please and thank you. We're going to hold the door. Manners do matter. We're developing a person. Very few people play professional volleyball after college. Very few. It'd be great if you had some that did go overseas and do that, but we're going to try and develop the whole person. I'm making sure that we're grateful for this opportunity, I'm grateful for this opportunity, they're grateful for this opportunity. That's very important to me.
"Great, grace and gratitude are the three pillars that we're going to talk about a lot this spring and moving forward.
"From a volleyball standpoint, my tagline is 'speed kills,' and that stands for SPD: serve, pass, defend. We are going to be a first-contact-driven team. The first couple practices, I might bore them to death. We might not lift our arm to swing at a ball for a really long time. Until we pass the ball at a really high level – which, if anybody watched the national championship, they even struggled with the passing at the highest level, and that's still something that those coaches talk about all the time. Being that Florida is in our league and we get to see them at least once a year, and that's something they're talking about, we're going to practice the same things in our gym.
"We're going to pass the ball, and we're going to get risky from the service line. We're going to out-serve our opponents, get tougher back there. We're going to be pesky defenders and frustrate the heck out of our opponents. We're going to run through the walls to get the ball. There's going to be a sense of effort and urgency that we play with. I think it's going to be really fun and really exciting.
"We're going to develop complete volleyball players. I know we have a really great group of athletes, but I want our middles who normally just hit and block to be able to pass the ball also. There's no excuse of, 'That's not my position.' We're going to be well-rounded volleyball players. We're going to have a lot of accountability in our gym, not just from me but from each other. I think the best way to learn your position is to teach your position, so that's going to take some time for the players to understand that they are going to be coaching each other. It's not personal; it's to push each other and be better.
"From a recruiting standpoint, I leave Friday. I've got my work cut out for me. We've got to be better. I think there's a lot of pockets around the country that we haven't hit yet. I'm excited. I want there to be more kids on our roster from Florida, not just myself. I played at one of the best clubs in the country, and I think we've got to tap into that a little bit. We have some great kids from some of the hotbeds in Texas and Atlanta, but we've got to be better. I leave Friday, and you'll probably see me in May.
"From a staff perspective, with respect to their current coaches and their current teams, I'm not going to disclose who they are, but they're rock stars. They're going to come in, and we're going to hit the ground running. We're going to get better in the gym from day one. They're great trainers; they're great recruiters. They're great at developing relationships. One of them I've worked with in the past. They know the conference well, and they're going to help us get ready to go. So from the staff side of things, I think you guys should be pretty excited about the kind of coaching and training that's going to happen at Newell-Grissom.
"With that, Hail State!"
On what made this job attractive…
"It's a challenge. I love a good challenge. Jacksonville was pretty regionally irrelevant when I got there, and one of my goals was to make people know what that logo was. I think here, it's a similar situation. MSU is much more prominent, but historically, there's not a lot to go off of with the volleyball program. We are at the very beginning of something special, and to come in and leave my stamp on something, create something, and leave it better than I found it was really appealing to me. The more and more I talked to the search committee, the more I felt like they trusted me and believed in what I was putting out there. I think there's a really great chance right now to rebrand who we are as a program. That gym needs a little facelift, but that's a great gym. That's a great volleyball gym. Every team in the SEC should hate to come and play here, and that's one of the things that really drew me into this. When I was at South Carolina, we hated to come here. The best part of Starkville was Harvey's, but that gym is awful to play in. That's a good thing. I was really excited about the opportunity. It is a challenge, but I love a good challenge. I'm ready to step up to the plate."
