In collegiate sports, success is rarely accidental. It’s built on a foundation of trust, hard work, and strategic collaboration. For the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (UWGB) Women’s Volleyball program, this foundation is the product of a unique and high-trust partnership between Head Coach, Abbey Sutherland, and Sport Psychologist, Cody Newton; who together, have built a culture that prioritizes mental toughness, behavioral awareness, and resilience in the face of adversity.
When we sat down with Abbey and Cody, the trust and rapport built between the two shone through as they bounced off one another. They shared the story of the Green Bay Phoenix’s growth and development over the last three years, leading to their exceptional second-place finish in the 2023 season, despite being down an all-league setter (more on that later!).
In 2018, Abbey was recruited to lead the Phoenix, describing the status quo when she first arrived at Green Bay, Coach Sutherland said,
“It was about putting the pieces together with team culture, creating a positive, psychologically safe environment, being good humans, and developing women. My approach then was centered around a growth mindset, and it has continued to evolve.
My purpose now, especially, is developing strong women leaders. While trying to win championships or put us in a position to win championships, I’m all about making an impact on others.”
In 2021, as part of the UWGB Sport Psychology Program internship, Cody joined Abbey’s team as an observer. Abbey recalled the early days of their partnership, recognizing how essential it was for Cody to establish his presence with the team during this time, “Looking back, I now understand the importance of Cody showing up every day because we’ve had a couple of interns since who haven’t put in the time. To be successful in your field, you have to work really hard to develop that rapport and that laid the groundwork for us to create an exceptional plan together.”
Over the next three years, Cody became a fixture at practices, ensuring his influence was felt throughout the team. His presence fostered a deeper connection with the athletes, and allowed them to see him as an integral part of their development. Cody reflected on the value of this, explaining that this helped to normalize the mental side of the game,
“I love being able to connect with the athletes, help them find their reason, and help them in ways that perhaps they can’t see. I know that finding light in challenges is really tough as a student-athlete because I was there. So, the purpose for me was to support everybody from an emotional standpoint and help them feel like they were at their best even when they were at their worst. Help them find the behaviors they need when it is most challenging.”
He added, “Abbey is super open to the mental side and wants to challenge everybody from a behavioral perspective. We talked a lot about mindset and how to maximize our potential by creating a space where players feel safe to be vulnerable, open to challenges, and ready to grow.”
This foundation of trust has been instrumental in shaping the team’s approach to leadership development and mental toughness, and influences how they approach both practice and competition. Before the start of each season, Cody organizes meetings with the incoming freshmen to ensure they are familiar with the team’s mental strategies. By the time they join the rest of the squad, they already have a head start on adopting the growth mindset that has become a hallmark of the program.
The integration of Athlete Assessments’ DISC Profiles as a tool for the team’s development, became pivotal in their collaboration, with the help of Athlete Assessments’ Founder, Bo Hanson. Abbey shared,
“Meeting with Bo was invaluable; our athletes always remember it and they always take something away from the meeting. He inspires them to be their best, the whole experience is more than taking an assessment and reading your report.”
Cody went into more detail about the team’s experience using the tool,
“DISC has really helped the athletes understand how they could work together and piggyback off each other. If someone is naturally pretty direct and pretty short, we can just know they are a high ‘D’ and think maybe they need a bit of my high ‘I’ or ‘S’ or ‘C’ right now. DISC allowed people to be more accepting of others and how they are naturally when they perform.”
In addition to our natural behavior, each of us can ‘adapt’, or make small momentary changes to our behavior, enabling us to stretch and cover roles or behavioral gaps within the team. For example, if a team loses a player with a high ‘I’ profile, the other athletes on the team may need to lean into their behaviors that provide communication and energy on the court. Abbey added, “Bo explained that you might not want to adapt your behavior, but he posed this simple question to the team, he asked them ‘Do you want to win?’ That speaks to me of being your best, and if you want to perform at your best, you’ve got to take some leaps of faith and find ways to adapt your behavior.”
The Phoenix’s athlete leadership group developed an intricate understanding of their team’s natural and adapted behaviors and used it to allocate tasks that aligned with people’s natural way of doing things. Cody said, “I think they really liked the self-discovery part of DISC, and they really liked to see the discovery of other people. They were head over heels with the behavioral aspect of playing this entire year.”
Abbey also shared that DISC had helped them all create a common language. She explained that on the court, the team could say, ‘We need to be more ‘I’ right now,’ and everyone knew what that meant. Off the court, she and Cody use the same language to discuss coaching frustrations and solutions for understanding and motivating players.
Cody added,
“I think some of our conversations were almost alleviated by DISC; it really helped our communication. It was the piece of string that wove our season together.”
After using the DISC with the team for a year, and knowing that the parameters of the internship meant that Cody would not be paid, Abbey was intent on having him certified in Athlete Assessments’ DISC. Cody’s DISC Accreditation in 2022 marked a turning point, allowing him to more deeply analyze player behaviors and tailor mental strategies that would benefit the team’s overall performance.
Cody said, “Abbey was right. I refer to DISC nonstop. I think about it all the time. Even when I’m working with people who don’t have their DISC Assessment done. To have this in my toolkit has been really extraordinary!”
