It’s funny to think that our passions can be forged by the simplest of actions. Sure, there is a desire to want to improve on your skill when playing a sport, but there’s almost nothing like having that extra bug in your ear from someone close to you. They nurture you, they care for you and they’re more than willing to make you run through the most repetitive and annoying obstacles in order to drive the point home.
It can evoke anger, disgust, exhaustion and in some cases may even cause a person to lose interest in this field. The results are not always linear in terms of career success, with the process to reaching certain levels spanning a very long amount of time. However, the outcome is rewarding for a person who truly loves the game and all that it consists of.
For Jason Gardner, Stevenson men’s volleyball head coach, he had to learn from somewhere and someone before taking on a responsibility of this magnitude.
“Volleyball was that thing for me where as soon as I stepped into the first open gym; it was addicting to come back and continue to get better and want to get better,” Gardner said.
Before his prolific time as a player for the Mustangs, Gardner was enlisted to play on the varsity team as early as his sophomore year of high school for Central York in Pennsylvania a little over a decade ago. He said he had a variety of personal influences on his careers as a player and coach, but none might have had the same kind of impact as his brother.
“He was the one who brought me to my first open gym,” Gardner said. “It was a really great experience getting to be on the court with him. We were always competitive growing up. I wanted to be better than him, but he wanted me to be better than him as well. He helped me a ton to understand the game.”
Paired up with the forceful nature of a friendly rivalry between the two was the observation on Coach Gardner’s end. Prior to joining the team, he saw how his brother approached all of the intricacies of the sport and performed in practices and on the floor to set the tone for his subsequent gameplay. That ability to influence players in multiple facets is the essence of coaching, even if the methodology looks a little different.
Not every coach can operate in a tyrannical fashion and demand that players commit to this task and others to create a truly beneficial atmosphere. Players these days come from a variety of different backgrounds and experiences in their own lives, which could force them to shut down or dismiss these “orders” from the leading man. The more well-renowned coaches know when to distribute, defer and discuss key elements in order to resonate with other members of the team.
His high school tenure was a precursor to all that would unfold during his time as a student-athlete for Stevenson men’s volleyball from 2016-19. Atypical as it may be to play a freshman outright in their first season, his contributions were vital to one of the more successful men’s volleyball teams in the history of the school, with them winning their first and only Continental Volleyball Conference title.
Despite a limited number of designated starters, it took all of the men on that roster to accomplish the feat.
“That was a really special team, and getting to come in as a freshman and help that group get over that hump really meant a lot,” Gardner said. “There were a bunch of alumni that were here at that conference championship game, and you could tell how much it meant to everyone for us to get that first conference championship.”
Entering your collegiate career on a conference title contender can certainly set the stage for a prosperous journey into the sport. In most cases, nothing ever comes that easy. It’s something that Gardner (Class of 2019) has had to toggle with for some time as he made the move from full-time Stevenson student to full-time head coach in 2024.
“I had the transition year as an interim head coach in 2024,” Gardner said. “It was just a lot of excitement to be able to take over the head-coaching job here full-time. And then, it was an immediate [shift into], ‘Like, alright, now I’ve gotta figure out exactly what that means.’ The volleyball stuff is easy. It’s figuring out everything else around it.”
In his previous role as an assistant, he was afforded the luxury of a minimized scope to view the entire team through. Now, it’s about taking on recruitment visits and ensuring that every one of the players are in the best position possible to succeed on and off the court.
It’s not a process for the faint of heart, but one that has been made easier as he’s surrounded himself with great support from those connections with personnel as a player and the ones on the squad that equally challenge and inspire his progress.
One example of this is represented well in Corwin Trouteaud, a middle blocker on the team and one of three active seniors on the roster. It took a while for him to adjust to the shift with being a quieter individual, but that connection built into something special over time.
“I don’t think my connection really developed with him until junior year when I became a starter,” Trouteaud said. “Once I had trust in myself, I was suddenly able to see that he had trust in me even during my darkest days. Knowing he had my back inspired me to have the back of my teammates that go through the same thing.”
Gardner credits the mentorship of individuals like former Stevenson men’s volleyball coach Aldis Berzins for guidance in the role as he’s attempted to replicate the program’s previous success. Another coach from his high school was also credited with Gardner’s praise in being a true model for what a head coach should be.
It truly takes a village to foster a conducive environment for the next batch of students, let alone just one. Gardner’s hesitation to limit his drive and a key player to just one plays into the notion that anyone can have an influence at any moment.
“When we step out onto the court as a smaller unit of the whole team, he trusts everyone to do their part,” Trouteaud said. “I would say that’s coach Gardner’s strong point, his trust in a team no matter what, through thick and thin. He knows what we are going through as student-athletes and is more than understanding on helping us.”
Everything that we don’t see with the finished product on the court is amplified amongst all members of the team with consistency.
