University of Tennessee Athletics
Lear's Energy, Passion Back on Rocky Top
May 08, 2015 | Volleyball
May 8, 2015
By Kellen Hiser
UTSports.com
With feet stamping and fists pumping, she throws herself into celebration of the small victory, reveling in the accomplishment of the players in front of her. Not a bad way to cap the scrimmage portion of Tennessee's practice at the Joan Cronan Volleyball Center.
Displaying an unwavering energy and passion, Lear returned to Rocky Top in the spring of 2014 as an assistant coach and picked up almost right where she left off when she graduated from the volleyball program as a decorated setter in 2001. The fierce competitiveness that made her UT's all-time leader in assists at the time of her departure with 5,069 helpers, is the same one that has helped Tennessee Volleyball make tremendous strides during the spring season.
"I coach a lot like I compete," says Lear of her tenacious, often raucous style. "I'm very passionate, I'm very intense, but I'm also like a cheerleader. I'm super positive and I'll be the first one to tell you `great job.' But I'm also going to push you and push you and push you."
Rising senior setter Lexi Dempsey, who now has almost a full year under Lear's tutelage, echoes that sentiment, noting the augmented drive she has experienced since working with the former All-SEC standout.
"She's very positive," Dempsey said. "It's nice to have that positive voice out there for us. And she has so much energy. It definitely takes our competitive side up a notch because you see how into it she gets and then we're able to match that and add to it."
That infectious energy has come to define Lear not only in her time at UT, but in her previous coaching stops as well. Still a young coach with only two other college stops on her résumé, some might attribute this liveliness to the relatively few coaching miles she has on the odometer. But when speaking to the former AVCA All-Region honoree, it becomes apparent that her vivacity stems from an intense passion for the sport and for the pride she takes in her alma mater.
INSTIGATOR OF SUCCESS
When 18-year head coach Rob Patrick took over the Lady Vols back in 1997, he set about restructuring the program to match two priorities: creating a more athletic roster and establishing a winning culture. To meet these objectives, Patrick quickly centered his recruiting search around a prospect he believed to be an under-recruited, dual-sport star in Indiana.
A two-sport prodigy out of Columbus East High School, Lear excelled on both the volleyball court and the basketball hardwood. Despite being named a two-time All-American during her prep years, Lear saw little action from the top programs during her volleyball recruitment. At 5-9, some hesitation existed about her height and how she would compensate at the highest levels of the game. As such, she saw most of the interest come from mid-major schools. This stood in contrast to her basketball recruitment, which saw a handful of offers come from Big Ten programs who sought the services of the savvy, three-time all-conference hoops pick.
Despite the concerns of his colleagues, Patrick aimed to stymie the lure of the major basketball programs by making Lear his No. 1 prospect.
"She was my very first recruit and the most important recruit of that first signing class," Patrick said. "All she did was win. She took both her basketball and volleyball teams deep into the state playoffs, which is saying something in the state of Indiana. And then the club team she played [volleyball] for was always playing in the final four or final eight of all the big club tournaments. So the first thing was that she was a winner. The second thing was that she was an incredible athlete and we needed to get more athletic. The third thing was that she was a very, very good leader. She has a very strong mind. She was somebody who was feisty and we needed to have that in our program."
Patrick had little trouble wooing his prized prospect as Lear recalls falling in love with the University of Tennessee upon making her official visit.
"I knew a lot about Lady Vol basketball long before I got here for my volleyball visit," Lear recalled. "So I did my research and looked up what Tennessee volleyball was about because I wasn't heavily recruited for volleyball and Tennessee was the biggest name on my list. Once I got here I saw that the women's volleyball team was treated equally compared to the women's basketball team and the football team and I could tell that women's sports were important at Tennessee. I still haven't experienced that at any other school I've been to."
Lear was an instant fit in Patrick's system and she showed it on the court as she racked up over 1,000 assists in all four seasons on Rocky Top. With Lear serving as the ringleader in the center of the court, Tennessee's record and prominence in the SEC steadily improved over those four seasons, including a 23-10 mark during the 2000 season and a 16-11 clip in 2001 that served as a bit of a table-setter for UT's Final Four run a few years later in 2005. While Lear was eventually passed on the all-time assist list by Julie Knytych--another star setter who played from 2002-05 and filled Lear's role following her graduation--she remains atop the program's history in assists per set at 12.87 helpers per frame.
"She is the single greatest reason why we were able to turn the fortunes of this program around as quickly as we were because of her competitiveness, her ability, and her willingness to buy into Tennessee right away," Patrick said.
MENTORS ALONG THE WAY
With a stellar collegiate career and an English degree now behind her, Lear took her talents to Denmark where she competed professionally. She even won a Danish Professional League championship in 2006. During this time, Lear was back in the States often, volunteering her time at volleyball camps and even taking charge of an A5 Volleyball Club team in Atlanta. She coached her squad to a regional final berth one year and nationals the next, but even then the thought of making coaching her career had not yet planted itself in her mind.
Following the conclusion of her professional career, Lear set up camp in Atlanta where she started her own business. She continued to make in-roads at camps and at volleyball clubs, but after the death of a close friend she was prompted to go international for a second time. This time, Lear packed her bags for Seoul, South Korea, where she taught the English language for two years. When she finally returned stateside at the age of 30, she knew it was time to set her feet on a career path of lasting value.
