“Time out!” The Lady Vikings hear the ref yell. They all hustle to gather around new head coach, Carley Williams, as she prepares and continues to lead the Vikings to victory.
The current record of the Varsity team is 16-7, and Williams hopes to bring in more wins.
The Emory and Henry alum started playing when she was in middle school and got her coaching start in college. “I would play, and then I would go coach [in] the winter. [I’d] play in the fall, coach in the winter. I did that for five years,” said Williams.
Teaching younger girls the basics of volleyball gave Williams the experience she needed to be able to coach our Lady Viking varsity team.
“Coaching [varsity them] is a little bit different. That’s more developmental. That was definitely good for me to learn early in my coaching career,” said Williams.
As far as her current coaching methods go, her players appreciate her encouraging—yet constructive—guidance. “I really like her positivity on and off the court,” said middle hitter Erin Littleton, “and I always like how she leads us and [is] hard on us at the same time.”
One of Williams’ main goals is for her team to better themselves individually, while still believing in and supporting their teammates.
“My main goal is for them to have confidence. They are super, super talented, and they’re able to individually play so well,” said Williams. “[They] just have to have confidence as a team… every single time they touch the ball, [know] that everybody on their team trusts them, [and] all the coaches trust them.”
Ashton Blair, Lady Viking outside, praises Coach Williams for her honesty. She feels that it makes her better, and she knows she can trust her coach to tell her what’s best.
“Something I really like about her is that she’ll tell you what she wants. She’ll tell you what’s right and what’s wrong and how to fix it,” said Blair. “It makes me like playing for her so much because it makes us feel better about ourselves on the court.”
As 10 of her players are juniors and seniors, Williams has a primary focus of not only ensuring her players are skilled in their sport, but also skilled in their life, putting a big emphasis on respecting the community around them.
“On the court, we’re going to respect each other. We’ll respect our opponents, and I expect them to do the same outside of volleyball,” said Williams.
As daunting as taking on this new coaching role was, all of Coach Williams’ players have grown quite fond of her and appreciate the feedback and encouragement she gives them. Though it can be taxing, Williams has made an everlasting impression on her team’s life, and they will never forget the lessons she teaches them.
“It’s tough love. They know I care about them,” said Williams, “I can have genuine conversations with them, but also they know I can hold them accountable for things.”
