For coaches Jackie Bunker and Adrian Chang, the key for Arcadia volleyball is not to expect success. It’s to mentally prepare for it.

That’s where “Ms. Mandy” comes in.

The players meet with Mandy, a mindset coach, for the first 20 minutes of practice on a weekly basis. It allows the team some time to decompress and straighten their heads for practice. Bunker and Chang take over from there.

At a recent practice, the main theme was dealing with stress.

To start practice, Bunker has her team lay on the court during stretches and close their eyes.

She tells each player to visualize what it feels like to win, to have the sense of accomplishment and to focus on that feeling. She tells each to repeat the activity before bed or at some time during the day.

For Bunker, the goal is to not only improve on the court but in all aspects of life.

“Everyone knows how to pass, serve and hit the volleyball,” assistant Chang said. “A big thing Jackie brought into the program was focusing on mindsets. What you can do both in the gym and outside of it.”

Bunker and Chang constantly stress the need for players to get enough sleep, to eat correctly and make smart decisions.

The two also teach mathematics at Arcadia.

After finishing his student teaching at Arcadia two years ago, Chang joined the staff as a geometry and algebra teacher. When Bunker realized his passion for volleyball, she offered him the chance to join her staff.

“Our nickname is Jackie Chang,” Bunker said of the bond they share.

And because Chang is an math teacher, he has a knack for focusing on the statistics from games and relaying the information to Bunker.

Chang is the statistician during games. He then watches the team’s game film and discusses with Bunker as to what is working and what isn’t.

“Being a huge math nerd, I’m very much a numbers guy,” Chang said. “We take a lot of stats and by looking over the numbers it can show what actually happened as compared to in the heat of the moment.”

After spending her first season at Arcadia without an assistant, Bunker was happy to have Chang join the staff.

“We get along really well. We hang out too much sometimes and start to become similar. But because we both teach and coach together there’s definitely a lot of respect between us,” Bunker said.

The bond between the two is clear to their players.

“We all love them. We always hang out with them at lunch and they constantly spend time with each other,” said junior Jaclyn Reid. “But they always make sure that when we get to practice we are focused and ready to play.”