CULLOWHEE, N.C. – As part of a summer internship, Western Carolina men's basketball rising redshirt junior guard Cord Stansberry sat down with several members of WCU's program and asked each a series of questions to allow Catamount Nation to gain better knowledge of members of the Catamount athletics program.
The first installment of Q & A with Cord is with WCU assistant sports performance coach John Williams. Williams has been with the Catamounts since June 2024, working primarily with men's basketball, volleyball, and women's tennis, while also assisting with the football program in the David & Marie Brinkley Athletics Weightlifting Facility.
Can you tell us a little about your background and how you got into strength and conditioning?
"I received my bachelor's degree in Sport & Exercise Science from the University of Central Florida (UCF) back in 2015. I originally thought I wanted to coach football. But after one season of volunteering with a local high school and a youth program, I decided that it wasn't for me. I then served as an intern for a private performance company located in Orlando, Fla., and ended up working for them for five years. While working for that company, I gained experience working with professional, college, high school, and youth athletes of all sports and cultures. I realized that during this time, sports performance was my calling."
How do you tailor your programs for the specific demands of basketball and volleyball?
"With all student-athletes I work with, regardless of whether it's basketball or volleyball, we put an emphasis and priority on movement literacy. Squatting, jumping, landing, changing directions, vertical movement, linear, lateral, all planes of motion, etc. This is a key fundamental aspect of athletic development. Both sports require strength and power development, but basketball places a greater emphasis on heavier strength development due to the contact and physicality experienced during competition. Their bodies must be prepared for high-force collisions.
Developing lean muscle mass is also more of a priority in basketball because your muscle serves as a natural 'body armor' and help protect you during collisions. Muscle mass helps absorb force during contact and can prevent injury.
This isn't that important in volleyball, so we don't spend as much time in a hypertrophy or muscle-building phase. Both sports prioritize shoulder care, but volleyball spends more time on that. Sprint speed, agility, and jump height are all crucial in both sports, so we use these as some of our 'key performance indicators' (KPI's). In both sports, you need to be mindful of ankles, knees, hips, and backs as these are common sites of injuries."
How do you balance strength, speed, agility, and endurance in your programs?
"I try to focus on a blend of all the qualities throughout the year. We place greater emphasis on certain qualities at different times of the year.
In the off-season of both sports, we focus on movement quality and foundational strength development. This lays the foundation and so-called 'base' of the house, or pyramid. We will also focus on sprint development for speed, but I tend to spend more time on that with volleyball because they receive less of that stimulus from their sport compared to basketball.
Hopefully, everything we do in the weight room helps our student-athletes sprint fast and change directions quicker on the court. Still, we spend time on landing mechanics, change of direction mechanics, and force-developing plyometrics to help prepare athletes for the forces they endure on the court. During the preseason and in-season, we focus on power development. During post-season play, we keep it light, move it fast, and get the student-athletes feeling right for peak performance."
How do you address injury prevention in your training plans?
"That's the name of the game. Injury prevention is not a separate training plan. Rather, it's incorporated into the whole system. We focus on movement and tissue quality – using foam roll, mobility, activation, pattern series, skips, etc. – all the time to help take care of our tissue and reduce injury. We perform isometrics year-round for tendon health. We manage the load, taking into consideration the volume of work the student-athletes are experiencing on the court to ensure we aren't overtraining them. I do my best to teach them how to land properly, change directions efficiently, and react quickly. We focus on a 'balanced' approach to training. Bilateral/unilateral, squat/hinge, push/pull, front/back/side, rotation/anti-rotation, all planes of motion, proprioception, coordination, etc., we all consider all things to make sure our student-athletes are well-rounded."
What are some of the most rewarding parts of your job?
"Working together with people to accomplish a common goal, coming together as one unit. Developing meaningful and lasting relationships with people. Helping young adults accomplish their dreams and desires. Using sports and performance as a vehicle to help people grow into greater versions of themselves. Helping people live greater and more meaningful lives."
