Volleyball is one of the biggest sports in the Summer Olympics, known for its intense hand-eye coordination, strategic positioning, and focused gameplay. But there’s one more principle that sets volleyball apart—a principle shared by athletes across all sports. It’s a living mantra for players and Head Coach Jaison George of the Schoolcraft Women’s Volleyball Team: Never give up.

The fourth year head coach pushes his players to work hard and keep fighting by showing that passion himself. George started playing volleyball at the age of 13, and since then, he’s wanted to play anywhere and everywhere. “It’s an addicting sport,” says George. 

George’s career as coaching started at Troy High School, where he threw the ball for the players to serve it back. He transitioned to Michigan Elite Volleyball as the Director of Training. 

As a former volleyball player, he loved overcoming the challenge of mastering volleyball. The main lesson he learned was coordination and athleticism is very important for volleyball. His favorite position to play is both middle blocker or setter, because they remind him of the chess piece rook and bishop: “Strategic and positional pieces,” said George.

The team practices 6 days a week, every morning at 7:30 a.m.. They warm-up using the Trinity Elite Sports Center, where they work on Preventive ACL Warm-Up and Positional and Ball Control Warm-Up. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, they work with training coaches at the Trinity Elite Center, and on Fridays circuit training, a high intensity interval training.  

The team focuses on planning ahead for each game. For additional help, they watch recordings of their practice and games and George makes them write a weekly book report, where players go through the videos to answer his weekly questions about weaknesses he noticed when they played.

George bases his coaching and training like his mother. “She never took a day off, never had a selfish action,” said George. 

With her in mind, he pushed his team to go beyond their grit, and to be unselfish about it. Hard work and dedication, that’s what you can give to your team.

For his players, George knows how hard it is to juggle both school work and extracurricular activities. That is why he admires anyone who can do both. He understands that’s one of the hardest jobs in the world. With the studying and anxiety overwhelming throughout campus,  he wants volleyball to be the team’s passion and escape. 

George is very emotional and passionate when he is on the court practicing with his players, especially when the team is struggling. 

With the players growing and learning the game of volleyball, he doesn’t want to quit on them. He would exhaust every option to succeed, and if it still didn’t work, finds another way. Because being a coach is “constant puzzle solving,”said George.

George’s favorite moment this season was the culmination of all the small surprising happy moments that happened. 

After a long five years, the Ocelots were able to successfully take a set against their rivals St. Clair. Even though they didn’t win against them, they managed to do something that the past Schoolcraft volleyball teams couldn’t do. 

George is astonished at how fast freshman Katelyn Orlowski progressed, and understands her surroundings. 

“She was a huge plus that came out of nowhere for us,” George says. 

Another favorite moment of his was to see the sophomores grow into  leaders, figuring out how to get the first year players to respond to the leaders. 

Freshman Katelyn Orlowski started playing volleyball in 4th grade and she wanted to continue her passion all the way to Schoolcraft. Since her last year of high school volleyball career didn’t meet her expectations, she wanted to search for a better experience at Schoolcraft.

Before going to Schoolcraft, Orlowski didn’t know if she wanted to go to college or not. She originally wanted to study cosmetology, however  she chose to pursue volleyball with Coach George. She played volleyball with George at the Michigan Elite, and now plays at Schoolcraft with him, while  majoring in sonography.

Orlowski loves to learn from George. 

“Coach George is technical on skills,” said Orlowski. He is very attentive, even to the smallest details andalso crafts helpful drills to sharpen their skills. He does all of this with high confidence and energy, elevating the entire team to another level.

Sophomore Lillian Ribbens has also played since she was very young. Her passion started with her mom, when she “took her to play, and [she] grew a liking to it,” said Ribbens. Because of her mom, this is her favorite sport.

The biggest advice Ribbens had for the freshmans was to “understand that it’s a big workload, and it’s okay if you don’t have it together all the way.” She encourages them to ask questions, and take each challenge head on. She wants the freshmen to understand the hard work that Coach George puts them through, and understanding that is the very first step.

She also played for the Michigan Elite with Coach George, who she looked up to. His dedication and passion was influential to her then and now. “I don’t think I could’ve come here if he wasn’t the coach,” said Ribbens. 

The team ended the 2024 season 8-11 overall and 5-7 in the MCCAA conference, a vast improvement from the 2023 season which only saw three wins overall George continues to build around the “little things” to help make his players and team stronger with each season that passes.

For more information on the Volleyball program, go to www.schoolcraft ocelots.com.