Sports analytics volunteer plays invaluable role for Lady Flames Volleyball

At Liberty University, senior Matt Palmer has found a dream athletics position assisting the NCAA Division I women’s volleyball team in a unique way.

As the team’s technical coordinator, Palmer sits courtside for every match, keeping stats and informing Head Coach Trevor Johnson of any trends and in-game analytics the team should know. He also watches film before each match (of the Lady Flames and the opponent), collecting up to 90 pages of stats and notes from his own observations and the software Volleymetrics and condensing it into a 10-page report for Johnson as part of his pre-match preparation.

Palmer does all of this work as a volunteer, going well beyond Liberty’s required 20 hours of Christian Community Service (CSER) each semester.

“Matt has been a tremendous asset to our success this season,” Johnson said. “He has provided us much needed analytics during crucial times in matches and has helped with the development and training in our program. Stats can tell you a lot of things that the naked eye can’t see.”

Johnson also praised Palmer’s character.

“His love for the Lord is very evident with his work ethic and his desire for these girls to be the best versions of themselves. Liberty Volleyball is better because of Matt.”

Although Palmer will be graduating in May with his B.S. in Applied Mathematics and Statistics, he plans to remain in the area and continue working alongside Johnson. One day, he hopes to lead a team of his own.

“I just want to stay in it and eventually become a head coach at some point,” he said.

Palmer’s love for the game began as a young boy. His father, Jamie Morrison, is a past member of three Olympic medal-winning coaching staffs, working with the U.S Men’s National Volleyball Team that won gold in 2008 and the U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team that won silver in 2012 and bronze in 2016.

“I didn’t realize it (the caliber of the athletes around him) at the time, but I would go with my dad to the Olympic team practices,” Palmer said. “I would have the time of my life, running around picking up volleyballs, collecting them, and putting them back in the carts.”

“I didn’t have much of a background playing (volleyball), but it was always somewhat there in my life,” he added, mentioning that his father played a significant role years ago in advancing volleyball analytics technology through Data Volley 4.

“He’s one of the pioneers of volleyball analytics,” Palmer said about his father.

Palmer’s father helped coach the USA Men’s National Team as an assistant coach and technical coordinator from 2005-2009, and that’s where he crossed paths with Johnson, who trained with the USA Men’s National Volleyball team in 2005 and 2006.

When Palmer reached out to Johnson last year to offer help with analytics, their mutual connection to the sport and to family made the decision an easy one.

“I’m not sure that I would have had this opportunity at any other school,” Palmer said. “I have the privilege to work with a Division I athletic team that just tied the school record for conference wins.”

Palmer is also thankful for meaningful friendships and genuine community off the court, something he said was not always been easy for him growing up due to his autism. But after living on campus and making friends who are “like brothers,” Palmer is thankful for how the Lord has worked through his autism.

“It’s gotten to a point where autism will always be a part of my life, but I don’t let it define me,” he said.

“It used to be that I thought I would not be able to make friends and that I would never be normal and that I would just be the odd one out. (But) I decided early in my sophomore year at Liberty that I was not going to just use that as an excuse. I was going to do everything I could to be the best man I could be. It really is a God thing. There’s no way I could have improved at the level that I have without God.”

While thriving in his community and on the sidelines, Palmer is determined to remain focused on the source of his success.

“I just have to realize that I cannot be the man that I want to be and the man that I need to be without God. If I am not giving myself up to Him, I cannot reach my potential. When I just fully surrender my life, I have found that I have been able to do some really amazing things.”