Who the fuck is Josh Elliott?

This article includes explicit language and was edited for length and clarity. 

TW: mention of alcoholism (kind of), mental illness

Joshua Elliott stepped onto the court in 2022 with only a season and a half under his belt and the new assignment of the captain of the Emerson College men’s volleyball team. Coming into the season, he was the only one to play a match for the Lions and one of two to ever play a collegiate match. 

Sometimes too smart for his own good, Elliott relies on volleyball as a mental stabilizer because of the community and (sometimes overwhelming) schedule implemented into his everyday routine. Additionally, he has taken on the role of captain with ease and the utmost patience. Best friend and former teammate, Sam Willinger has been a driving force in helping Elliott navigate the unusual circumstances placed upon this season.

Elliott is the friend that wants to make sure everyone else is okay before himself. He’s the friend you call at 2 a.m crying for no reason or the friend you’re out with until 2 a.m. for no reason. 

Kayla Buck: Why is your name spelled wrong on everything for Emerson athletics?

Joshua Elliott: ‘cuz I don't fucking care to correct them anymore.

KB: Who is Josh Elliott outside of volleyball?

JE: A fucking mess.

KB: What are your hobbies?

JE: Well, I do the journalism stuff quite a bit, research roots stories and such. But really, at the moment, I have no fucking idea, to be honest with you. (I don’t have) enough free time to do hobbies other than getting drunk recently. But I can tell you my hobbies would be.

(He didn’t)

KB: How do you manage school and sport?

JE: The way you manage is really just you (have to) communicate to everyone. Like when you have a project for class, you tell them like I only have this a lot of time slot where I'm really going to be free this week, or whatever it is. (...) We're like this little time slot that we have right now because right after this, I'm going to practice and then getting food. Also, you just kind of do work wherever you can, like whenever I go to take a shit, I'll just like, do some work on the toilet. You know?

KB: What is the biggest impact sports have had on you, in general?

JE: In general, it's a really good energy outlet for me. If I don't have that outlet, I kind of just won’t do stuff. I'll just like go on a drunken bender. So it's a good outlet for me to kind of have also, like when I was younger really socialized me a little bit more because I had like all my mental disorder stuff. So I had a really hard time speaking to people and stuff especially because I was so wrapped up in my own head whereas sports really helped that for sure. It's interesting. Also here I (am) best friends with the volleyball team people so it kind of gives me that little community without having to do some shit that makes me want to fucking die. like a frat or something. The sense of community is a really big deal to me; I really love it. And it also is something that I definitely like to work towards it more than I like to work towards some other things; I enjoy getting better and that process.

KB: Was it important for you to play in college? Was it a deciding factor?

JE: It definitely was (ultimately) the deciding factor but it wasn't fully mandatory in my final five schools. Only two of them really had men's volleyball. It was Emerson and NYU, they both have volleyball and I'd be on the teams there. (...) When I was looking at schools, unless I was going to go to a school for a major that was going to make money, I wasn't going to make my parents pay. Part of the reason I chose Emerson is because they gave me so much money, that I was only really paying for room and board. (...) I also really liked Emerson. I got recruited by schools that were definitely better teams that I wouldn't have been starting, like D2 schools and lower D1. I wouldn't have been starting until I was a senior or a junior. But, here, I got to start right away being one of the better players, which was enjoyable for me. But also, I think it really keeps me engaged in the school setting. It kind of gives me a little something to do to, always be involved (in). (...) So part of me wanted to really make sure that I knew if I was playing, I would be more committed to the full experience (of academics). If not, I felt like it was too easy for me to bail out.

KB: What does that added level of leadership mean to you, especially with this, like, super young team?

JE: Yeah, it's really interesting, because, with COVID, I played a season and a half. However, I have the most experience (out of) anyone at Emerson, like you said, which is a very strange thing. In terms of added level leadership, we have like a lot of kids that are really good players. It's just hard, they're all freshmen and sophomores. They were meant to have more time to develop, especially just in terms of understanding the game and also adjusting to college. (...)  I'd say it really is interesting, because I'm trying to teach them how to adjust. However, we also rely so heavily on everyone, we don't have a big enough team that there's going to be a lot of growing pains when adjusting to the college game. However, I'm trying to like get them through the growing pains while simultaneously also winning, which is really really really hard. Because there's not really anybody else we can sub in and let them kind of learn from. Especially, look at like Neiko, right. We rely so heavily on Neiko, but this is his first time playing in college. So it's hard to rely on people and be your main option when they have such growing pains, which are natural. (...) A lot of it comes just guidance wise, especially (because) they all have good skill, but the mentality; something we always do is we panic when we get to the last five points of the game, which is really weird because we do it against Emmanuel and then we do it against like Wentworth was seventh in the nation and Emmanuel's like fifth on our conference. And we do this same thing. That's a great example, because we lost to both of those teams by about the same amount, with all their starters and for each team. 

KB: How has Sam (Willinger) helped guide you in transitioning this young team into a season where you get to play?

JE: He instilled good more good habits and more team culture. And only Luke and Nico (were on a team with him). The way he helps me a lot is I'll just come to him with a dilemma and be like, what do you do in this scenario. For example, we have a whiteboard exercise where we just go around, (and) we give a grown and a glow about everyone. And it's a good conversation, people kind of see where they're at, and can kind of just choose, where they need to grow and focus on one thing to get better at. And it's nice to kind of have put it out there and everything. So him suggesting to do that to me, or we need to bring that up. Or I'll come to him and say, “Hey, I'm having a hard time reaching this person, or this person's having a hard time, what needs to be done here? Can you help me examine the problem?” That's really, really helpful guidance. I use him as (a reference to ask) what do I do? Because even though Sam was cut off during his Junior (season), he's always been in leadership positions. He's very, very good at that. Whereas I had a little bit of leadership my sophomore year, and then more junior year, even in junior year, I missed (fall semester). I wasn't there that long because I was considered immunocompromised for COVID. I was really closer to a freshman, whereas since he's been a sophomore has had a bit of a captain role. One of our assistant coaches, Jake Ditore, is really helpful too because he was the captain my freshman year. He's very good at like talking to people and understanding problems.