93. Erin Virtue: Each recipe for success is going to be unique.

As a standout setter at the University of Illinois from 2001 to 2004, coach Virtue earned All-Big Ten and AVCA Honorable Mention All-American honors in 2003, and lead the Fighting Illini to three NCAA Tournament appearances.

Transitioning into coaching, Erin began at Loyola University Chicago in 2006 before serving as an assistant coach at the University of Cincinnati (2007–2010) and the University of Michigan (2011–2015). And took on the role of associate head coach at Northwestern University in 2016.

Erin's assistant coach position with the U.S. Women's National Volleyball Team, contributed to a gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. In January 2023, Erin returned to Michigan as their head coach, bringing her extensive international experience to the Wolverines.

In this thoughtful and inspiring conversation, Erin shares the experiences and ideas that have shaped her journey.

Key takeaways from this article include:

• Development pillars: Craft, Mind, Team, Body, and Heart guide programming.
• Create intentional moments to decompress to prevent coaching burnout.
• When overwhelmed, focus on taking concrete actions rather than dwelling.
• Having a strong purpose helps endure difficulties in pursuit of excellence.The value of staying curious and learning from people around you
• Learn a simple but powerful framework for athlete development—on and off the court
• The role of strong communication and shared values in building a staff
• Insights into how top-level players "read the game" and why that matters
• Thoughts on where the sport is heading, and how to help players prepare for it

We have 58 minutes of video interview (divided over 15 clips) with coach Virtue in this article. Enjoy!

Enter Erin...

Erin, why did you decide to commit to being a fulltime volleyball coach? What pushed you towards that decision?

I think about this a lot, and people often ask me, "Where did you get your start? What made you decide to coach?"

For me, it all started with a massive amount of adversity—probably not an uncommon story.

I was playing at the University of Illinois, and in my senior year, we were rolling. Everything was coming together. And then, I tore my knee. I was the senior captain, and I took so much pride in what we had built. We were in the middle of rebuilding that program, and suddenly, my season was over.

It was a tough blow—you never want to get hurt, and it felt like such a disappointing way for my college career to end.

But looking back, it actually gave me a really cool opportunity to impact the team in a different way.

Instead of being on the court, I had to figure out how to contribute from the sidelines.

I asked myself, How can I still be a good teammate? We had a freshman setter stepping in, so I focused on supporting her, helping the attack, and just being there for the team however I could.

At the same time, I wasn’t done playing. I rehabbed hard and had really enjoyed that new feeling of being part of something without being on court.

Eventually I had the opportunity to train with the national team under Jenny Lang Ping. I had a choice—play in Italy or train in Colorado with Team USA. For me, the decision was easy. Italy was an incredible opportunity, but it was in the middle of their season, which meant a lot of matches and less focus on training. What I really wanted was to learn—to get better, to soak up knowledge.

I just wanted to train with a coach like Jenny. She was such a great player for China, and I took every chance to ask her questions, to learn from her, to pick her brain. I was a good enough player to be in that gym, but I could already see that my future probably wasn’t with knee pads on.

So I made the shift. I left playing behind and decided to pursue coaching and teaching. I even went back to school to study how to be a better teacher and coach.

It’s funny—coaching wasn’t my plan. It wasn’t something I chose at first. But in a weird way, I’m really grateful for that injury. It sidelined me from playing, but it put me on a path I didn’t even know I wanted to be on.

What advice would you give yourself as a starting coach? An advice that is so clear and logic for you now, but that you had to develop over the years.

I think that the two main things I would think about is: one, just be thirsty. Ask questions. Be around people that are smarter than you.

And I had a wonderful chance to be around a lot of really good people, and I think my young self was shy. I still don't think I know it all, by any means. I have so much to learn. But for me, to put myself in a really uncomfortable place where I'm asking something questions, or seeking clarity —just being thirsty—would definitely be advice I’d give myself.

And then with that and I think this is a place young coaches stumble sometimes—is: stay authentic.

I think there are so many coaches—you’ve gotten an opportunity to interview some amazing people—and by the time they’re in the twilight of their career, I think they really know who they are.

But that takes a while for a young person to shape and figure out—who they are, and how can they bring their authentic self to what they’re doing. And that certainly took me some time, for sure.

