SE: K-State VB’s Five Core Values Emphasized in Spring to Build Program Culture

On one side, it looks like nothing more than a poker chip with "K-State volleyball" inscribed on it. Flip it over and it becomes obvious this is something more important.

Five lines of purple text cover the center of this side. They read, from top to bottom, commitment and work ethic, character, communication and trust, confidence and belief and competitiveness.

They are K-State volleyball's Five Core Values, and they are written on the program's version of a challenge coin, which every player receives as a freshman.

"If people think about K-State volleyball, if they think about our program, what do we want them to think about?" K-State head coach Suzie Fritz said of the importance of the Five Core Values, established about 10 years ago. "What are the things that are most important to you? How do you want to be perceived?"

The idea behind the Wildcats' challenge coin stemmed from the program's partnership with the 1st Combat Aviation Brigade at Fort Riley. More specifically, Col. Mike Morgan planted the seed by giving Fritz actual military challenge coins, which, historically, date back to World War I and are meant to prove membership to a certain unit of the U.S. military.

Likewise, K-State's players must keep their coins on them or close to them in case they are "coin-checked," another way to reinforce the importance of the values. If coin-checked, players have a minute's time to present their coin.

To establish the program's Five Core Values, Fritz said a lengthy brainstorming process took place. To start, a variety of verbs were thrown up on a whiteboard. Players and coaches got together multiple times, exchanging feedback until "similar themes" began to form.

"We got a ton of feedback from the players and we've kind of tweaked them a little bit, here or there, over time," Fritz said, "but, for the most part, they've kind of stood the course of time."

During the spring, which is always a transitional time for Fritz's team in some respect, the Five Core Values become a bigger focus. After losing four starters from last year's 21-win team that hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, those values will certainly be a theme throughout the spring.

"It's a great time to reinforce values. You can spend a little bit more time talking about those things," said Fritz, coming off her 16th season as K-State's head coach with a 316-178 career record. "During the season, the grind of the season and the time demands of competing can sometimes get in the way of a lot of other things that you need to do. We're trying to do a lot right now, quite frankly, but that being one of them, team building."

Over time, Fritz said she has become more organized and deliberate in the way she implements the Five Core Values to facilitate this team-building process. Often, one of them will be written on the team's white board at practice. Sometimes it will even be accompanied by a quote from a famous athlete to accentuate it.

"We just try to make a commitment to talk about them on a daily basis," Fritz said, following a practice focused on communication and trust. "There's certain times where we'll take the whole week to reinforce one of them. What are some things we can do this week to model this behavior, model this core value and be intentional about how we're approaching it? Otherwise, they're just words."

Taking the Five Core Values off of the challenge coins and putting them into action is the goal. It's not an overnight process, either. Getting players to buy in at the level Fritz expects can take years. Once it takes hold, however, a team culture is developed and positive results usually follow.

"Over time, people start to talk in the same language. I think that's important in building team culture, period, that you have a consistent mission or consistent language that your team starts to talk in," Fritz said. "Once you hear your team start talking about those things and what it means to them, how they use them in their daily lives, that's when things really start to come together.

"By the time they're juniors or seniors, they have a pretty good feel for them. They know them. They try to live their lives as a representative of those core values. That, if you choose to come to K-State, these are things you have to buy into. These are things that are important to us and therefore these are things that need to be important to you."

Seeing players buy into these values is the expectation. "It feels like growth," Fritz said, and that the coaching staff is making a positive "dent" in the players' lives. The most rewarding part as coaches, Fritz added, is hearing from former players who carry those values years after leaving K-State.

"I think it helps us mentor the young women on our team in a positive and productive way, to teach them skills that will affect their lives for the long haul. One of the cool things is when they come back and tell you, 'I still hear your voice in my head.' That's a pretty cool feeling, 15, 20 years down the road when they have more life experience, when they've gone out into the work force, when they've started their own families, and they get it," she said. "For them to be able to apply the very short window that we have with them — four or five years is not very long — but for them to be able to have that be applicable to their life, that's far more meaningful. That's when you really feel like you've made a difference, and that's a pretty good feeling, I think, for anybody."

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SE: K-State VB’s Five Core Values Emphasized in Spring to Build Program Culture

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