106. Jamie Morisson: You don't know what you don't know.

Jamie Morrison has been the head coach of Texas A&M volleyball since December 2022 and has quickly revitalized the program.

In just two seasons, he led the Aggies to a 37-21 record, including a 21-8 mark in 2024 — the program's highest win total since 2019. At the same time, developing multiple AVCA All-Americans and All-SEC selections.

His impressive international resume includes three Olympic medals as an assistant coach — gold with the U.S. men's team in 2008, and silver (2012) and bronze (2016) with the U.S. women's team.

And leading the Netherlands women's national team to a silver medal at the 2017 European Championships. He also coached the U.S. U19 women's team, where he holds an unblemished 24-0 record and has won multiple gold medals.

Key takeaways from this article include:

1. Why "you don't know what you don't know" is the most important lesson for young coaches and how to embrace continuous learning at every stage of your career.
2. The false dichotomy of "no I in team" — why teams need individuals to bring their authentic selves to create true collective strength and unique team identity.
3. How to balance the art and science of coaching, recognizing that teams are living organisms requiring both technical precision and emotional intelligence.
4. How professional volleyball's transactional nature contrasts with college volleyball's developmental mission — and why that distinction matters.
5. The importance of being a "Chief Reminding Officer" — constantly reinforcing core values and vision throughout the season.
6. How sports psychology and motor learning aren't separate disciplines but deeply intertwined aspects of coaching excellence.
7. And so much more...

Enter Jamie...

Matias Raymaekers: Do you still remember the moment when you decided, I want to jump into coaching full time? What was your frame of thought there?

Jamie Morrison: Mine was actually the opposite, randomly. I vividly remember, I went to school at UC Santa Barbara. I tried to play volleyball and got cut. I was grateful and thankful that the women's team asked me to come and be a practice player at first, and then a volunteer assistant.

I remember walking around campus, and I remember exactly where I was. Our practice gym was here, I was also a teaching assistant, and that was over here. I was kind of in between, either walking to or from.

And I remember thinking to myself, "Who's going to want a guy that got cut from his team as the coach of their team?" I think to this day, every coach you could ever talk to, they're probably hiding it if they don't say this, but there's a little bit of imposter syndrome. I remember it vividly, being like, "I need to go with the business world."

I always tell young coaches, whenever they ask me about my path: Get really good at things that people can't live without, and put yourself in the best environment you can.

For me, that was learning Datavolley and being put in an environment where, I got done at Santa Barbara, the assistant I was working with Liz Towne-Gilbert changed my life. She ended up taking an assistant coach job at the University of Southern California. They called and said, "Hey, before you get into the business world, we'll pay for your MBA." And I was like, "I can't turn down a free MBA." So I went to USC.

Then a year later, someone asked me to talk to Hugh McCutcheon. That same skill set kind of put me in that position, and then it put me down this path. I knew I wanted to coach. It was this game that I love. It was mentoring young people to go be great at something and teaching them to love the game that I love.

I tell young people, whether it be volleyball or something else or coaching or some other part:

Find something that you love doing every single day. All of a sudden, work becomes this thing that's fulfilling and rewarding, not this thing that you're doing for money.

So it wasn't that I didn't want to do it. It was just this imposter syndrome moment of like, "Who's going to want me?" And I still have it every once in a while as I've coached around the world and done different things. It's, "Man, this has been really cool," but it's also...

And I'm going to go back to that beginning piece. If there's young coaches that are listening: You want to go get the best job sometimes, make the most money, or be at the most prestigious place.

But be at the place where you can learn the most.

I was really lucky at the beginning. In the early parts of my coaching career, I got to be around some of the great coaches, whether it be Kathy Gregory at UC Santa Barbara, Mick Haley at USC, and then being around Hugh and just the influx of people that came into that gym. I was just a sponge of information at that time.

Matias Raymaekers: For me, the first thing that comes to mind is that early-stage feeling of not knowing what you don’t know. That’s always a big one. Even now, but especially when you’re starting out, you just have no clue.