I would see really great coaches, or coaches I looked up to, and then I would maybe gravitate toward that area, or that personality.

You know, some basketball coaches watch Bobby Knight from Indiana, and he has a very unique style of coaching. But there's only one Bobby Knight. And he has this specific style. There’s only one Russ Rose. They’re very unique individuals.

And I think that young coaches—and certainly as I was younger—I wish I would've learned that sooner, of just: I can just be me, and try to continually find the best version of me.

Matias: I think that there's a lot of things in there. Advising yourself to be more authentic is difficult, because young Erin doesn’t know of course. She doesn’t know how to be authentic.

But then—she can be open to learn. Just be there. Be open to learn. Your being authentic will come faster in that way.

Yeah. And I think high performers—and I certainly, in everything I've always wanted to be great at something since I was a little kid. Even if it was just eating dinner faster than my brother or something, you know? I was always trying to be good at something.

And I think that comes with having this relationship with failure, or embarrassment, or lack of knowing something. When you're authentic, or when you're trying to stay thirsty, that means you're seeking clarity.

And we teach that to our athletes now: we're gonna mess up, and that’s how we grow and get better.

And I think young coaches, like young athletes, have that same fear. And maybe it’s not as big as for other things in life; but it’s there. It’s present.

You have to be able to let go of that if you want to be great.

What are bad recommendations you hear about coaching or training volleyball?

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of kind of a bad recommendation—or just a school of thought that I don’t agree with—is language that is very finite.

Like, “You must do this to be great,” or “Everyone who’s good is training only this way.”

I really just believe that each recipe for success is going to be unique.

There are some principles—there are pieces in motor learning, in how we learn, whether that’s on the court or in the classroom—and there are definitely some scientifically proven things that are real and grounded.

But there are so many pieces to who we are as people, and to the people we’re working with, that make things really unique. And coaching is kind of like a river—you’re never going to step in the same river twice, because it’s always moving. There are just so many components that go into that.

So language that I usually have an issue with—or try to stay away from—is anything that feels finite in its nature. To me, that’s not moving forward. That’s just looking backward and only trying to copy the recipe that worked for someone else.

Well, at Michigan, maybe that’s not the recipe we need to be great here. So, I try to learn from other people, but also make it our own.

There are a million examples of that, but I guess, as a general area, that’s one I would definitely throw some caution at.

Do you have a particular goal? Maybe a goal that you already reached or a goal that is so hard to reach that it gives you daily motivation?

Well, first of all—I love what I do.

Right now, I’m the head coach at the University of Michigan. I’m working with this program and this incredible staff. I’ve had the opportunity to work with our national team. And there’s so much time, effort, and just energy that’s put into what we do as coaches.

And I think probably everyone that you’ve interviewed has some version of just… love for what they’re doing.

Because we pour into it—more than some other occupations. Friends of mine, or siblings, or family members—they’re like, “Man, you are just… it’s all around you.”

And that’s love.

And I think for some people—they’re an accountant, and then they go home and they’re not an accountant anymore. That’s not my life.

And that helps me come to terms with it—yeah, it’s just all around me, no matter where I am in the world.

As far as my goals, for the program here at Michigan. There was a really famous coach we had here for football, Bo Schembechler. Back in the 1960s, he started a phrase: “Those who stay will be champions.”

I’m going into my third season at Michigan, and I want to stay. I want to see what we can do here. I want my players to come, and stay, and develop, and grow—and be a champion here.

And that can look a lot of different ways. But certainly, performance-wise, we’ll be chasing championships—no question.

But I want my athletes to leave and be champions in whatever they choose to be. There are so many pieces to that. But I think about that phrase a ton, and how it relates to why I’m pouring so much into this place.

Because I believe in that. And I believe that it can be done here. And in the kind of revolving door that is athletics at times, I really want to bring in staff and players who want to achieve that goal—together.

Team culture. Do you have any methods that you reach back to every new season? It's a big question, but you can take your answer wherever you want to take it.

I think it’s a really important question. And when you talk about culture, it immediately gets very big, because the culture of your program is in everything that you do.

It’s in everyone who’s part of it. It’s the athletes, the coaches, the support staff, the alumni, the prospective student-athletes, the recruits, the parents, even everyone who comes to camp.