Finding Balance with an Exciting New Opportunity
Aug 05, 2024 | Volleyball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Gabi Dunson's life changed this summer with a text message from Kansas State volleyball head coach Jason Mansfield. Dunson, formally Gabi Ailes, was an All-American and National Champion at Stanford with Mansfield as top assistant coach. Now Dunson's husband was being stationed in Fort Leavenworth, and the gears started spinning.
Mansfield announced Dunson as an assistant coach on July 22.
Dunson arrives in Manhattan after working with the Momentum Volleyball Club in Colorado, where her primary responsibilities included mentoring coaches and developing consistent teaching methods for serve-receive and defense throughout the organization.
Dunson starred as a libero at Stanford where she was a part of the Cardinal squad that made four trips to the NCAA Sweet 16, including two appearances in the National Championship in 2007 and 2008. During her four-year career with the Cardinal, she became a two-time AVCA All-American and earned All-American recognition by Volleyball Magazine twice.
Dunson spoke with K-State Sports Extra's D. Scott Fritchen about her exciting path to joining Mansfield on the K-State coaching staff:
D. Scott Fritchen: Take me back to the first time you met Jason Mansfield?
Gabi Dunson: I met him during my initial recruiting process when I was in high school in 2005 or 2006. He was just a very personable person. In August 2007, I was a freshman at Stanford and Jason was the assistant coach, and he was just very easy to interact with and he kind of played the role that I'll be playing for K-State — a very approachable coach, who cares an awful lot about his athletes and spends a lot of time on the court after practice as well as in the office connecting with athletes. He's still the same person he was back then taking the time to know his athletes and taking time to connect with them on a personal level. He gets to know them both as athletes and individuals.
Fritchen: From a technical standpoint, what areas will you be coaching?
Dunson: I will be helping K-State with its serve-receive and its defense. I played Libero, so specifically back-row play is my area of expertise.
Fritchen: You had a very decorated career. What were you most proud of during your college career?
Dunson: I'd say finding balance, and it's something I've taken with me after my athletic career in college. I loved having really close friends that weren't athletes off the court. I loved connecting with the student population. They kept me grounded and made me feel just like a person who had other interests outside of the sport. That's what I'm most proud of in terms of being a student in the student part of student-athlete. What I'm most proud of athletically is how hard I worked to become an All-American toward the end of my career. Yes, I was a talented athlete, but I had to work very hard in the offseason and outside of practice putting in the extra reps and effort to become an All-American.
Fritchen: Was volleyball your first love growing up?
Dunson: I'd say so. I also played basketball and tennis. Those were sports where I played different types of roles. Basketball, I was a very good practice player, and was probably the first or second player off the bench in high school, and I just learned how to be a team player, whereas volleyball was more natural for me, and I was pretty much the big contributor on the team.
Fritchen: What clicked with volleyball? What made you so good?
Dunson: I'm from a family that loves volleyball, so I was in the gym a lot. My mom played, my aunts played, my grandpa was a coach, and my sister and cousins play.
Fritchen: Then you have this great playing career at Stanford with Mansfield on staff. And now you're on staff with Mansfield as a coach at Kansas State. What does it mean for you to join him?
Dunson: I've always cherished my friendship and relationships with Jason. It's always been a coach-player relationship, but now that I get to coach with him and learn from him, he's had very significant roles at Stanford, Illinois, Washington, and now he's head coach at Kansas State. I'm just very excited to learn and grow as a coach under him.
Fritchen: When did you learn about this coaching opportunity at K-State?
Dunson: My husband is military, and we were scheduled to move to Kansas at Ft. Leavenworth. My cousin, Ava, is on the team right now at Kansas State, and she sent me a text kind of jokingly back in May and said, "Hey, we're going to need another coach." It was probably our first or second week here in Kansas and Jason sent me a text and it was something along the lines of, "I know you have two children, and your husband is going to school there in Kansas but would love to have you as an assistant — just kidding, not really. Do you know anybody who is interested?" I showed the text to my husband, and he said, "Wow, we have to find a way to make this work." I was kind of caught off guard. "Can we do this? He said, "We can help build balance in our family life to figure out how we can support you in this role."
Fritchen: How long were you with Momentum Volleyball Club in Colorado, and what was your title and responsibilities there?
Dunson: There was a coach that coached at Stanford camps, and she reached out to me and said, "Hey, my friend is coach at Momentum Volleyball Club in Colorado, and I'd like to connect the two of you." So, I connected with this coach, and she said, 'You should come to Momentum and just be a presence in the gym." I helped develop some very young, new-to-the-volleyball-scene players. It was like a prep league. I did that for about a year. I had just had my first child at the time, so it was the perfect setting. These were fifth and sixth graders and not a high level of volleyball, just building the sport. The following year, probably around January 2022, I started really building relationships with the coaches and they kept asking more of me, so I was in a coach/mentor role. I had a Zoom with about 50 coaches on it and we talked about serve-receive and we talked about different ways of teaching serve-receive to our athletes in making sure that across the club we were being consistent with the language we were using when teaching servers. And then we did that for defense. Then for the last club season, which would've been this year, starting in November of 2023, I would come in and help coach the coaches and then also do skills sessions with all the athletes in all the age groups in the club. We would just teach serve-receive and defense once a week for their first hour or their first practice of the week. I did that this whole club season.
