Hamilton, ON- Steve Delaney needed to reflect. 

The Brock Badgers women’s volleyball head coach had just seen his team win the OUA championships for the second year in a row. The Badgers had just played in their second straight national championships – losing in the quarterfinals both times. 

Delaney and the Badgers have been on the rise ever since the Burlington native had taken over the job in 2018. They flipped a 14-17 season into a 13-7 one in 2018-19 and reached the OUA playoffs. 

They continued to climb…and climb…and climb – reaching heights the program hadn’t seen before. Yet, there was still the matter of how far they could still go. 

This past offseason was an inflection point. Delaney wanted to improve their team culture. “Not that I think our culture was bad before but I think there were a few missing pieces,” he noted. 

They talked and worked on that. The results are evident in their 16-2 record this season – the best in the OUA – and their number two U SPORTS ranking. It’s evident in how they rebounded to defeat the McMaster Marauders in three sets on the road on Feb. 3. 

In years past, Delaney would tell the players what the culture would be. This time, he left it up to them. “You decide what you want the culture to be,” setter Sara Rohr recalls Delaney telling them. 

So, they drew inspiration from a book called Legacy. Inside were the 15 Principles of Leadership from New Zealand’s men’s national rugby team – the famous “All Blacks.” 

Character, purpose, responsibility and pressure were some of those. Legacy was the last one. They talked about the legacy they wanted to leave. They wanted to live those principles – not just talk about them, according to Delaney. 

They decided to put their own spin on it, creating their own language and sayings. “Be a good big sister,” was one of them. They wanted to be “one big family,” as Rohr calls it. 

The players will support each other day-by-day, pushing each other as well. They’ll constantly text each other. “Do you want to come study with me,” they’ll ask. “Do you want to grab lunch together?”

Rohr finds she can talk to anyone on the team. Each player also has a support person they can turn to. 

Rohr’s is fifth-year middle Meera Sayal. They’ll hype each other up and give each other the confidence they need – including in times of adversity. “Keep your head up and keep playing how we know we can play,” they’ll tell each other. 

Their culture was put to the test against McMaster. In their first game against the Marauders on Feb. 2, the Badgers won the first set but dropped the next three. 

Afterwards, they reflected on it together. Delaney could sense the players being hesitant and doubtful. “We believe but we can’t believe in them if they’re not believing in themselves,” he remembers saying.

They opened up about it. “Bring it within,” outside hitter Sadie Dick called it. She knew the change would come from their mindset and what they were capable of. They focused on playing their style of volleyball. 

In the following game, the first two sets came down to the final points. Brock pulled out both times – 25-22 and 25-23 – before winning the third set 25-17. 

“That was the version of Brock we were expecting to see,” McMaster head coach Nathan Janzen said. “Relentless. Working really hard and taking no prisoners.” 

As they did so, Rohr thought of one of those principles of leadership: Pressure is a privilege.  They’ve trained in pressure situations. They’ve played in them in games as well – a nail-biting five set comeback in the OUA finals against Queen’s last year for instance.

Rohr finds they’re on the same page because of that. They can just look at each other and know what they’re feeling – not needing to say anything. 

They reflected on that after they lost at nationals last year. “It’s a privilege to even be able to play and to be with this great group of girls we have,” Rohr said. “So let’s just rise to the occasion.” 

When Delaney reflected, he knew that meant changing the way he carried himself. Instead of being super intense in those situations, he wanted to be calmer. He wanted to take that pressure off his players instead of putting it on them. That hit home especially after their OUA finals comeback.

“If I’m feeling that type of anxiety and pressure, then the athletes are,” he noted. “So I need to do something for them – and for me.” 

Delaney was on the sidelines as the moments got tight against the Marauders. He felt calmer than before – which his players fed off. There came this calming effect. 

One of the players who felt that culture change was Dick. Years ago, who could have imagined she would end up at Brock? Dick was a member of the Canadian Junior national team and had committed to play for the Pittsburgh Panthers – one of the top NCAA women’s volleyball programs. 

She spent two years there. First as a redshirt in 2019-20 and then playing in a couple of games in 2020-21. However, Dick had fallen out of love with the sport. It felt more like a job. She would come in and go through the motions but she wasn’t having fun. 

The St. Catharines native decided to return home in 2021, enrolling at Brock as a student, with no plans of playing volleyball. 

Delaney reached out to her that summer. “Just come to a practice, have fun and we’ll make you fall in love with volleyball again,” he told her. 

She started coming to a few practices. By the third one, they were playing six-on-six when it hit her. “Damn, this is kind of fun,” she thought. “I forgot how that felt.” 

Dick then texted Delaney to let him know she was ready to join the team. 

Since then, the feeling has stuck. She looks forward to practice – the favourite part of her day – going into it with eagerness and excitement. “You’re just vibing with everybody and you’re just playing together and it feels easy,” Dick noted. “There’s no real feeling to describe it.” 

With those vibes, Dick made an immediate impact, becoming an OUA All-Star in her first season and her second. She and her teammates won their first OUA titles in program history. 

What about this season? She’s difficult to play against, Janzen noted. She’s smart, sees the court well and has a big arm. Now, she’s hitting better than before. “There used to be an element of error in her game and she’s really cleaned it up,” Janzen added. 

She’s always been a physical presence, according to her head coach. Now, she’s managing the momentum, the ebbs and flows of a game better than before. Delaney sees her continuously ramping up her energy as the sets go on. 

Dick felt the momentum against McMaster. She felt them playing together even when they were down. “You just have to go for it every point and reset,” she said. Dick felt the belief that they could win. 

What’s the end of the road for this Brock team? Will all that reflection, talk and actions into improving the culture pay off? Does that mean another OUA championship or a national medal or title? Or does it mean something more than that? 

Dick realized with each win and OUA title, the road only gets harder. That’s a challenge they embrace though. It drives her to keep getting better. 

The Badgers talk about reaching the small goals along the way that lead to the big ones. That leads to the legacy they want to leave, according to Delaney. That means being better people than just winning games, according to Rohr. 

The Milton native is in her final season of university volleyball. Rohr was a rookie in Delaney’s first year. She’s been through their rise and culture shift over the past six years.

She’ll miss her teammates and being part of that big family. She got emotional during the team’s dance party against McMaster and started to cry. She knows there’s only so many games left. “Bittersweet,” she called it. 

Perhaps the end of that road will mean another OUA championship and showing at nationals for Rohr? Perhaps something greater? 

Regardless of the result, the culture remains. So is the legacy she leaves. 

Featured Image: Kevin Lassel/McMaster Athletics