As we alluded to, the 2023 preseason tested the team’s resilience in ways they hadn’t anticipated. Early injuries and illness sidelined key players, including their all-league starting setter for the season and their sophomore setter for some of those weeks too. With these unexpected challenges, the team found themselves competing in preseason games without a setter—an almost unimaginable situation in volleyball. Abbey recalled the chaos of those weeks, “Not having a setter in volleyball is absolutely bonkers,” she says. “You have to play out-of-system ball, and the other team always knows where the ball is going.”
Yet, this adversity became an opportunity for growth leading into the full season. Abbey and Cody worked closely with the players and leadership group to foster resilience, relying on the mental toughness strategies they had been developing since Cody first joined the program. The team’s response to these challenges, Abbey believes, was a testament to the commitment to development and leadership within the team. “We were real about our situation, and in order to be resilient, you have to be real about where you’re at.”
Cody explained how the DISC Profiles helped their leadership group manage these different challenges.
“They would appoint one of the leaders to a certain challenge if it suited their behaviors more. It also helped them be conscious of other people’s behaviors on the court,”
he says. This self-awareness, paired with an understanding of their teammates’ behavioral tendencies, allowed the leaders to take ownership of the team’s mental and emotional well-being. Role-modeling this ability for their team to adapt, stay resilient, and maintain a positive mindset propelled the team forward. They ended up finishing second in the league, a remarkable achievement given the circumstances.
Sharing from the coach’s perspective, Abbey also praised DISC’s impact on the team, noting how the leadership group has embraced the process of difficult conversations and conflict resolution.
“I loved that Bo put everything on them. It allowed me to focus on coaching and making the team better while the leadership group handled issues within the team.”
This emphasis on internal leadership has created a self-sustaining system where players hold each other accountable and take pride in maintaining a high standard of behavior and communication.
As the UWGB Women’s Volleyball program looks ahead, the partnership between Abbey and Cody will remain a cornerstone. Rather than using Cody solely for ‘Band-Aid’ fixes to crises or mental health issues, Abbey integrates him into the team as a proactive mental performance professional. Both are closely aligned in their approach, sharing a commitment to challenging their athletes from a behavioral standpoint to enhance performance.
Their collaboration, strengthened by the tools provided by Athlete Assessments and the guidance of Bo Hanson, has already yielded impressive results. With their shared commitment to fostering a growth mindset, the future looks bright for UWGB Volleyball as they continue to build on the strong foundation they’ve established.
To conclude, Abbey stated, “We will always find a way to have Cody involved with our program. It helps that Cody and I are already connected, and it helps me because coaching is really, really hard!”
“I think what makes the relationship work is that I have complete trust in Cody. What I hope other coaches who aren’t doing this, who may feel threatened by it. We’ve found a way to establish that boundary and make it clear so that our players can feel safe. I feel totally at ease with any player going to see Cody, and what they say is not my business. Cody and I have found it so much more fulfilling because we’re on the same page. There is so much value in a Head Coach collaborating with a Sport Psychologist. I would encourage others to give it a try.”
In collegiate sports, success is more than just winning – it’s about building a culture that empowers athletes to reach their full potential, both on and off the court. And for UWGB Volleyball, that journey is well underway.
Biography for Coach Abbey Sutherland
Abbey Sutherland was appointed Head Coach of the University of Wisconsin Green Bay Women’s Volleyball team in 2018, leading the Phoenix to an impressive 20-11 Record and the program’s second-ever NCAA First-Round appearance. In her second season, she led the team to a 21-9 record, earning a spot in the AVCA Top 50 for the first time in program history. Since her appointment, she has developed a talented group of athletes into a team of challengers capable of contesting championships. In 2019, she graduated from the NCAA Women’s Coaches Academy Class #48, taking away valuable learnings, skills, and strategies that enhance her efficacy as a coach and enable her to develop strong women leaders within her teams. From 2013-17, personal circumstances saw Abbey become Head Coach at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, where she gained valuable experience at a Division III school. From 2002-2011, she rose through the ranks, first as Assistant Coach and later as Head Coach at Southern Mississippi, her alma mater. Abbey holds an undergraduate degree in Secondary Education and a graduate degree in Teaching Languages, with an emphasis on Spanish.
Biography for Cody Newton
Cody Newton has been the Mental Performance Consultant for the Phoenix for almost four years, during which time he completed his internship with the team. He is also an accredited Athlete Assessments DISC consultant. His insight into the behaviors that drive performance and team chemistry has been invaluable in developing athletes individually and as a leadership team. The rapport he has developed with Head Coach Abbey Sutherland has enabled the two to prioritize mental development and resilience within the Phoenix. Cody provides the perspective of an objective observer and serves as an ally for the coach in challenging situations, while also being a performance professional dedicated to achieving high-performance outcomes. In 2023, Cody established NEWT Mental Performance, which sees him work across all sports and levels of athletic performance. As a multi-sport athlete, Cody played hockey, soccer, and lacrosse before transferring to Green Bay to play Division I soccer on a scholarship as a student-athlete. Cody holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Human Development and a Master of Science in Performance Psychology from the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay.
