A Face Full of Cake

Craig Skinner and Trinity Ward square off in an epic cake battle celebrating Skinner’s 500th career victory (Photo Credit UK Athletics/Kentucky Volleyball).

(LEXINGTON, Ky.) — Craig Skinner won his 500th volleyball match Saturday night, which apparently earned him the traditional reward reserved for legendary coaches everywhere.

A face full of cake.

Kentucky swept South Florida at Historic Memorial Coliseum, setting off a postgame celebration that included video tributes, family congratulations, and Trinity Ward being entrusted with the cake.

Bad idea.

“I was like, ‘Do I get to throw it in his face?’” Ward said.

She did.

Skinner retaliated, Ward claimed she was “tapping out,” and everyone eventually survived long enough to discuss a considerably more impressive accomplishment.

Five hundred wins.

“The 500 thing is not on my radar,” Skinner said.

Maybe it should be. Five hundred victories don’t happen accidentally, particularly at a place where Skinner wasn’t exactly inheriting a volleyball dynasty when he arrived 22 years ago.

He left Nebraska as a career assistant coach without really knowing whether he could successfully run his own program. He and his wife, Megan, came to Kentucky figuring he would see what he could build and perhaps move along after three to five years.

“They’re at the bottom,” Skinner recalled thinking. “Let’s see what we can do.”

So much for the five-year plan.

Skinner stayed, and somewhere along the way Kentucky volleyball went from trying to become relevant to becoming one of the programs everybody else recognizes.

The Wildcats now compete for SEC and national championships, draw large crowds to Historic Memorial Coliseum and receive invitations to the kinds of events that would have sounded preposterous when Skinner arrived. They’ll play UCLA on Wednesday and then face Penn State next weekend at Wrigley Field.

Those aren’t the opportunities Skinner inherited.

They’re the opportunities he helped create.

The interesting part, however, is listening to him explain how.

After Kentucky swept Utah State on Friday night, Skinner talked about the difficult week of practice that followed an earlier loss to Pittsburgh. He thought his team had gotten a little too comfortable.

“Comfort is the enemy of great,” he said.

So practice became decidedly less comfortable.

Skinner doesn’t necessarily believe the old coaching cliché that you play exactly like you practice. Players make mistakes. Execution isn’t always perfect. Some practices are ugly.

What matters to him is the effort behind them.

“I think you play to the effort you give,” he said.

A night later, after victory No. 500 and another sweep—this time over South Florida—Skinner offered an additional glimpse into a philosophy that has served him pretty well for more than two decades.

“Coaches are teachers,” he said. “As soon as coaches lose sight of that, that’s typically when they go off the rails.”

His players seem to understand that part of him better than anybody.

When asked what makes Skinner effective as a teacher, they didn’t talk about sophisticated volleyball strategy or championship-level motivational speeches. They talked about patience. They talked about his willingness to explain something differently when a player doesn’t understand it the first time. They talked about his consistency and how he shows up for them the same way every day regardless of what might be happening in his own life.

They also revealed that he makes a mean risotto and can apparently perform a backflip off a diving board.

I didn’t see either of those accomplishments listed in his official UK bio.

But the number 500 wasn’t what made Skinner emotional Saturday night. Watching the video tributes from former players did.

He remembered what those players were like when they first arrived in Lexington and, more importantly, the people they had become by the time they left.

“That motivates me more than wins,” he said.

Don’t misunderstand him. Skinner likes winning just fine.

“Wins are great, and championships are great, and we all are striving to do that,” he said. “Don’t let people kid you when they say they’re not.”

He’s simply learned that the best way to accumulate victories isn’t necessarily to obsess over accumulating victories.

Teach players. Develop them. Demand effort. Get an entire group of people, as Skinner put it, “looking down the same tracks at the same time.”

Do that long enough and apparently the wins start piling up.

Five hundred of them, to be exact.

Saturday night was supposed to celebrate everything Craig Skinner has accomplished during his 22 years at Kentucky. Instead, it may have provided a pretty good explanation for how he accomplished it.

And when somebody tells you to take off your glasses for a team picture while Trinity Ward is standing nearby holding a cake, don’t fall for it.

Dr. John Huang is a retired orthodontist, military veteran, and award-winning author. He currently serves as a columnist for Nolan Group Media and invites readers to follow him on social media @KYHuangs. His latest book is Whining for Posterity, available on Amazon.