“We work pretty much all year round,” Gardner said. “The guys are lifting year round as a team. We start getting into practices in the fall, and those are really important for us to kind of build up the fundamental base. That’s where I believe a lot of your confidence comes as a player.”
It can be a shock to see non-starters and reserve players enter matches in back-to-back scenarios. Typically, it’ll happen during the Saturday tri-matches, and a number of things run through the mind as to why they occur. Maybe there’s an injury that isn’t designated, maybe the goal is to conserve players for a tougher matchup.
In any case, it invoked curiosity. On the inside, though, it is an opportunity for other players to put those practice reps into application at the highest level. They’re encouraged by their coach and their fellow teammates to play their absolute hearts out and perform well. That practice and refined elements in technique and approach convert to an unwavering trust that is never left in doubt.
“It’s tough when you’re playing those back-to-back matches,” Gardner said. “Guys’ legs start to get tired. We’ve had so many guys that have come off the bench in a reserve role, and they’ve all done a really great job with the chances that they’ve gotten.”
There is no way to fully encapsulate it if you haven’t been in a locker room setting or part of a team. To know that in any capacity you have a fair shot at succeeding can mean so much to a player. The buy-in that comes with that can lead to moves and role shifts that we may not expect.
One example comes from something that has been referenced by former coach Dave Trumbo in work alongside him throughout the volleyball season. When you look on the team’s roster, fourth-year and captain Kevin Kouchoukos is listed as a setter. He started in the role at times last year and had 80 assists in those games. However, entering the late stretch of that season and the start of the new campaign, a positional switch into a hitter’s role was made.
“[I’ve] been a setter all my life,” Kouchoukos said. “Last year, we get Connor [Roth], [who’s] obviously a good player, great guy as well…He’s got what it takes to be a setter. Especially with how many young guys [are on the roster], I was like, ‘This is yours, Connor’. We have some other great setters: Kyler [Robinson], Joaq [Cariaso], Danny [Sledz], but they weren’t here last year.”
He’d never experienced the hitting aspect in the sport before, yet he was asked to make this sacrifice for the overall good of the team. Still, there was no complaint on his end or pushback to recapture the pole position. His time in the offseason and with beach volleyball was spent well, citing an improvement in his athleticism outdoors that began to translate on the interior setting.
“That sand lets you jump a lot higher when you get into the court,” Kouchoukos said. “I really enjoyed the challenge of switching to right-side. The blocking’s pretty similar, you’re always on the right side, no matter what. The defense is the same. I pride myself on my defense. I think it’s been fun, but I think it’s also what the team needed.”
This selfless mentality is what makes the culture flowing through this volleyball team so addictive. No matter what the skill level is or the rank in terms of class may be, your impact is measured in how much better you can make those around you. It makes the standing outcome of such a move even more revealing when looking at it on the court and on paper.
As of this writing, Roth has logged a team-high 458 assists in his first full season at the position. Kouchoukos has asserted himself as a rugged defender who can provide respectable offensive output, with 71 kills, 80 digs (3rd-best on the team), and 18 blocks. The team also sits at 11-7 after a 5-game winning streak.
The initial transition might have come as a shock, and one could understand from that perspective. The idea of making that decision as an established veteran is not any form of coincidence. It displays just how much value there is in trusting the teammates and coaches around you, as well as the system that has been created. Regardless of the alignment, we are formidable as a group.
“It’s all 22 guys on the roster who I’m confident in [to] make an impact,” Gardner said. “We talk a lot about competing with your teammates and pushing each other to get better.”
To him, it can serve as a challenge for others to rise to the occasion and a motivator for all parties to embrace it in a positive way that rallies everyone together.
“When he was an assistant coach, [he] was a lot more quiet, just giving tips; now, he’s more in the middle [of the action],” Kouchoukos said. “A big moment was our Marymount game, a reverse sweep in the first game of the year. I think he did a great job of firing us up. He does a great job of saying what we need to hear.”
They were staring down a barrel in that game, and Gardner’s ability to time up those responses between himself and his players changed the entire complexion of the match. The results on the box score will not always result in wins, and they may not be executed in the most flawless of ways. However, with Gardner at the helm, these players always have him in their corner.
That dynamic isn’t just something that represents experience in the sport, but in life.
It harkens back to a childhood for Gardner filled with that friendly competition between he and his brother.
It spurs him as a maturing coach wanting to win and still create the mold of a formidable team in the right way.
“It’s a lot more of trying to find progress where it may not be reflected in the win-loss column, but being able to carry ourselves in a way that we can be proud of,” Gardner said.
As they continue to undergo the volleyball season, these players are leaning on Gardner to guide and lead them in ways that younger players may not be able to envision. In the same realm, these senior players are closer to experiencing this as they come up on graduation. No matter where you are in the future, you are and always will be a representative of the team you cultivate before sprinting out of that entrance.
“As a person, I’m driven to make a difference,” Gardner said. “If that’s helping these guys become better volleyball players, better people after graduation…I want to help where I can.”