Jamie Morrison: No, and I think if I were to give any advice to anybody out there, it's that one: you don't know what you don't know.

Especially when you're young, you feel like you know it. But I tell this story every single time, I look back at the four-year-ago version of me, and I'm, "Man, that guy was stupid." It's just one of those things.

But even to this day, I think I've gotten more set in the way that I coach as I've gotten older, but I've also gotten more curious in the way that other people are coaching.

Just because I think when you're young, it's like, "This is the way to do it." And as you get older, you start to figure out, "Well, I did it wrong four years ago. I'm probably still doing something wrong now." And you start looking around for those things a little bit more than you were when you were younger.

Matias Raymaekers: If you could talk to a younger Jamie, what is something that you would tell him? What is something that he needs to know?

Jamie Morrison: I think it's "you don't know what you don't know." I think that's number one.

I was appreciative of where I was with the national team and everything around it, the learning that happened. I wouldn't be the coach that I am today without it. But I think I'd tell myself to be more open to that. To be in those situations and just understand that the people around you have been in these situations for a lot longer than you have.

Soak up all the information, all the decisions, everything that's happening around you. I think that would be number one.

Number two would be: balance the art and science of coaching.

I think there's two different sides of what we do. If you look at the science piece of it, there's motor learning, there's statistics, there's all these other things. If you look at the art of it, it's the motivation piece, the team dynamics piece. These teams are living organisms that you've got to mold into the thing that you want. Each one's different.

I think that's the other one. And maybe the other thing too is: each athlete's different.

When I was younger, I was 100% motor learning. We were trying to create things that all look the same. As I've gotten older, it's more of, each individual is different in terms of their motivations. Each individual is different in terms of their body mechanics or their mobility.

Two passers are going to have five things that are identical between them. But then outside of that, they're going to make passing, the skill, their own.

I think it's the individual piece, whether it be a human being or a team. Each one is different and unique, and you've got to coach them differently.

Matias Raymaekers: The question is about bad recommendations. What is stuff that's still going around in the coaching world and volleyball today that you're thinking, "Okay, why is this still happening?"

Jamie Morrison: I'm going to go non-volleyball first, and then I'm going to go volleyball.

The non-volleyball one I always say is, and this is just continuing what I just said, "There's no I in team." Actually, there are lots of I's in the team. And I think that's what makes teams unique, and each one a little bit different from another.

The fact is, they're all made up of individuals. And those people need to put themselves to the side, I get where the saying comes from. "Hey, you've got to put yourself to the side for the betterment of the team.

But I'm a big believer that each person needs to bring their best self before you worry about others on the team.

And then the second piece is just that, again, I've never coached two teams that were the same. Whether it be in college, where you get two or three athletes that cycle through, or the U19 United States National Team, where it's a different group of athletes every single year, at least every two years.

They're all different, unique organisms made up of 16 or 17 or 22 people, depending on how big your staff is. And each of those is unique and different. So I just think that piece from a coaching standpoint, each one's going to be different.

I also tell our athletes, "Bring your most unique self to this. You are what makes this team."

We talk a lot, and if you ask a question about other stuff, I wish I had learned the sports psychology piece. The best teams I've ever been a part of are the ones that are able to stay true to who they are as an individual and stay true to who the team is and what its makeup is.

I think as a coach, you're supposed to bring some things that each team you coach is going to do. But man, on the court, in those big moments, it's: Can I be myself? Can I be myself as a passer? Can I be myself emotionally as a competitor? Those moments are huge.

So "there's no I in team", I think there are. There's a place for it. But then it's: Can I quickly get past myself and put myself in a situation where I want to make this team its best?

Volleyball-wise, and I don't know if this is true in Europe, but I just hear "high elbow" a lot when it comes to attacking. And some of the most powerful hitters I've ever coached. If you look at Clay Stanley, David Lee on the men's side, they were roundhouse, their elbow was down near their butt. You've got to get power by getting that thing back.