Q&A: Lindsey Walton, Jen Woods

It’s year one of a new era of Texas A&M volleyball. 

Under the direction of head coach Jamie Morrison, the Aggies have opened this week and will host a scrimmage on the 15th and an exhibition on the 19th. The season begins on the road August 25 at Omaha.

Morrison, currently guiding the United States’ U19 girls national team at the World Championships, will miss the first few days of practice as he looks to bring home a gold medal. In his absence, we visited with associate head coaches Lindsey Walton and Jen Woods about the start of preparations for the 2023 season.

Associate Head Coach Lindsey Walton brings an abundance of NCAA coaching experience to the Aggie coaching staff. Most recently, she held the head coaching position at Oklahoma for five seasons, guiding the Sooners to the NCAA Tournament in 2019--their first trip in five seasons. No stranger to the SEC, Walton spent eight seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting director for Craig Skinner’s staff at Kentucky--helping build the Wildcats into a national power.

Can you speak to the buy in from the players as a new staff comes on board and how exciting that is for the fall?

“There's an intentionality to every day, right? There's a plan, and there's a process, so that we can fall back on that. And then what we can really invest in is the time to get to know the people…you’ve got to kind of know what makes somebody tick here and there. And I spent some good time with them, not just in between the lines. We have to be able to function at a high level in in really high-stakes moments. And sometimes how someone is there is very different than how they are when we're on the bus or when we're in the airport. Or, maybe that's exactly how they are when they play too. So when they get into camp mode, we all are in this quick learning mode and we only have two weeks to do it right. We implement these processes (in the spring), we get to know each other, then it's like ‘We'll see you in August.’ So it's really on them. 

“I would just speak highly to that—from what I've seen, what I've known of other places that I’ve been and what I've been able to visually see of our group—man, they put in the time when nobody was looking this summer. I'm just really excited. I hope that can pay off for them the best way…to see it happen for this group, because they've been tireless about how they've been as listeners, as workers, as a players, as culture leaders.

“We've put a lot on their plate. No play ever got too heavy. I just have never seen something function as well from day one as what we have experienced. Now, we're going to have bumps, don't get me wrong. Everybody does. But it's how you can manage those bumps and how we can find solutions through those and just focus on the opportunities ahead to just be a little bit better every day. And I think we're going to sneak up on some people—not surprise people—and that's going to be really special when that full self gets to come out.”

You’ve talked about the potential of Texas A&M and when you look back at the power you helped build at Kentucky, how excited are you taking the vision that you guys have and building this program into the power you think it can be?

“We talk about the triad around us, Dallas, Austin, Houston…and then everywhere else in the great state of Texas. I read the (hiring) release very clearly. In (Athletics Director) Ross (Bjork)’s words, very clearly, this state is too good. There's too much talent here to not have that be a base for our roster. And so we took that to heart. I took that to heart. Truly the best in the country right now are coming out of this state. The best in the country are coming out of Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio even. And I think that's something that we get really excited about.

“That's not to say that we don't want to go and recruit outside of the state and we don't want the great talent that's out there across the national landscape right now. To think about the SEC and to think about Texas A&M, it's probably not the first place you're thinking of, right? If you're in California, you're probably thinking, ‘Oh, I'm going to go over to Big Ten country or I'm going to go to these three schools in the SEC.’ It's probably not A&M right now, but our push this fall will change some perceptions for sure. Relationships change perceptions, good and bad. I think we've done a really nice job of building really strong relationships around us, and that was one of the first things that we wanted to do. We want to be in as many clubs as we possibly can this spring from a recruiting standpoint, so they know we want that strong relationship, they want to feel us, see us. We can make that happen. And I think it's paid big dividends for us. Already I get excited about the way we could plant flags at some really premier clubs around us that are doing it the right way.

“Right now you just see our sport is the fastest growing sport in the country. The most played (sport) by the ages 11 to 18 right now is youth volleyball. We've got two domestic leagues getting ready to launch here on a professional side, which is unbelievable. We already have one currently in motion with Athletes Unlimited. If you're thinking, then, okay, what's the next level? Why would I not go to a place and be coached by an individual that's been at the highest level, coached in the Olympics, coached at the professional international level and also domestic level? And have that opportunity for four years. I just think that our superpower is us. I really do. And people just need to come here. They need to experience it and feel it. College Station itself, Holy smokes…‘Howdy’ is like Aloha, man. Everyone truly is excited to see what is about to happen for us. So, yeah, we love it. We're excited for it.”

Associate Head Coach Jen Woods has returned to her alma mater, where she played four seasons for the Aggies and helped guide them to two NCAA Tournaments. Woods founded Houston Skyline Volleyball, where, as a director, she was instrumental during her 11-year tenure in developing the organization into a perennial top-10 club in the nation. Her impact helped nearly 200 athletes reach their goals of playing collegiate volleyball. She most recently coached alongside Jamie Morrison at League One Volleyball, helping manage and mentor volleyball clubs across the United States.

Can you walk us through when Jamie called you about the open position and what was going through your mind?

“Well, we had just built our forever home, or what we thought was, in the Houston area, and were really settled in our community. Our boys had started school, we had been in Houston since we graduated in 2008, and we loved it there and had no plans of diverting our path whatsoever. We’d run our own business and had a couple businesses, club volleyball being one of them, and had built something from the ground up that had gone really well and been super successful. (But through that business) the relationship we’d built with Jamie was really strong. Lots of trust, tons of respect, and I knew he would be an excellent, excellent candidate for this job. And I'm so thankful that Ross (Bjork) and (Deputy Athletics Director) Kristen (Brown) did think outside of the typical resumé that you would look at for a college coach hire. I think everyone that's gotten to interact with him now sees it, even just a little bit, of how unique and special he is and how he'll be great for this University and for the program in so many ways.

“So when he called me, I was very surprised. It definitely was not something that had entered my mind in the past. I had had college opportunities come my way and I never really had any draw. I really enjoyed what we were doing. I had no reason to really pursue it. But this call was different because of the combination of it being at A&M, which I know the potential that this place has, and also being under Jamie's leadership. The combination of those two things--the place and the people--that really is what made it an appealing option. I thought a long time about it. I probably took about a month to decide. It wasn't an automatic answer by any means. But I felt really confident that this was the right time to do something different.”

When you look at simply collegiate experience, this is a very non-traditional coaching staff, isn’t it?

“Absolutely. But we've worked together for years. In my time at Houston Skyline, I was director, we had kind of built the club. So I was really doing everything. When you own your own business, you don't just do one thing. Recruiting was a huge part of what I did. I've interacted with coaches across the country for years and I've taken players on their visits when their parents couldn't. And I've seen the inner workings of so many programs. So I have a unique perspective. I remember way back before Jamie and I were working together at League One, he asked me, ‘Who's the best recruiter that you encounter?’ We've worked with everyone and we've had all levels of players, but had some really high-level recruits. And I was like, ‘Hands down, Lindsey Gray-Walton. No question.’ That was maybe six years ago or so that we had that conversation. We do bring very different things to the table. Jamie is very talented at all things, but his special sauce is him as a trainer. I mean, he is just phenomenal in that realm. Lindsey and I love training too, but we also have other expertise areas. She's great on the recruiting side. I'm really big on the management side. I love that. It's a really interesting mix that I think a lot of staffs don't have, but it meshes really well and we all have so much respect for each other that we're able to stay in our lanes and overlap where we need to and nobody feels threatened by it. It just feels like a lot of expertise that we can push forward with.”