Mark Dodds and Shelley Chalmers both played volleyball professionally for Team Canada. Now, the married duo share a spot on the Saskatchewan Huskies women’s volleyball coaching roster.
“We have similar personalities, and we both approach the game as players very similarly,” Mark Dodds, who is the head coach of the University of Saskatchewan varsity program, said.
“It’s very cool to see that amount of knowledge in one couple, and they’re able to translate that to when they coach us, which is awesome,” Emily Humbert, captain of the 2016-17 team, said.
Shelley Dodds began assistant coaching with the Huskies four years ago, but has only been coaching with her husband for three.
“We’ve managed to get used to each other, which is good. This year is probably easier, and I’m probably more opinionated with him,” Shelley said.
But sometimes, it’s been tough love.
“If I think he’s doing something that I don’t agree with, I might tell him that. Whereas I can’t tell someone else, ‘you’re being an idiot,'” Shelley said with a laugh.
“Disputes, or arguments, or whatever you want to call it, sometimes they get heated because we’re both pretty passionate about the game of volleyball. In the end, we definitely come to an agreement and move on,” Mark added.
Both admit they contributed different strengths to the team, and the players agree.
“Shelley was a middle and (Mark) was more of a leftside so he helps with the passers, leftsides, and she helps with the middles,” former libero Jennifer Hueser said.
Marguerite Ferguson blocks in the middle for the Huskies, and said she’s learned so much from the former University of British Columbia Thunderbird.
“She’s such a respectable coach that I look up to her so much. What she says I take to heart and I want to make her proud in a sense,” she said.
“They talk to her a lot about different things than they talk to me about,” Mark admitted. “To have somebody like that, who’s played the game before, is pretty huge.”
With two experienced and poised coaches leading the team, is it possible the athletes play favourites?
“I want to say Mark, on the court, but we all also have Shelley on this shoulder that we listen to as well. I can’t say, or else I’ll be benched I think,” Humbert said laughing.
Mark knows it’s easy to get carried away and bring too much business into the personal side of life.
“We’re pretty good at keeping the volleyball side from the personal side, but we talk about volleyball a lot,” he said.
Shelley disagreed. “Sometimes too much, I do have to tell him to stop at times if I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
The tandem are currently in their third year as a married coaching duo, and there’s no sign of the romance ending in the near future. In Shelley’s words, “til volleyball do them part.”
“You take it one year at a time, but when I think about walking away I told him, ‘he can’t fire me.’ That will have to be my decision, he can’t get rid of me, because I don’t do it for him.”
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