New Paltz, NY — Since Aug. 1, long-time State University of New York at New Paltz women's volleyball coach
Matt Giufre has served as the head of the Hawks Athletics. Giufre took over the position after Stuart Robinson, the face of the department for more than two decades, stepped down as Director of Athletics, Wellness & Recreation to take the same role at New York University.
Giufre had the opportunity to spend six weeks shadowing Robinson before his departure, easing his way into the position with the help of Associate Director of Athletics, Wellness and Recreation
Brian Williams assisting him along the way. Giufre, who is the winningest coach in SUNY New Paltz women's volleyball history, with three conference championships, six State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Coach of the Year accolades and one American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-Region Coach of the Year honors to his name, stepped into the position as interim director for the 2020-21 academic year until July 1. During his time as interim, he has dealt with a myriad of obstacles stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 18-year tenured coach will hold his interim status for just this year before going back to being a full-time head coach. Giufre took time out of his busy schedule to sit down with the Athletic Communications Office and talk about his experience as Interim Director thus far, how he has persevered through the obstacles the College is facing as a whole and how he has balanced his new responsibilities, while still having his role as head women's volleyball coach despite the fall season postponed for 2020.
Interview was conducted on Sept. 1, 2020.
Continuing reading for the full Q&A:
How has the transition been from coach to interim director?
It's been busy, but a different busy. As a coach, you are constantly dealing with the coaching side of things, interacting with players, planning for practice, scouting film, preparing for games, speaking with recruits, speaking with alums, all those different constituents, and now it is a similar business but on a bigger level. It is trying to be attentive to staff, trying to be attentive to different campus offices and a lot of ways you come in with a plan of what you want to get done that day and different things happen that kind of force you to deviate from that plan, again not much different than [coaching] happens to be. It is very busy. I certainly feel like I'm in season with that 24-7 mentality and just trying to be as attentive and responsive to things as I can be, because I also know if the staff has questions or needs something they want a timely response. So just trying to coordinate all of that is a challenge, but it is similar to what I would do in season, just as a different level of professional and a different level of expectation.
Taking over as an interim director can be a hard transition let alone during a pandemic. What was your game plan on taking on those challenges when you first were asked to step in to this position? Was there any hesitation because of those obstacles?
No, I think there would have been hesitation if COVID and these things did not exist. Because I love coaching and I love my team and I know that taking on a new responsibility would have made it virtually impossible to be totally attentive to them, certainly to the degree that you need to be in season. I would have been their number one fan and been supportive of the women's volleyball players, but I would have missed the daily season grind with them. I think because with the uncertainties at the time of what was to come in the fall and knowing that nothing looked as usual, it actually made it a little bit easier to strongly consider this opportunity.
I think the two other things that was key was, I had a chance to come in to work for a couple weeks while [retired administrative assistant] Jeanne [Quenzer] was still here and learn about some of the things in her job that she was doing, and then I had six weeks with Stu and many of them also with [Associate Director of Athletics, Wellness & Recreation] Brian [Williams] to ease my way in to go from kind of an observer, to a tag-team, to taking more of the reins the last two weeks [Robinson] was still present in the building, so that made things a lot smoother as well. I think one of the other saving graces was kind of, you can't look back and say, 'how did they do it last year,' or 'what was it like last time we were in this situation?' There is no playbook for this. So we are all just trying to communicate and be thoughtful and thorough in decisions and be as adaptable as we can, which again, is not really much different than coaching a team. You never know if a player gets hurt or sick, the opponent does something different — you have to adapt on the fly and use your experience and best judgment to do that. I'm trying to take the same idea to this role.
"You can't look back and say, 'how did they do it last year,' or 'what was it like last time we were in this situation?' There is no playbook for this. So we are all just trying to communicate and be thoughtful and thorough in decisions and be as adaptable as we can, which again, is not really much different than coaching a team."
How has the balance been taking over this role, but also still being there for your team especially your incoming freshmen?
That has been the absolute toughest part. My days are consumed with the AD role, even sometimes into the evenings and weekends, and unfortunately the team has come second to that. I have made it a point and I am almost finished with having a conversation with each of the freshmen to see how they have settled in, and others by text message and group messages and things like that. I think now the semester is underway, the building is open, we have a plan in place with small group training, I will be able to give more attention to the volleyball program because we are not spending time on plan A, B and C based on the uncertainties of what the semester might look like. So I do look forward in re-engaging with them within the next week or so and making sure that part is a bigger part of my life again.
Have you relied on your juniors and seniors to take on more of a mentoring role than normal because you don't have the time you normally would?
Yes, but some of that was already built in before any of this even happened in terms of out-reach with the new players and between seniors and incoming freshmen, which happened quite awhile ago. Our sophomores really did a lot over the summer to connect with the new players. The team, over the last number of years, has really taken that on with or without my direction or oversight. It is just something that culturally we are really proud of. I always tend to trust them to do the right things and understand why they're here and what they've come for to begin with, so I think some of that helps as well. But, the team over the years has been great at keeping tabs on each other, supporting each other, calling each other out if we are not doing the smartest things and just being very respectful and proud of what we are about.
You have such a solid group of four-year seniors on your team that have been leaders and helped the program win a conference championship back in 2018. Over the summer how difficult was it to have the conversation at first that you weren't going to coach them, and then having the even more difficult conversation later on that their season unfortunately wasn't going to happen this fall?
