WATCH: PV Volleyball’s Drew Dymond after victory over ES South
Dymond begins his succession from John Gesiskie with a win against East Stroudsburg South
BRODHEADSVILLE – Speaking at the Pleasant Valley volleyball banquet, Drew Dymond made a joke about John Gesiskie, who just retired after more than 30 years as head coach, saying, “I feel sorry for the poor guy who has to take over from that guy.”
It turns out the joke was on him, as he was slated to be the successor to lead the Lady Bears after the program had only one coach for more than three decades.
Irony aside, the idea of taking over for a coach who has over 500 wins and finished his career with an undefeated regular season is a tall order. Not to mention that this is Dymond’s first head coaching job. Fortunately, this hire came as far as a surprise: Gesiskie and Dymond have known each other for 15 years, and Dymond has been part of the volleyball program for 14 years, doing everything from leading the junior high program at two different times to serving as JV head coach before becoming the first-team coach.
“With all his help over the years, he really prepared me for this,” Dymond said. “Without him laying the groundwork for me, this wouldn’t have been possible. But he’s been preparing me for this for a number of years now.”
When Gesiskie knew his time was coming to an end, Dymond was at the top of his list for the next head coach, but it wasn’t just because of a positive relationship. Gesiskie witnessed the effort Dymond put in at the lower levels of the program, showing that he would be ready when the time finally came.
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“When Drew Dymond was one of my coaches when he was here on JV and also when he was in junior high, he would make the effort to come to practices and tryouts just to see what kind of tryouts and practices I would hold. And he would try to emulate those things and take what he could,” Gesiskie said. “He stood by me when I was coaching the varsity team, and he had very good suggestions when I asked, ‘Is there anything you want to add?’ And he would say, ‘Well, the girls need this and that.’ That’s important because the girls need to be able to hear not only from the head coach, but from other coaches who are listening.
“He had no problem taking the job. He had good information. He was my first choice and someone I had recommended for the position.”
The valuable element of continuity is that the returning players know who Dymond is, and even though it’s a position change, it’s easier than a person change.
“I know all these girls, I’ve coached them for many years, so I already had a relationship with them,” Dymond said. “That made the transition a lot easier, too.”
One of those players is senior Amiyah Poliseno, who has played for Dymond before. From her perspective, not much has changed.
“It’s not a big change, but of course he’s not the same person as Coach G,” Poliseno said. “So it’s a change, but the team has adapted to it. It’s worked well. The trainings have been good and things are looking good.”
Replacing a local legend isn’t the only point of contention: There’s also the fact that Pleasant Valley was 18-0 last season. Many of those players have graduated, so now Dymond must figure out how to lead a program with such high expectations.
“He just went undefeated,” Dymond said jokingly. “But this year it’s a new team, a new challenge and I think we’re all ready for it. It’s not an easy task to replace someone like John Gesiskie with over 500 wins, but it’s a challenge we’re looking forward to.”
There are a few returnees from last year’s team, most notably Rylee Ruggerio, who was an all-state player and strong hitter and is coming back for her junior season. And the team overall has embraced Dymond well as it gets used to his more relaxed approach.
And Dymond doesn’t have to do it all alone: Gesiskie continues to serve as a member of the school’s board of directors and is also on the list as a volunteer coach. But Gesiskie wants to make sure his successor has enough room to grow and develop.
“I told him that although I’m retired, I haven’t moved away,” Gesiskie said. “He’s contacted me a few times about different things. I try to help him with statistics stuff. But I don’t want to go too far to the point where he really needs me or wants me to get involved because I don’t want the kids to get the wrong idea.”
“Even after 30 years, I would still go to coaches and ask, ‘Hey, what do you think about this or that?’ Good coaches know that you’re never the best. There’s always someone you can just learn more from, and I think Drew understands that too.”
Now all that’s left is to play the games to see if Drew can develop into a diamond for the Pleasant Valley volleyball team.
