At home it's all about his fiancée, and at work it's all about his brothers and nephews.
The Penn State volleyball team is all about family, and the players have a new uncle this season in Jay Hosack, who was hired in the offseason by head coach Mark Pavlik as the team's new assistant coach.
"Pav has always been Pav," Hosack said. "He's gonna get upset every once in a while, but guys know he's kind of the father figure. He's kind of the caretaker of the group. That's his position. So you kind of need the uncle, who I'll call myself, who's gonna stick his foot up your ass every once in a while."
The coaching staff sees themselves as brothers, and when Craig Dyer left last season to take a similar position with the women's team at Marquette, Pavlik and assistant Colin McMillan opened up a search for the right person to add to the family.
Pavlik said about 30 candidates contacted him about the position, but Hosack was the one.
The 40-year-old served as an assistant coach for the UC-Irvine women's volleyball team last season, and he was an assistant coach for the U.S. men's national team from 2005 to 2008.
"We were looking for somebody that could come in that could really mesh well with Collin and I, mesh well with the guys," Pavlik said.
Pavlik and McMillan said Hosack got lots of positive endorsements from their connections in the men's volleyball community, and after talking to him, they knew they wanted him.
The trouble was getting Hosack to come to central Pennsylvania from southern California. McMillan said it was like recruiting him, but it didn't take much effort.
"Once I got out here it wasn't really a matter of me wanting to be here," Hosack said. "I think professionally it was a no-brainer. It was really about my fiancée, and could she make the move with me."
Stephanie Rae, Hosack's fiancée, said she didn't think anything of it when Hosack came to Penn State for an interview. Then, the call came.
Hosack called her and asked how she felt about moving to Pennsylvania. She said she'd love it, and she loved the area when she came with him for the second interview.
Having Rae on board convinced Hosack it was right for them, and he accepted Pavlik's offer without question.
Upon arriving in Happy Valley, Hosack was familiar with Penn State because he had watched video on the Nittany Lions.
"My main thought process was this: I did not view Penn State as being broken," Hosack said. "It wasn't like I was gonna come in and reinvent the wheel and say, 'Hey look what I created.' Obviously the place has got a great history, a great tradition of success and they just won [the national championship] two years ago. It's not a place that is on the bottom of the barrel and needs to come up."
With the Lions needing only small improvements, Hosack is passionate on the court when it comes to the execution of details. He yells when he doesn't like what he sees, whereas Pavlik and McMillan have more laid-back demeanors.
"My real task was, I wanted to make everyone understand I'm not here to bark and yell," he said. "I'm really here to help with some specifics."
Hosack feels his point of emphasis, despite "not being in the job description," is to work with fundamentals and drills training.
His main thing is to hold the players accountable for what is expected of them.
At practice last Tuesday, the team huddled with the coaches and talked about getting back into position and getting to more balls.
The next few plays resulted in the same errors occurring, and he held them accountable.
Hosack yelled and gave the team the cue to run. While the Lions were running he yelled, "That's ridiculous ... that's just being lazy."
The team responded, and Hosack didn't have to raise his voice for the remainder of practice.
McMillan said the team responds well to Hosack's passionate personality on the court and the quieter personalities of he and Pavlik don't work as well at motivating some of the guys.
"I think they really like [his personality]," McMillan said. "It's something that we needed. The guys have taken to it really well. You don't see a whole lot of them hanging their heads when they get yelled at. It's something they know he's trying to communicate to them. He always tells them, 'It's not how I'm saying it to you, it's what I'm saying to you.' They've been really positive about it."
Freshman Kyle Mars said he likes the balance of the coaching staff and how well they work together.
"One thing about Jay is when you do something wrong, he'll definitely let you know," Mars said. "Colin's more of a guy that will come up to you one on one and have face to face chats and be like, 'Hey maybe you should've done this a little better.' I like that."
The coaching staff now has a dominant voice on the practice court, and Pavlik said it compliments his personality really well.
"I think there are times where it's OK for guys to be told, 'This is absolutely fill in the blank, let's get it done right.' " Pavlik said. "Jay is somebody whose personality says enough's enough."
Mars, his brother, junior Alan Mars, and sophomore Ryan Wolf said taking in what Hosack has to say was an easy transition.
"Everyone kind of feeds off it. His practice structure is a lot different than what we did last year but it's for the better, I think," Wolf said.
