Rob Dyba won’t be calling his father Wally “coach” anytime soon—the former libero for the York Lions men’s volleyball team has taken over his father’s head coaching role. Wally occupied the position for 36 years, and he takes his sabbatical for the year.
Having played under Wally on the volleyball team from 2004 to 2008 and acting as assistant coach last season, Rob has returned to the court for the 2013/2014 season to coach the team. So far, the Lions have won three out of four league games, but Rob is hoping to keep the wins coming by looking to his father’s past successes and failures for some insight.
After studying his direction as a coach and working with him as an assistant, Rob says Wally’s most peculiar success as longtime coach was his attention to the basics.
“He always talks about the simple things,” says Rob. “When I was playing, the simple things were the boring things, not the flashy things. But as a coach now, I realize that when you do the simple things, that’s how you win. Winning is better than flashy any time of the week.”
A perfect example, Rob explains, is that a player should set the ball in the direction they’re running.
Wally would make his team do these mundane drills repeatedly.
“And of course, that would drive us all crazy,” says Rob.
According to Rob, Wally was well-organized with scouting reports and had an excellent ability to form team strategies and predict the opposing team’s plays during the match. He achieved this by cutting and splicing video from past games and presenting it to his team during “video sessions” held in Stong College where he would review sequences of key plays.
“I remember that final match [of the 2004-2005 OUA finals] against Western, the year we won, and thinking to myself, ‘Oh my god, I’ve seen this before. Wally’s shown us this,’” recalls Rob. “That’s definitely something that I’ve tried to take from the old man.”
While Rob agrees with Wally’s tactics and drills, he hopes to slightly change the culture Wally has created.
“Wally really believes you have a role on the team, and if there’s a starter who’s not doing his role on the court, there’s a guy on the bench who he has the confidence in to come in and replace that starter. I’ve seen that attitude work, and I’ve seen it fail.”
He says this approach puts the coach at risk of quitting on the team and makes the players feel like they’re not trusted. Instead, Rob favours the culture that his mentor and former University of Alberta Head Coach Terry Danyluk tried to create for his teams.
“Terry kind of says, ‘You guys are my stunning six, and I have faith in you until the end of the world, and that’s why you’re on the court,’” explains Rob.
For the most part, Rob says he’s a lot like his father, striving to maintain a professional coach-athlete relationship with the players on his team. But in difficult times, scuffles are inevitable, and often necessary, he says.
“I came home for one Christmas, the year after we won our OUA championships, and the team wasn’t doing well,” says Rob.
“He said something in the house when my mum was there, and I don’t remember what he said, but we started going at it, and my mum said, ‘If this continues I’m leaving, and you guys can lock yourselves in your room and hash out your problems.’ Other than that, we had a great relationship.”
But there’s one thing Rob says he tries to do differently from his father.
“He would always make stupid jokes that I would try to get myself away from. I’d be about to make some Wally-ism, and then I’d have to shut my mouth.”
Under Rob’s guidance the Lions have gotten off to an impressive 4-2 start, with their only losses coming to top ranked
Leslie Armstrong
Senior Staff
