Gwitt Gearing Up For Debut Season With Miami Volleyball

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Dan Gwitt hit the ground running.

When the fifth head coach in Miami Volleyball history met his players for the first time in early February to introduce himself, it didn't take long for the RedHawks to get to work.

"We literally had practice that night," Gwitt said.

"Most coaches show up, hire a staff and then they go," he added. "I wanted to go."

And while it's been a whirlwind for Gwitt since day one, including finalizing a roster, hiring assistant coaches, updating the locker room, building a culture and finishing a schedule, he is ecstatic about where things stand for the program heading into his first season at the helm.

"You couldn't have signed up for a better spring with a new team…I give them an A-plus," said Gwitt. "There were ups and downs, but by the end of the [semester], to their credit, we were a well-oiled machine. Not only were we still competing hard and doing everything I've asked them to do, but it was very organized.

"The gym sounded and felt and looked like what I wanted it to be way faster than I could have imagined." Volleyball Huddle

"The first time we met him, right after that meeting, I was like, 'This is going to be awesome,' said outside hitter Raegan Lantz, one of a dozen returners on the Miami roster. "His vision, his confidence, his consistency –what he was telling us and what he was telling other people— was just a really big thing for me.

"Overall, how much he wants to win and how much he wants us to get better just made me really excited and starting to buy into what his process was.

"I think everyone else on the team was the same way."

The momentum from a fresh start for this latest chapter of Miami Volleyball carried over into Gwitt's recruiting, as he set out to find the newest RedHawks (including multiple Power Five transfers) and fill out the 2024 roster.

"It all kind of came together, and I give the biggest part of the credit to our players that were here in the spring," Gwitt explained.

"They're ultimately the ones, when you have recruits on campus, that are going to say, 'Hey, it's great here. We love it!'

"This school's amazing. The campus is amazing. It's fun. It's beautiful. The volleyball part of it now, I think, is re-energized. And our student-athletes were over-the-moon great with the people that walked onto this campus."

The result? Gwitt will enter his debut season in Oxford with plenty of talent at his disposal, or what he calls, 'a roster I was hoping for two years from now.'

"I think it's going to bring another whole level of competition into our gym in practice, and having that competition in practice is absolutely vital to be able to compete hard when we're playing other people," Lantz said.

"I really think people are going to be shocked by who we are and what we can do."

Gwitt's pitch to each recruit has been simple: While you're never going to be guaranteed a starting spot, you have to believe in yourself to come and win the job.

"You have the opportunity, but you have to go do it," he said. "If you're good and you're going to help the team win, you're playing. Let there be no gray area: I. Want. To. Win.

"I want this program to win, because internally, I know that it makes everyone happy. But I draw the line at being a good human. 'Winning at all costs' is not the mentality, but the best players should play, as long as they're doing all the right things."

The culture that Gwitt is implementing (and also striving to model himself as a leader) can be boiled down into two straightforward ideas: Being honest and treating people well.

"Ultimately for me, it's having the right people in the program," Gwitt said. "Yes, you have to be (baseline) good at volleyball and athletic and competitive. [But] I need the right-minded people.

"I want people that want to be professionals. I know not every person is going to go on and play pro volleyball, but I want them to work like that. I want them to think like that. I want them to act like that and live that lifestyle because they have high-aspiration goals. And [then] the non-negotiable on this team is telling the truth and treating people the right way."

Those same characteristics were crucial for Gwitt as he began assembling his coaching staff. "Hiring the right people is the tough part: That's why I took my time," he said. "I hired good humans, number one…and then the volleyball part was number two for me.

"Maybe some people do the opposite, but I needed people that I can trust."

With assistant coaches Kristina Fultz, Amanda Chamberlain and Haley Davidson in place, Gwitt is confident he found what he was looking for.

"They're going to do right by the girls on the team…and they're people that I think the girls on our team can connect with and aspire to be one day," said Gwitt. All three assistants are former college volleyball players themselves, with Fultz also having head-coaching experience at Baldwin Wallace University. Chamberlain is a former club player of Gwitt's during his time in southern California, while Davidson's mother coached for a club Gwitt ran in Indiana.

"I had a good sense of them…and I think they're going to work well together and have fun, which is important," Gwitt said.

Having fun is part of what Gwitt hopes Miami Volleyball fans will notice when his team takes the court at Millett Hall this fall. He has preached to his RedHawks, both the veterans and newcomers, how much fun it is to be part of a winning team –something he has first-hand experience with from his days as a student-athlete with the men's volleyball program at Penn State (including a trip to the Final Four).

"I didn't play that much," Gwitt remembered. "But the team was good. And I loved my time there. And I understood that was more important in the long run... Miami Volleyball coach Dan Gwitt

"That's why I have empathy for every [person] on the team. Whether you're not playing that much, or you're the best player on the team, you matter."

As Gwitt leads the Red and White in pursuit of the program's 13th regular-season MAC title and eighth MAC Tournament crown, one of the most important adjustments he thinks will help the RedHawks improve their win-loss record from 2023 is a focus on expecting to win. "There are two types of teams," Gwitt said. "Some go into matches and say, 'Oh, gosh – what's going to happen here? And the other team expects to win…

"Our expectation is to win, and that was the one thing I asked the team to do."

That self-belief that Gwitt is instilling in the RedHawks is part of the vision he's laid out since his first day on campus, and he hasn't wavered from it once.

"I don't think it's going to happen. I believe it's going to happen. And I will work tirelessly to make it happen," he said. "I know it will happen. And I won't allow it not to happen…

"If you put in the work and you believe in yourself and you're doing things the right way, you are going to win."

Yes, winning is fun– and with the 2024 season just around the corner, it looks and sounds like a Miami Volleyball program that already owns more than 900 all-time victories is on track for quite a few more.

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Gwitt Gearing Up For Debut Season With Miami Volleyball

Players Mentioned

Raegan Lantz

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