By Caleb Dolan //
For Hood College’s new men’s volleyball coach Aaron Hoke, building a successful program starts with more than what happens on the court.
Hoke wants to build a competitive program at Hood while developing relationships with his players and helping them improve throughout the season. After five seasons of coaching at Wilson College, Hoke said he saw an opportunity at Hood to continue his career and help the program compete among the top teams in the Middle Atlantic Conference.
“I would really like for Hood to be in that conversation,” Hoke said. “I thought it was a good opportunity to make that happen.”
Hoke began playing volleyball at 14 after receiving an invitation to play club volleyball. He later played at Chambersburg High School before continuing his career at Wilson College, where he recorded more than 1,000 kills during his four years as a 5-foot-9 outside hitter.
His experience as an undersized player helped shape his coaching philosophy. Hoke said he learned the importance of understanding the game, controlling the ball and knowing what was happening around him on the court.
Hoke said he wants his players to be intelligent, accountable and intentional both on and off the court. That includes how players represent the volleyball program around campus.
“If you’re engaged in the campus community as a whole, it’s going to reflect positively on what you do on the court,” Hoke said.
Hoke also wants to take time to understand his new players instead of immediately forcing his own methods on them. He said both sides will have to adjust as they become familiar with each other.
“I have to adjust to them and they have to adjust to me,” Hoke said. “So I think just meeting them where they’re at.”
Hoke said developing those relationships is an important part of coaching.
“It’s about the personal aspect,” Hoke said. “For me as a coach, I really enjoy the human element of it, having those relationships, being able to bond, being able to talk to my players.”
Hoke said he will not measure his first season at Hood solely by the team’s record. Instead, he wants to see the team improve and compete throughout the season.
“I think it’s going to be if we’re competing and if we’re continuing to get better as the season goes along,” Hoke said.
As Hoke begins his first season at Hood, he hopes to build a team that believes it can challenge the conference’s top programs.
“I just want to compete,” Hoke said. “I want us to take that next step into the belief of, ‘Hey, we can beat this team. We can do this. We can challenge these teams.’”
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