Honor the past. Compete in the present. Build for the future. Three traits every successful college athletic program share. Maryland volleyball displayed a bit of all three over the past few weeks.
Since his arrival at Maryland, head coach Steve Aird's mantra has been, "I'm building a program." The earliest evidence of that came when he chose to honor the commitments of the previous staff and set his sights on recruiting two, three and four years down the road. And in this area he has been more successful more quickly than even he likely imagined.
But he has also demonstrated an understanding that building a program requires more than merely recruiting good players and turning losses into wins.