On recruiting top talent to a state where volleyball is still growing…
"A lot of recruiting is done through club volleyball now, which is not part of the high school system. I will say, we are going to go after some kids that we have no business going after. But, when she says yes, we're going to make it our business to give her a great experience here. We're going to swing for the fences; we're going to swing for the rafters. We're going to take big chances and big risks on kids. I have some really great connections with clubs that I have good relationships with, and one of the themes that we're going to talk about, once my staff gets here, from a recruiting standpoint is making it saturated. We're going to saturate the places that love us already, and we're going to leave maroon and white in their gym, in their club. We're going to saturate them so much that all they're going to talk about is the change and the difference that's going on at Mississippi State. I think that will trickle down to the rest of the team, and there's going to be a sense of pride when we get that first big recruit on campus and that first kid that says yes. There's just going to be an overwhelming, euphoric feeling that's going to happen. I know we're going to get told no early on, but once we get that first yes, it's going to be special."
On building relationships with the current players…
"It's definitely a tough love. I think there was a little fear at the team meeting yesterday. With change, there's a lot that's coming at you at once. There's fear, there's nerves, there's emotions – all that stuff. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I think they're going to know exactly what I'm thinking when I'm thinking it. Honesty is my policy. We start meetings today at 12:30, and I'm going to get to know them as people. Then I want to get to know them as players, too. That's why I have that first question about who they are as a competitor. On the sidelines, I don't get too crazy. I like to keep it simple. I think in-game is not the time to try and fix an arm swing. My energy is consistent. I'm going to be the same person for them all the time. From a training standpoint, we love to get after it, and our practices are open."
For more information on Mississippi State volleyball, follow the Bulldogs on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching for "HailStateVB." You can also find all-access coverage of the program on SnapChat by searching for "HailStateSnap."
The 32-year-old met with her new team on Tuesday afternoon, and many were in attendance at the press conference.
"We were looking for somebody who was charismatic, driven, focused, and a people person," Cohen said. "I can assure you that after three days of being in Starkville, Miss., Julie is that person. She is so personal with everyone. She is a rising star in her profession and we were looking for that type of person. She has a vision for our program and she's eager to enhance our volleyball brand here at Mississippi State."
Darty has eight years of coaching experience with two of those years coming within the Southeastern Conference at the University of South Carolina. The AVCA 'Thirty under 30' two-time award winner also led her Jacksonville University squad to a NCAA tournament appearance in her first season.
"Every single person that I've met is genuine, warm and friendly and just unbelievably helpful and supportive," Darty said. "I can tell, there's something very special about this place. We've got so much potential; we've got so much growth. We're at ground zero, and I think that's a good place to be. There's a lot of work to be done."
Below is a full transcript of the press conference:
Director of Athletics John Cohen on Julie Darty …
"This is a great day for Mississippi State. It's a great day for our athletic department. We want to welcome Julie to the Mississippi State Family. The question you get asked as an athletic director is 'why did you choose this person?' I'm going to very briefly go over the process with you. We were looking for somebody who was charismatic, driven, focused, and a people person. I can assure you that after three days of being in Starkville, Miss., Julie is that person. She is so personal with everyone. In fact, we were at The Little Dooey yesterday, and she did a really good job meeting all of the fine folks there. She is a rising star in her profession and we were looking for that type of person. She has a vision for our program and she's eager to enhance our volleyball brand here at Mississippi State. She comes to us with eight years of volleyball coaching experience, including two years in the Southeastern Conference. We feel that it is very important to have an understanding of what it is like for big time intercollegiate volleyball at the highest level. Certainly, there are several leagues that are very good and the SEC is one of those. In 2014, she took her team in Jacksonville to the NCAA tournament. That's our goal and vision here. During her tenure at Jacksonville she coached 11 all-conference players, including five first team selections. She was twice recognized by the American Volleyball Coaches Association for the 'Thirty under 30' award lists, which recognizes young rising stars in the volleyball profession. She spent two years at Villanova as a recruiting coordinator. She is a timeless recruiter. She has been on the club scene of volleyball, which in the recruiting circle is an important factor in terms of getting the best talent. With great pleasure and pride, I want to introduce you to our next volleyball coach at Mississippi State University, Julie Darty."
Darty's Opening Statement
"Thank you for being here, everyone. It's nice to see some familiar faces. It's been a whirlwind three days, but I've met some amazing people. I have to start off by thanking John Cohen, Dr. Keenum and the search committee that gave me this incredible opportunity here today. Thank you to every single person that I've come into contact with and everybody that I will meet on this great campus.
