Sports teams really rely on coaches to push the players to do their very best and help them improve with new and old skills. For the varsity volleyball team, getting a new head coach has helped them improve in so many ways from staying positive to helping them get out of their heads.

New head Coach James Egbert has been coaching for 20 years before taking a coaching job for Liberty. When Egbert saw there was a coaching opportunity at Liberty, he jumped on it as fast as he could.

“I saw an opportunity and I saw some kids that needed help,” Egbert said.

He also saw the talent in the program.

“The fact that I was coming into a program that had so much talent on it that it was under valued,” Egbert said. “One thing about being a coach that I love more than anything is being able to motivate and get girls to do things that they don’t think they can do.”

Players that work with coach Egbert believe that he has not only physically help them improve as players but mentally as well.

“He has brought us together and made us see our strengths as a team,” senior Morgan Page said. “He’s shown me that I’m not who I thought I was and that I have more potential than I thought I did.”

Getting to know your players is an important role in having success for the season.

“I think one part of leadership is whether it’s a coach or not is that you have to get to know your kids and you have to praise them as much as you have to critique them. So I try to make sure that I try to stay positive even when I’m getting on the girls,” Egbert said. “We’ve done things outside the gym of course to bond as a team. But since high school ball (volleyball) only has three months, it’s really hard to bond when you have eight seniors because I have three months to get to know these girls.”

When coming into Liberty, Coach Egbert had two other things in his mind to be successful this season as well. These two things consisted of running a unique offense that required having some middle blockers to play back row and also run a unique conditioning.  

“I feel like it’s been going really well, it’s been really successful and I feel like he’s made our team better and our form better in games,” Page said.

At the beginning of the season, the team made the goal to compete for a conference title and with Egbert getting to know the players strengths and weaknesses has helped the team to be 10-2 this season.

“He’s really easy going and we get along really well,” Page said. “He knows all of our personalities and how they can help motivate the team to win”

This season has shown the varsity volleyball team that change can be good for the team as a whole and motivate to win as many games as possible.