Here's why Kelly Sheffield is (always) having a 'great morning'
Inside the Wisconsin volleyball coach's messaging, how he adopted it and what it means to those within the program.
It’s a Kelly Sheffield mantra that those within the University of Wisconsin volleyball team, and apparently some local area baristas, know very well.
Jada Cerniglia saw it light up on her phone the day Sheffield asked if the Northern Illinois transfer wanted to join the Badgers’ program, and freshman middle blocker Natalie Wardlow’s heard it since she met him as a recruit.
It all comes from a book written by a former Philadelphia 76ers president that’s become a staple of Sheffield’s routine for around 25 years.
“The year was 2000, and I read a book from Pat Croce that said, ‘I Feel Great and You Will Too!” Sheffield said. “And there was a line in there that he would tell people, ‘Great morning.’ And it just registered with me at the time.
“Why tell somebody good morning when you can tell them great morning?”
Sheffield said he “was eating up all of his stuff” in regards to Croce around a quarter-century ago, and its influence still continues to the present day.
Wisconsin associate head coach Brittany Dildine, a self-described “serial optimist,” didn’t know how to answer the question regarding her initial reaction to hearing Sheffield’s messaging. She compared it to why we drink water right after we wake up.
It’s also seeped into the speech of senior middle blocker Carter Booth.
“It's everything, and it's always been his thing since we got here,” Booth said. “It's, ‘How you doing?’
“The response is ‘Great’ from the team.”
Sheffield admitted those uninitiated can be caught off guard.
“Like if I'm walking through the hallway and somebody that I don't really know … and I'll say great morning to them or something like that, great afternoon, I'll get a double take at times,” the coach said. “Or a, ‘Yeah, it is great.’
“You know you hit on something when I was at a Starbucks probably a few months ago, and in the drive-thru and the cup that they gave me said, ‘Great morning.’”
For Wardlow and fellow freshman Madison Quest, it resonates positivity. Sophomore setter Charlie Fuerbringer thinks “it’s a reminder to be grateful for our day.”
Dildine said Sheffield’s most important job is creating an environment to allow people to do their best work, which he accomplishes for both players and staff.
“I would say, what it does is it invites me to be myself and bring my best self, and from the jump. Instead of demanding something that maybe I'm not, right?” Dildine said. “He'll maximize my strengths, and there are different strengths with each staff member that that's also elevated.”