"Like John said, I was at a great situation – an NCAA Tournament team. One day, I'm at the Final Four and I get a phone call from Jared Benko, and my life gets turned upside down. But I could not be more excited to be here. This is a special place. From my first day on my interview, after some travels through Atlanta, it's just gotten better and better. Every single person that I've met is genuine, warm and friendly and just unbelievably helpful and supportive. I can tell, there's something very special about this place.
"I'm young, so I don't think it's the right thing to do to open the history books and look back at the history of the program. I think it's a fresh start and a clean slate. We've got so much potential; we've got so much growth. We're at ground zero, and I think that's a good place to be. There's a lot of work to be done.
"Some of the pillars that we are going to focus on: we're going to be great. I know that's a word that's used a lot, but I think we've got to toughen up. If we're going to get beat, we're going to be tough to beat. If you're going to come play in our gym, it's going to be tough to play in our gym. I love the volleyball facility. I think it's a really hostile environment if we can get it loud and be proud to play there. So great, just durability as competitors, as people.
"Yesterday was the first time I got to meet with my team – I see some of them over there, the ones that didn't miss class. I asked them, I said, 'You have to figure out who you are as a competitor. Do you love to win, or do you hate to lose?' And that's the one question that they're going to bring to me today when we start individual meetings. You either love to win – you find a will to win – or you hate to lose so much that you're that motivated to not lose. I've been fortunate enough that I hate to lose. I hate it. So you've got to figure out who you are. If you can find the will to win or find that motivation that you're not going to lose, there's a match that's going to help us figure out our identity as competitors. That's what I asked them to do, and that's their friendly reminder to take care of that task before I see them later today.
"We're also going to carry ourselves with a lot of grace. I want these young women to be poised student-athletes who carry themselves with confidence. They have to find a balance as student-athletes. They are Division I student-athletes in the Southeastern Conference. They have people surrounding them that are here to help them have a wonderful experience. Sometimes you don't realize how many people help you every single day, and you have to work to find that balance. It's a lot; I know their workload is a lot. But we're going to be poised. We're going to carry ourselves in a way that when anybody sees us on campus, they're going to know, 'That's a volleyball player. That's a Bulldog volleyball player right there.' We're just going to have a swagger that we carry ourselves with.
"Lastly, we're going to have gratitude. We are going to be a team that carries ourselves in a way that every person at a hotel is going to know that we're going to say please and thank you. We're going to hold the door. Manners do matter. We're developing a person. Very few people play professional volleyball after college. Very few. It'd be great if you had some that did go overseas and do that, but we're going to try and develop the whole person. I'm making sure that we're grateful for this opportunity, I'm grateful for this opportunity, they're grateful for this opportunity. That's very important to me.
"Great, grace and gratitude are the three pillars that we're going to talk about a lot this spring and moving forward.
"From a volleyball standpoint, my tagline is 'speed kills,' and that stands for SPD: serve, pass, defend. We are going to be a first-contact-driven team. The first couple practices, I might bore them to death. We might not lift our arm to swing at a ball for a really long time. Until we pass the ball at a really high level – which, if anybody watched the national championship, they even struggled with the passing at the highest level, and that's still something that those coaches talk about all the time. Being that Florida is in our league and we get to see them at least once a year, and that's something they're talking about, we're going to practice the same things in our gym.
"We're going to pass the ball, and we're going to get risky from the service line. We're going to out-serve our opponents, get tougher back there. We're going to be pesky defenders and frustrate the heck out of our opponents. We're going to run through the walls to get the ball. There's going to be a sense of effort and urgency that we play with. I think it's going to be really fun and really exciting.