"I wanted to give back to something that helped me so much," said Lear, recalling her initial decision to enter coaching. "I needed to start a serious career and do something that I love and give back to the sport that helped me get through so much."
The first step down that path was a stop in the offices of legendary Division III coach Jenny McDowell. Lear had known McDowell for some time, often helping with her summer camps at Emory University in Atlanta, and considered her a close friend and mentor.
"When I came back [from Korea] I met with Jenny McDowell at Emory and I said, `Jenny, I think I want to do this. I think I want to be a coach.'"
With no hesitation, McDowell welcomed Lear on as an intern for the spring before formally inviting her to become the Eagles' volunteer assistant coach in the fall.
A former assistant coach at the University of Georgia where she was also a three-time captain and has had her No. 16 retired, McDowell took the reins at Emory in 1996--the year before Patrick became the head coach at Tennessee. She has guided the Eagles to 18 consecutive appearances in the NCAA Tournament and 15 Sweet 16 appearances. She owns a 579-139 career record and claimed a national championship in 2008. Twenty-one All-Americans have flourished under McDowell's instruction.
"She was a setter and I learned so much from her in the times that I worked camps for her and then joining her staff," Lear said of McDowell. "Her passion for the game and the way she has a great relationship with her athletes--and she's so positive and energetic. She is exactly the coach I want to be like."
At Emory, Lear specialized in training the setters and middle hitters, helping the Eagles to a University Athletic Association championship and trip to the regional final of the NCAA Tournament. She coached four all-conference players, including three All-Americans.
COMING HOME
Inspired by what she saw day-in and day-out from McDowell, Lear began to realize her own passion and her own ambitions in the coaching arena. Having soaked up all she could from the Division III powerhouse, Lear wanted a shot to coach at the highest level of collegiate volleyball. So with the help of her friend and mentor, Lear set out to find a DI job and eventually landed a gig at the University of Memphis.
She spent one year with the Tigers before crossing paths with another one of her mentors.
"I was only at Memphis for a year and I came back to Knoxville to visit a friend and I reached out to Rob [Patrick] on a whim," Lear recalls. "He said, `You know, I actually want to talk to you about a position that may or may not be opening.' I was like, `Are you serious?' Just the thought of coming back to the place that really built me and where I could learn more under Coach Patrick and work with elite athletes in a program that I love was--I really have no words for it. It's like coming home."
It was nearly the recruiting process all over again, with Patrick reaching out to this young, but somewhat unproven dynamo that he believed had all the right tools to lift his program to the place he wants it to be.
"We wanted someone that really understood what Tennessee Volleyball is all about," said Patrick about his job offer to Lear. "She's one of the main people that actually helped establish our culture at Tennessee, so we wanted to bring somebody in who could identify with that and with our players both old and new. The other thing was that she's a very talented coach. She identifies and has great relationships with players and she's very knowledgeable about coaching, period. She had every item that we thought was important for a new coach coming in and she really fits that bill 100 percent."
Having found her way back to where it all began, Lear immersed herself in all the familiar surroundings of UT and set forth in helping to restore the program to its national prominence. Unsurprisingly, Lear was handed a specific responsibility to work with the Tennessee setters to go along with other duties like recruiting and film. Her transition to Tennessee was virtually seamless as she benefitted greatly from coaching under the same man that taught her so much all those years ago.
"It was really great coming in because I had been trained by Rob so we had the same verbiage and the same techniques and he felt very comfortable letting me just go in and train [the setters]," said Lear. "So that was the focus when I got here, just getting to know the girls and letting them know that I've been in their shoes having played for the same coach in the same program."
That buffer of familiarity has been big for the student-athletes working most closely with Lear as well, as it establishes a bond of trust in knowing that their coach knows exactly where they are coming from and how to relay instruction easily and efficiently.
"She's been through all the same stuff with Coach Patrick since he was her coach as well, so having her being now in a coaching position makes it a lot easier for her to relay information to us and it makes it easier for me to know what he expects of us and the different decisions we can make as setters," explained Dempsey.
Such expedited communication coupled with her unbounding energy is what has made Lear so instantly effective at the University of Tennessee. Onlookers throughout the spring remarked at new levels of efficiency and decision-making from the setters, a feat that Patrick attributes not only to Lear's astute teaching method, but also to her passion and competitiveness being instilled in all the Lady Vols.
"She's been working with our setters and they've been doing a really nice job of improving, but she took it to another level," he said. "She's been able to push them outside of their comfort zones and they've really improved even more dramatically because of that. She has a way to be able to push the players and get them to really understand that there's another level you can reach. Because of her knowledge, it's not like she's just flying around going, `hey, do this' and leaves it at that. She tells them what they need to change and what to work on and why."
For Lear, getting players to step outside that perceived comfort zone is what makes the coaching profession so rewarding. Each time a student-athlete accomplishes something that she didn't previously believe was possible, Lear knows that her guidance has become something of value in that it helped someone reach beyond their limits.
"When we start pushing them and they start being successful in the things we're pushing them to do, that's where the growth comes," Lear said. "You're just watching them grow and buy into what Tennessee Volleyball represents, and buy into the techniques and the training. They see that they're successful and that they're improving. Them believing in themselves in a way that they never had before is the best for a coach."
As novelist Paulo Coehlo said, "When you are enthusiastic about what you do, you feel this positive energy. It's very simple." Given the level of enthusiasm Erica Lear has brought to her second stint on Rocky Top, it may be safe to say that she is not in danger of running out of her trademark energy any time soon.
