A woman with chin-length blond hair appeared on the screen for the U.S. women’s volleyball team. She spoke in analogies. She commanded a room, even a virtual one, like no other. She was a real spunky one, thought star player Jordan Larson.
“Who is this woman?” the four-time Olympian wondered.
Sue Enquist became the secret weapon of U.S. women’s volleyball. The UCLA softball legend joined the national volleyball team as a cultural consultant ahead of the Tokyo Olympics and helped the team lay the groundwork for winning its first Olympic gold medal.
Now in Paris, Enquist is bringing her leadership philosophies to help the United States win another Olympic title. Much of the team is still intact from three years ago, but Enquist’s coaching has helped reinforce the mindset that these Games, 17 days of three group stage matches followed by a whopping three knockout stages, are not a “defense” of the championship.
It’s not about being better than an opponent. It’s just about being “bigger than the moment,” Enquist said.
“It’s been the biggest benefit,” Larson said of Enquist’s influence.
After a 2-1 win in the group stage, the United States will move on to the quarterfinals against Poland on Tuesday.
Enquist knows all about national team success. She was part of the coaching staff that prepared the U.S. softball team to win gold in 1996 at the sport’s first Olympic tournament. But her five international gold medals as a player and three as a coach seem like a footnote compared to her illustrious collegiate career. Enquist, UCLA’s first softball All-American, was also the first person to win national softball titles as both a player and a head coach. The center fielder led the Bruins to their first national title in 1978 under the AIAW banner and went on to win 10 NCAA titles as a coach.
She retired in 2006 and passed the program on to her former player and assistant Kelly Inouye-Perez, who Enquist still considers her “greatest mentor in life.”
“She’s a natural leader,” said Inouye-Perez, who completed her 18th season at the helm of her alma mater.
Enquist immediately engaged the U.S. volleyball players via Zoom during the early stages of the pandemic. To stay engaged during the lockdown, the team participated in several sessions with prominent speakers including Billie Jean King, Julie Foudy and Sue Bird.
Enquist made the biggest impression.
Larson personally emailed Enquist after the session and asked if she would join the players on a private Zoom. She led the players through team-building exercises and asked them about one thing they liked about themselves as a teammate and one thing they could improve on. She didn’t ask about volleyball.
For Enquist, a student of UCLA’s legendary basketball coach John Wooden, culture starts with people. The mantra holds true whether Enquist advises professional sports teams, college teams or even corporate firms. She teaches it through UCLA’s master’s program in transformational coaching and leadership, where she designed the curriculum.
Enquist looks at the people in each team and observes how they interact. She then studies the system under which they operate and evaluates where they are performing. She facilitates relationship building by guiding groups through regular conversations.
In national teams, where players are the best in the world but rarely train together all year, building strong relationships is vital. Talent is never an issue, it’s about organizing the personalities to work together. Enquist, as she often does, has an analogy for that.
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“Ego is like gunpowder,” Enquist said. “When it’s packed and loaded and knows when to unleash it, it’s the most beautiful thing to see. If it’s not organized, if it’s not packed properly, you can blow a hand off. You can blow a team up. So ego is one of the most beautiful messes we have in sports. I like big egos, and the goal is how we organize when we let the egos fire.”
The “Sue-isms” that Inouye-Perez still uses with her team underscore UCLA softball’s culture nearly 20 years after the coach left Westwood. Her energy, which U.S. head coach Karch Kiraly said makes it feel like “every day is filled with sunshine when she’s around,” captivated U.S. volleyball players enough that they approached Kiraly about adding her to a more official role ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
Kiraly, the only person to win Olympic medals in beach and indoor volleyball and to win gold medals as a coach and player in both indoor and beach volleyball, thought it was a great idea. The coach’s willingness to seek feedback sets the tone for the team, Enquist said.
“It takes a really confident coaching staff and head coach to say we want these women to have a democratized voice,” Enquist said. “You get paid to win and you’re going to pass that culture on to the players.”
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Kiraly, in his third Olympic cycle as U.S. head coach, relies on a leadership council that includes Larson, setter Jordyn Poulter and outside hitter Kelsey Robinson Cook. Larson is in her fourth Olympics, and Robinson Cook is returning for her third. The two-time Olympian and top setter at the Tokyo Olympics, Poulter wears the captain’s bar on her jersey, as voted on by her teammates.
The right team has the talent to field multiple starting lineups at the Olympics, Enquist said, but success comes from how each individual balances personal achievement with selflessness. Only the best teams, with players willing to sacrifice for their teammates while also being ready for their own moments, can thrive in high-performance situations.
In that regard, Enquist says, the women’s volleyball team is one of the best teams she’s ever played on, even without her help.
“All I did was shed light on what they are and then shed light on how they wanted to build it,” Enquist said. “They did it.”
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