"We're going to develop complete volleyball players. I know we have a really great group of athletes, but I want our middles who normally just hit and block to be able to pass the ball also. There's no excuse of, 'That's not my position.' We're going to be well-rounded volleyball players. We're going to have a lot of accountability in our gym, not just from me but from each other. I think the best way to learn your position is to teach your position, so that's going to take some time for the players to understand that they are going to be coaching each other. It's not personal; it's to push each other and be better.
"From a recruiting standpoint, I leave Friday. I've got my work cut out for me. We've got to be better. I think there's a lot of pockets around the country that we haven't hit yet. I'm excited. I want there to be more kids on our roster from Florida, not just myself. I played at one of the best clubs in the country, and I think we've got to tap into that a little bit. We have some great kids from some of the hotbeds in Texas and Atlanta, but we've got to be better. I leave Friday, and you'll probably see me in May.
"From a staff perspective, with respect to their current coaches and their current teams, I'm not going to disclose who they are, but they're rock stars. They're going to come in, and we're going to hit the ground running. We're going to get better in the gym from day one. They're great trainers; they're great recruiters. They're great at developing relationships. One of them I've worked with in the past. They know the conference well, and they're going to help us get ready to go. So from the staff side of things, I think you guys should be pretty excited about the kind of coaching and training that's going to happen at Newell-Grissom.
"With that, Hail State!"
On what made this job attractive…
"It's a challenge. I love a good challenge. Jacksonville was pretty regionally irrelevant when I got there, and one of my goals was to make people know what that logo was. I think here, it's a similar situation. MSU is much more prominent, but historically, there's not a lot to go off of with the volleyball program. We are at the very beginning of something special, and to come in and leave my stamp on something, create something, and leave it better than I found it was really appealing to me. The more and more I talked to the search committee, the more I felt like they trusted me and believed in what I was putting out there. I think there's a really great chance right now to rebrand who we are as a program. That gym needs a little facelift, but that's a great gym. That's a great volleyball gym. Every team in the SEC should hate to come and play here, and that's one of the things that really drew me into this. When I was at South Carolina, we hated to come here. The best part of Starkville was Harvey's, but that gym is awful to play in. That's a good thing. I was really excited about the opportunity. It is a challenge, but I love a good challenge. I'm ready to step up to the plate."
On recruiting top talent to a state where volleyball is still growing…
"A lot of recruiting is done through club volleyball now, which is not part of the high school system. I will say, we are going to go after some kids that we have no business going after. But, when she says yes, we're going to make it our business to give her a great experience here. We're going to swing for the fences; we're going to swing for the rafters. We're going to take big chances and big risks on kids. I have some really great connections with clubs that I have good relationships with, and one of the themes that we're going to talk about, once my staff gets here, from a recruiting standpoint is making it saturated. We're going to saturate the places that love us already, and we're going to leave maroon and white in their gym, in their club. We're going to saturate them so much that all they're going to talk about is the change and the difference that's going on at Mississippi State. I think that will trickle down to the rest of the team, and there's going to be a sense of pride when we get that first big recruit on campus and that first kid that says yes. There's just going to be an overwhelming, euphoric feeling that's going to happen. I know we're going to get told no early on, but once we get that first yes, it's going to be special."
On building relationships with the current players…
"It's definitely a tough love. I think there was a little fear at the team meeting yesterday. With change, there's a lot that's coming at you at once. There's fear, there's nerves, there's emotions – all that stuff. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I think they're going to know exactly what I'm thinking when I'm thinking it. Honesty is my policy. We start meetings today at 12:30, and I'm going to get to know them as people. Then I want to get to know them as players, too. That's why I have that first question about who they are as a competitor. On the sidelines, I don't get too crazy. I like to keep it simple. I think in-game is not the time to try and fix an arm swing. My energy is consistent. I'm going to be the same person for them all the time. From a training standpoint, we love to get after it, and our practices are open."
For more information on Mississippi State volleyball, follow the Bulldogs on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching for "HailStateVB." You can also find all-access coverage of the program on SnapChat by searching for "HailStateSnap."
Sunday, November 07
Thursday, November 04
Tuesday, October 26
Sunday, October 24