Scott Mattera
Coach, Teacher, Consultant, Speaker, Curator of Ideas
Scott Mattera is the founder of Innovation Volleyball. He has been involved in club, high school, and college volleyball for 18 years and has built a reputation for high energy, innovative teaching that not only builds volleyball skills but focuses on the development of the whole person. Coach Mattera has several championships and coaching awards at all levels on his resume, but points to the relationships he's built and the lives he's been blessed to impact as his most important accomplishments.
While being best known for building the program at Concordia University Nebraska to national prominence and taking home GPAC coach of the year honors in 2015, he's always had a mind towards opportunity for all in the volleyball community. Innovation volleyball grew out of the work Coach Mattera had been doing for years to bring training options to kids whose multi-sport participation or small town location prevented them from participating the in national level lub scene.
The fall of 2018 presented another new opportunity for Coach Mattera as he agreed to join the volleyball staff at national power Bellevue University. In addition to his coaching duties at BU, Scott took advantage of his extensive network of friends in the coaching world by traveling to various programs around the country to observe practices and sit in on team meetings. His blog which can be found below, features several articles about visits to big time programs such as Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Creighton, and Nebraska. This article series has become very popular in the coaching community and was even picked up by the top volleyball website in the country, www.prepvolleyball.com.
Career Highlights:
Bellevue University Assistant (2018): Team nationally ranked most of the year, qualified for national tourney, multiple all conference and all region players include setter of the year Olivia Galas.
Concordia University, NE (2012-2017): 2015 conference coach of the year, team qualified for nationals for first time in school history and was ranked as high as #15 in the country. Multiple all conference, all region players and 3 honorable mention All-Americans; Jocelyn Garcia, Alayna Kavanaugh, and Claire White. 44 NAIA scholar athletes and team GPA above 3.5 every year.
Montreat College Assistant, (2011) Team qualified for nationals for the first time in school history. Multiple all conference players including tournament MVP Natalie Nieman.
University of Toledo Assistant (2010) Team upset #12 in the country, Michigan, and beat national power Creighton.
Notre Dame Academy (2005-2009) Back to Back City Champs and Coach of the Year. First District Championship in School History. 18 players got college scholarship offers in 5 seasons.
Club: Qualified numerous teams for nationals at levels from 12's to 18's.
A Big Couple of Days in the Big South! (Part 2 – Gardner Webb: Coach Leo Sayles)
“Networking” sometimes gets a bad rap in our industry. It can often seem smarmy and the adage that “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” can hold some truth when it comes to job hunting. Thus, the term “networking” often comes accompanied by an eye roll. But...
A Couple of Big Days in the Big South – Part 1: Winthrop University
"Networking" sometimes gets a bad rap in our industry. It can sometimes seem smarmy and the adage that “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” can hold some truth when it comes to job hunting. Thus, the term "networking" often comes accompanied by an eye roll. But...
No Badgering Needed For Me to Rave About My Time With Wisconsin Volleyball
Madison, you won me over! I had always heard good things about the capital city of Wisconsin, but I had never actually been there until I was able to spend 3 days in town hanging out with Badger Volleyball and exploring the city. I’ve been lucky to know Coach...
A Weekend With The Wolverines; Practice and Match Prep Observations
Full bias disclosure here - this place is special to me. Having grown up 30 minutes from Ann Arbor and being a lifelong Michigan fan who almost went to school here, coming back to spend some time with my friend Mark Rosen and the Wolverine volleyball program held...
A Doggone Good Day With the NIU Huskies!
When this idea to travel around the country observing and learning from other coaches began to coalesce, I sat down to brainstorm a list of programs and coaches I could reach out to. As anyone who has met him knows, Ray Gooden at Northern Illinois is one of the gems...
Eyes on the Buckeyes: Practice Observations at Ohio State
As a life-long Michigan fan who grew up a half hour from Ann Arbor, I feel a bit traitorous admitting that a sunny, 78 degree day during the first week of class on the campus of Ohio State was pretty special. Walking around the outside of St. John Arena and stopping...
My Day With the Creighton Bluejays
Fourteen minutes. That’s how long my first journey carried me to watch and learn from one of the best. Creighton University in downtown Omaha is just 14 minutes from my current coaching home at Bellevue University. This made for an awesome day of being in the gym in...
Journeys of Learning – What, Why, and Where
Coaching is an adventure and a lifestyle with unpredictable twists and turns. After some signifcant success at my previous college job, a hard luck year followed by a rebuild year that didn't produce the on court success we expected lead to me being on the outside...
Video Feedback in Practice is MUCH Easier Than You Think!
If you’re anything like me, you’re probably sick of seminars about tech in teaching or coaching. It’s not that you don’t believe in it, it’s just that learning one more new-fangled thing that may or may not actually be practical in a gym or classroom setting just...
Position Drama…
One of the biggest misconceptions among players and parents who are thinking about college recruiting is that the position they play in high school or club matters significantly to colleges…
Coach Mattera’s Blog