Fritchen: You're from Nebraska, came from Colorado, earned your bachelor's degree at Missouri, there are a lot of Midwest ties there. What kind asset might that be on the road when recruiting?
Dunson: I'm going to be honest, recruiting is a can of worms I've never opened to this point. I'm happy to help but there's a lot for me to learn from a college recruiting standpoint. There are a lot of clubs that I'm very familiar with in the Midwest region. My sister actually helps at a very big club that's connected to the LOVB, the new professional league that's starting this year, Premier Nebraska, she helps with that club, so my sister and I are always talking volleyball. But in terms of recruiting, I haven't tipped my toes into that yet. It's all new to me. But being a former student-athlete, I can connect with these players because I've stepped in their shoes before.
Fritchen: Have you been able to connect with any of the current K-State players yet?
Dunson: I have. I came to campus for award days last week for volleyball camps. I was there for the all-skills camp, which was two days, and then I came back for the team camp. All 18 of the players were there for the all-skills camps. So, I just tried to find each player over those days. Of course, I can read on the roster where they're from, but I really wanted to have that conversation to connect with them one-on-one on a personal level and just get a small glimpse of personalities before we get started for this season.
Fritchen: How excited does that make you for practice?
Dunson: You know what, I'm just thrilled to start this season. I think that the girls were very welcoming and excited to see another female coach who's walked in their shoes and has played at their level and has been an All-American and a national champion. There's me, in the back row, their defensive specialist look for the team, and then you have Jason, who has a ton of coaching experience. We're all just very excited to get going and we feel hopeful that we can win the Big 12 Championship this year. We're going to be very competitive.
Fritchen: What's one thing everybody should know about you?
Dunson: I have a big heart and just with the small time I've had with this team I care so much about them. I'm having trouble putting into words how grateful I am for this opportunity.
Fritchen: What have you learned most about yourself during your journey?
Dunson: Honestly, I'm going to go back to balance. My husband, he's a positive psychology coach, and we talk a lot about balance in our family, and if there's a certain domain that I spend too much time in, I get burned out. I think it's finding the right balance for all the domains in my life, which allows me to accel at each one.
Gabi Dunson's life changed this summer with a text message from Kansas State volleyball head coach Jason Mansfield. Dunson, formally Gabi Ailes, was an All-American and National Champion at Stanford with Mansfield as top assistant coach. Now Dunson's husband was being stationed in Fort Leavenworth, and the gears started spinning.
Mansfield announced Dunson as an assistant coach on July 22.
Dunson arrives in Manhattan after working with the Momentum Volleyball Club in Colorado, where her primary responsibilities included mentoring coaches and developing consistent teaching methods for serve-receive and defense throughout the organization.
Dunson starred as a libero at Stanford where she was a part of the Cardinal squad that made four trips to the NCAA Sweet 16, including two appearances in the National Championship in 2007 and 2008. During her four-year career with the Cardinal, she became a two-time AVCA All-American and earned All-American recognition by Volleyball Magazine twice.
Dunson spoke with K-State Sports Extra's D. Scott Fritchen about her exciting path to joining Mansfield on the K-State coaching staff:
D. Scott Fritchen: Take me back to the first time you met Jason Mansfield?
Gabi Dunson: I met him during my initial recruiting process when I was in high school in 2005 or 2006. He was just a very personable person. In August 2007, I was a freshman at Stanford and Jason was the assistant coach, and he was just very easy to interact with and he kind of played the role that I'll be playing for K-State — a very approachable coach, who cares an awful lot about his athletes and spends a lot of time on the court after practice as well as in the office connecting with athletes. He's still the same person he was back then taking the time to know his athletes and taking time to connect with them on a personal level. He gets to know them both as athletes and individuals.
Fritchen: From a technical standpoint, what areas will you be coaching?
Dunson: I will be helping K-State with its serve-receive and its defense. I played Libero, so specifically back-row play is my area of expertise.
Fritchen: You had a very decorated career. What were you most proud of during your college career?
Dunson: I'd say finding balance, and it's something I've taken with me after my athletic career in college. I loved having really close friends that weren't athletes off the court. I loved connecting with the student population. They kept me grounded and made me feel just like a person who had other interests outside of the sport. That's what I'm most proud of in terms of being a student in the student part of student-athlete. What I'm most proud of athletically is how hard I worked to become an All-American toward the end of my career. Yes, I was a talented athlete, but I had to work very hard in the offseason and outside of practice putting in the extra reps and effort to become an All-American.
Fritchen: Was volleyball your first love growing up?