The first call about my opportunity and ultimate choice to take on this opportunity, it was tough and it was emotional, but the team and many individuals followed up shortly after and I couldn't have been more grateful for how supportive they were. They looked at it as an opportunity for me to grow professionally, and something that doesn't come around all the time and one of those things that I would encourage them, 'give it a shot.' They did the same with me. It couldn't have been more heartwarming the level of support that I got. One of them I talked to she said, 'this is something that you would expect me to say yes to, so how could I not want the same for you? I'll look back at this some day down the road when an opportunity comes up for me that I wasn't quite looking or prepared for, but seems like a great opportunity and I'll look back and say, 'you know what coach did it, I can give this a shot too.'' That meant the world to me.
The Zoom call with the suspension of the competition season was much worse, because as much as I would selfishly would loved to have coached the team this fall, more importantly, I wanted to see all of the athletes playing. All of them in full practices, all of them in competition, all of them doing what they love to do, whether it was women's volleyball or any other fall team that we have. When it's a call about, 'you are going to be able to play, but I am not coaching you,' is much different and easier to handle than the call that said, 'actually now your season isn't going to be what you know it and competition is not happening this semester.' That was far worse, because the first one was about a change in my career temporarily, but I could still have similar relationships and interactions with the team. The second one was far worse because that was about their career. I've had some follow-up conversation with the season afterwards and just tried to re-enforced to them how much they've meant to our team and meant to me. Again, a lot of the responses were they wanted four years, but they were appreciative of the time that they did have. When we talk to them as recruits we [say], 'we think you'll have four years, but it is never a guarantee, so lets put everything we have in each individual year.' and it seems like they feel like they did that and I couldn't be more proud of them for that.
How has your opinion of the AD job changed from how you originally saw it from the outside looking in and now actually filling that role?
I think like every profession you don't truly know what it is all about until you're doing it. I've talked to some other AD colleagues over the first couple months, including Stu and they just kind of said, 'you know I go to work, get into the office at 8 a.m. and leave sometimes 5:30- 6 o'clock and I get in the car and I think to myself, 'what did I even do today,' but I barely had time to grab a sip of water then much less anything else.' I didn't know what to expect completely. I knew I was going to be busy, I knew I needed to be responsive, I knew I had to be thoughtful in anything that we were doing, but I guess it's not that my opinion has changed as I have a better appreciation of what it is all really about.
You've been coaching for a long time, was working in administration something that you wanted to do at some point in your career or was it just an opportunity that came up that you didn't want to pass up?
I never got into coaching for the purposes of moving "up" in administration. I always got into it because I loved coaching and I loved the interaction with the student-athletes and being apart of their lives and their experience. But, in saying that there were times where I would think to myself, 'what is it like to be an administrator? I wonder what that's really all about. Is that something I would be interested or should be interested in?' But then I let it go and I never did think about it again. So when this opportunity came up, this was a chance to check it out and see if someday if it was for me. Again, my heart is still with the team as their coach. I looked at it as an opportunity to serve our department and all of our coaches, student-athletes and staff in a very challenging time, learn more about what the administration role is like and the countdown was on from day one. If I happen to fall in love with it, then I can put it in my back pocket for a later time and if I hate it, then I just got get to July. Either way I am going to give everything I have to do the best possible job I can in the months in-between, because that's just how I go about things. It was kind of the perfect storm, perfect timing opportunity that someday down the road this was for me. Like I've told anybody that asks, I love coaching too much to completely walk away from that.
I know that you're only a couple months into the job, but are there little experiences or instances that you'll take with you when you go back to being a full-time head coach?
I have a better appreciation for how important clear communication is. We, in the coaching field and even our student-athletes, talk to each other in a way that is easy because we all know what we're talking about. But when you are working with others who aren't in the athletics realm day-to-day, there is a different educational and thoroughness piece to the communication to make sure everyone is on the same page. Similar to that, when other people on campus are working with me, because I'm not first-hand in their field, they've been great with me with fully explaining and helping me see and understand why certain information is important. I think that is going to be huge when I am coaching again, because it is a lesson on even if you are speaking with people who you think are in the know that could lead to general assumptions and communication that isn't as clear as it could be. I look forward to using the understanding of that skill to my benefit when I get back with the team or continuing amongst our staff when I'm not in this office at some point.
In terms of little instances and stuff, nothing really stands out, but I can tell you it was a really exciting day [Aug. 26] when the county inspector was here and there was just little pieces we had to take care of and we were able to open the building on Friday and start functioning as a Athletics, Wellness and Recreation Department. That was really exciting and it was really exciting to have the inspector here and realize that about 98 percent of the pre-planning was on point and there were just minor signage and things like that we had to correct. That was pretty cool. It almost felt like a win. And just starting to see engagement happening is something really special. We'll see what today and tomorrow brings.
What has been your favorite part about the job so far?
I've gotten to work with a lot of other people on campus that I never would have otherwise crossed paths with in so many other departments that coaches don't engage with because the department's administration is the next step forward. Not just people within our division of Student Affairs but I am talking about College wide. The level of patience they've had and the level of out-reach and support they've had in wanting to see me and therefore us be successful this year, and be good in our work, has absolutely been wonderful and I made that comment to my boss recently. I have worked with people that I might have otherwise not have known if we passed each other on the sidewalk. They've been more accommodating and helpful that I could have imagined and I think that just speaks to the type of people that works at New Paltz, regardless what building or office number they have. Just the type of people that are here has been really, really something that I will always appreciate.
What kind of mark do you want to leave for this year and did you set personal goals for yourself with having this interim status until July?
I purposely chose not to set personal goals until I had a better sense of what the job entails and now that I do I think it might be wise still to not set any goals because of how fluid of a time that we're living in right now. I think at the end of it, if the staff can say that I was consistent, that I was fair, that I kept us moving forward and I treated them right, then it has been a good year. I think if the students who take advantage of our programming and the student-athletes in our department feel as though we gave them the best experience we could given all of the perimeters and circumstances that we are working under, then I would chalk it up to a good year.
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