Wads on the job

Stacia Leonard
February 16, 2010
Filed under Profiles

Stacia Leonard

Head volleyball coach Jerry Wadsworth-Berna (Wads) takes her job very seriously and is passionate about it. She has been the head coach at Kelley for 13-years and has led her team to 11 State Championships. Her ability to plan and encourage has made her a successful coach.

As head volleyball coach, Wads has many responsibilities.

“I basically oversee every aspect of the volleyball program from running practices to managing the games,” Wads said.

Junior Kitan Ajanaku, a starting varsity player for the team, describes one of Wads best qualities as “very well organized.”

With much experience in volleyball, Wads has a very prim and proper schedule carefully planned for her every hour.

“I usually takes notes when we are playing and take notes that we need to take key on in practice,” Wads said. “It usually takes me about two-three hours every day to plan practice.”

Even though practice is a lot to plan she still squeezes it in. “It becomes difficult during volleyball season because it is so short,” Wads said about making sure everything is in order for her volleyball program.

Wads is very proud of her 11 State Championships yet, she does not give herself the credit. With a group of about 52 kids and 100, parents the team has a lot of support.

“We are very fortunate that we have a lot of girls who play volleyball at Kelley but I think it’s not just the volleyball, it’s the parents support,” Wads said.

Being a coach is not always easy. Every coach does it differently. Some coaches yell, some slam their clipboard, and some sit in silence when angry at the team. Wads may do all of these but she has a theme while coaching.

“Everything we [herself and the other coaches] are doing is for the players benefit, and not for mine.”

Unselfishness is a hard quality to hold as a coach because they always want their team to win. Wads holds this quality because it is not about her, it is about the kids. Wads said when “[she] is being hard on them [the girls], they sometimes don’t understand it is for their benefit,” but she just wants the girls to improve.

With a small laugh, Kitan said Wads “definitely demands respect from her players.”

“She [Wads] pushes me to be my very best,” sophomore varsity player Inky Ajanaku said. “Her practices are very challenging.”

Yet, with these challenges comes much success. The last state championship Kelley won was just last season, the 2009 season. The Comets played Bishop McGuinness and beat them in three games. Wads said the feeling after winning this was satisfaction as well as exhilaration.

“Just the excitement of seeing how the girls celebrated. The first thing I did was just step back and watch.”

All of these championships have made Wads grown to love the sport.

“You know, I never anticipated I would be coaching volleyball because I never played volleyball,” Wads said. “Is it my favorite? Yes. I enjoy being in a lead role.”

Even though she loves the sport, she loves being around kids as well and claims her biggest success is watching girls “learn and discover about themselves when they play in a team.”

Wads confidently thinks next years team will be just as successful as all the rest.