When Britney Armstrong became Camp Verde High School’s girls volleyball coach, one of the programs that was already in place for that team and others at the school was “Character Matters.” Armstrong not only continued to use Character Matters, but now as her fifth season coaching the Cowboys is nearing its end, she calls it the “bread and butter” of the team.
At the beginning of each season, Armstrong and junior varsity coach Crystal Drake are given a workbook with a series of positive athletic character traits to give to the players in the program to work on — with the Cowboys taking on one a week. The girls focus on the trait not only on the floor during the week’s practices and games, but also in activities during practices and even away from the floor.
At the end of each week, the coaches pick two players — one from the varsity team and another from the junior varsity team — who they feel best demonstrated the word in question throughout the week, and those players are rewarded.
“I told them, ‘You girls all made this team because of your talent, but what’s going to keep you on the team is your character,’” Armstrong said. “Just like your job. You’re hired for your ability, but will be kept based on your character. Do you show up on time, do you work hard, are you a team player?”
Armstrong also enjoys seeing how much the players have taken to the program, as they’ll frequently ask her when during practice it will be worked on and what the upcoming words will be.
The players say they appreciate the program, understanding that it goes beyond just becoming better volleyball players.
“They talk about how this program will help us not only in high school, but after high school with getting along with people in jobs, becoming a mom and a wife, and just getting along with people better,” senior Ashlee Bueler said. “It definitely helps me now. Seeing other teams from other schools and seeing how they do — they don’t have this. They’re not talking about characteristics and exemplifying them. It definitely helps me now and will help me later.”
Sophomore Reagan Warren said that she carries the vaunted traits with her outside of the gym, too.
“I think about it throughout my whole day,” Warren said. “Like, if coach said we have ‘gratitude’ this week, I’m going to have gratitude this day and focus on it this week. And we can keep focusing on it through the season.”
Gratitude week was the first week of the year and was a slight deviation from the normal first word — attitude. Given all that has happened throughout 2020 and the fact that many other schools in Arizona and the rest of the country aren’t getting a chance to play at all this year, it was important to Armstrong that her players were grateful for having the opportunity to play at Camp Verde.
In addition to teaching the players good traits to work on throughout the season, players say the program has also served to better help them understand themselves as well as each other.
“It’s definitely taught me more how to bring my character up and be better at involving other girls — because it can be really hard to work with girls,” senior Tierney Schuh said. “It also helps when you’re working with other people. I like it. It shows what kind of characters people are, what type of personality they are.”
Among the words that the players identified as the most eye-opening has been “steadfast,” or consistent.
On the other end, they said they really enjoyed working on “selfless” and “confidence.” Schuh noted that the latter is especially important for a younger team, as confidence can be something underclassmen struggle with when they’re playing with, and against, juniors and seniors.
“Confidence is a really big one that I really like,” Schuh said. “No matter if you’re a freshman or senior, you need confidence. We’re a young team and it’s not difficult to tell when our team does not have confidence.”
One of the differences that the Cowboys have noticed between their team and their opponents is that even teams that are out playing them on the floor often don’t seem to bond well or enjoy themselves.
For Camp Verde, it can sometimes be the exact opposite, which is appealing to the players.
“I really like it,” Bueler said. “My coaches implementing this into our program really shows that they care more about us becoming good people than good players. They couldn’t care less if we were on the court and totally bombing and doing really bad — as long as we have good attitudes and a good outlook on the game and we’re having fun, that’s what matters to them.”
