Ross Rosner considers himself lucky if he gets six hours of sleep.
He coaches the men’s club volleyball team, works full-time at a staffing company in Center City and is currently rebuilding his entire house.
“I don’t sleep much,” Rosner said. “I don’t have a lot of free time, but it’s OK. I like being busy.”
Before becoming the team’s first coach, Rosner, 36, played on the team for two seasons as a graduate student as he worked toward his master’s degree in strategic management. He graduated from the Fox School of Business last December. Rosner became the coach in September 2017 after his former teammates asked him to take on the role.
“I knew there were things I could do to help them out,” Rosner said. “After joking about it, it became not a joke. Then, I became a coach.”
“Day one, I knew what they were good at and weren’t good at,” he added. “I knew their mindset and all of their personalities. It had been almost like I was coaching them for two years before I actually stepped into it.”
Club President and senior setter Jake Reynolds said he has fewer responsibilities since Rosner became coach. Last season, Reynolds had to create the lineups and run practices. Now, Rosner has taken on those duties.
Reynolds’ tasks this season are “more clerical,” he added. He schedules matches and manages finances, fundraising and tournaments. But Rosner still seeks Reynolds’s opinion on in-match strategy.
“He can have all of the say he wants in the lineups because he knows the game very well,” Reynolds said. “He’s a very well-rounded coach and has played for so long. It’s nice that he still collaborates with me and still gives me the input to see my perspective on the game.”
Rosner made significant changes to the team. He modified the way practices are run and implemented a different offense and defense.
Rosner’s presence as coach has also allowed Temple to have an “A” team and “B” team instead of just fielding one squad.
Club Vice President and senior middle hitter Tyler Phifer said having a coach gives the team more structure. Rosner does so by having the team work on a more diverse set of drills and calling players out whenever they make mistakes, Phifer said.
Players often did not realize the mistakes they were making before Rosner became coach, he added.
“We would just do whatever we wanted,” Phifer said. “[Rosner] brings some order to the team and some discipline as well. He can take us to the next step.”
Reynolds said Rosner has been able to help the team more as a coach than he did during his two years as a player because of his perspective.
Before playing for Temple, Rosner played club volleyball for four years as an undergraduate at the University of Maryland until he graduated in 2004.
While with Maryland, he traveled to play in Saint Thomas, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Rosner also represented the United States at the international Maccabiah Games every two years from 2011-15 with Maccabi USA, an organization for Jewish-American athletes. Rosner played for Maccabi USA in Brazil, Israel and Chile. Rosner has also been a chairman of Maccabi USA Volleyball since 2015.
Even though Rosner has taken over as coach, he maintains that the players still have full control.
“If they want to be the fun team, then I’ll coach them like the fun team,” Rosner said. “If they want to be the team that goes out and wins every match, then I’ll coach them that way. I hold them accountable to their goals.”
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