Date: Fri 22-Nov-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KIMH

Quick Words:

Column-Russ-Weiss

Full Text:

Russ Weiss - Column

The euphoria of the recent CIAC Class L state championship earned by the

Newtown High School volleyball team is starting to settle more into simple

happiness and warm feelings of satisfaction and now that parents and players

have a chance to reflect upon what has happened over the course of the last

three months - and even more, as it were - I hope enough people realize that

we all owe Russ Weiss a debt of gratitude.

Coach Weiss enjoyed a lot of success with the program in the 13 years he

coached it, winning a few division championships in the now defunct Western

Connecticut Conference and regularly qualifying for the CIAC state tournament,

but with a disappointing 1995 season behind him, and the ever-increasing nudge

of parental pressure, he willingly stepped down from the coaching pedestal.

I'm not sure there is anyone who likes the sport of volleyball as much as Russ

Weiss. He put his heart into the game for 13 years and always enjoyed a good

rapport with his players.

But times change. Games change. And coach Weiss - whether or not someone was

saying it behind his back - admitted to himself that maybe the game had indeed

evolved too much and become much too serious to fit in with his attitudes, his

philosophies and the time he had to spend on doing it better.

So he stepped aside.

Then coach Nell-Ayn Lynch, a four-year varsity member of the Amity High School

volleyball team - which won a state championship in each of those four years -

and four-year member of the Division I University of Connecticut volleyball

team, was brought in.

And the team went from good to great.

Coach Weiss said he filled a void, but I think it is more than that. Maybe he

didn't know a lot about the sport when he first took it over, but he learned

as much as he could and he coached out of the love for the kids and the game

of volleyball and that's what sports is supposed to be all about.

Sometimes there are people who think it's all about them and their kids and

the belief that their kid is not being coached properly and that something

has, by God, got to be fixed. I think people should sit down and remember that

winning and success - like a CIAC Class L championship - are always the goals

in sports, but they are not the reason why sports exist.

It's about learning how to play, how to compete, how to work as a team, and

how to succeed. Russ Weiss did all of that for his girls - teaching them all

of that and more. When he stepped aside, Newtown High lost one of its best

coaches.

Luckily for Newtown High, it got another coach who is a very nice person,

loves the kids, loves the game of volleyball, and is a brilliant coach who

knows how to win.

So, I guess it couldn't have worked out better.

Thanks, Russ.