Dunson: I'd say so. I also played basketball and tennis. Those were sports where I played different types of roles. Basketball, I was a very good practice player, and was probably the first or second player off the bench in high school, and I just learned how to be a team player, whereas volleyball was more natural for me, and I was pretty much the big contributor on the team.
Fritchen: What clicked with volleyball? What made you so good?
Dunson: I'm from a family that loves volleyball, so I was in the gym a lot. My mom played, my aunts played, my grandpa was a coach, and my sister and cousins play.
Fritchen: Then you have this great playing career at Stanford with Mansfield on staff. And now you're on staff with Mansfield as a coach at Kansas State. What does it mean for you to join him?
Dunson: I've always cherished my friendship and relationships with Jason. It's always been a coach-player relationship, but now that I get to coach with him and learn from him, he's had very significant roles at Stanford, Illinois, Washington, and now he's head coach at Kansas State. I'm just very excited to learn and grow as a coach under him.
Fritchen: When did you learn about this coaching opportunity at K-State?
Dunson: My husband is military, and we were scheduled to move to Kansas at Ft. Leavenworth. My cousin, Ava, is on the team right now at Kansas State, and she sent me a text kind of jokingly back in May and said, "Hey, we're going to need another coach." It was probably our first or second week here in Kansas and Jason sent me a text and it was something along the lines of, "I know you have two children, and your husband is going to school there in Kansas but would love to have you as an assistant — just kidding, not really. Do you know anybody who is interested?" I showed the text to my husband, and he said, "Wow, we have to find a way to make this work." I was kind of caught off guard. "Can we do this? He said, "We can help build balance in our family life to figure out how we can support you in this role."
Fritchen: How long were you with Momentum Volleyball Club in Colorado, and what was your title and responsibilities there?
Dunson: There was a coach that coached at Stanford camps, and she reached out to me and said, "Hey, my friend is coach at Momentum Volleyball Club in Colorado, and I'd like to connect the two of you." So, I connected with this coach, and she said, 'You should come to Momentum and just be a presence in the gym." I helped develop some very young, new-to-the-volleyball-scene players. It was like a prep league. I did that for about a year. I had just had my first child at the time, so it was the perfect setting. These were fifth and sixth graders and not a high level of volleyball, just building the sport. The following year, probably around January 2022, I started really building relationships with the coaches and they kept asking more of me, so I was in a coach/mentor role. I had a Zoom with about 50 coaches on it and we talked about serve-receive and we talked about different ways of teaching serve-receive to our athletes in making sure that across the club we were being consistent with the language we were using when teaching servers. And then we did that for defense. Then for the last club season, which would've been this year, starting in November of 2023, I would come in and help coach the coaches and then also do skills sessions with all the athletes in all the age groups in the club. We would just teach serve-receive and defense once a week for their first hour or their first practice of the week. I did that this whole club season.
Fritchen: You're from Nebraska, came from Colorado, earned your bachelor's degree at Missouri, there are a lot of Midwest ties there. What kind asset might that be on the road when recruiting?
Dunson: I'm going to be honest, recruiting is a can of worms I've never opened to this point. I'm happy to help but there's a lot for me to learn from a college recruiting standpoint. There are a lot of clubs that I'm very familiar with in the Midwest region. My sister actually helps at a very big club that's connected to the LOVB, the new professional league that's starting this year, Premier Nebraska, she helps with that club, so my sister and I are always talking volleyball. But in terms of recruiting, I haven't tipped my toes into that yet. It's all new to me. But being a former student-athlete, I can connect with these players because I've stepped in their shoes before.
Fritchen: Have you been able to connect with any of the current K-State players yet?
Dunson: I have. I came to campus for award days last week for volleyball camps. I was there for the all-skills camp, which was two days, and then I came back for the team camp. All 18 of the players were there for the all-skills camps. So, I just tried to find each player over those days. Of course, I can read on the roster where they're from, but I really wanted to have that conversation to connect with them one-on-one on a personal level and just get a small glimpse of personalities before we get started for this season.
Fritchen: How excited does that make you for practice?
Dunson: You know what, I'm just thrilled to start this season. I think that the girls were very welcoming and excited to see another female coach who's walked in their shoes and has played at their level and has been an All-American and a national champion. There's me, in the back row, their defensive specialist look for the team, and then you have Jason, who has a ton of coaching experience. We're all just very excited to get going and we feel hopeful that we can win the Big 12 Championship this year. We're going to be very competitive.
Fritchen: What's one thing everybody should know about you?
Dunson: I have a big heart and just with the small time I've had with this team I care so much about them. I'm having trouble putting into words how grateful I am for this opportunity.
Fritchen: What have you learned most about yourself during your journey?
Dunson: Honestly, I'm going to go back to balance. My husband, he's a positive psychology coach, and we talk a lot about balance in our family, and if there's a certain domain that I spend too much time in, I get burned out. I think it's finding the right balance for all the domains in my life, which allows me to accel at each one.
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