Karen O'Brien found out late last year she was facing a recurrence of her ovarian cancer. She still was able to coachSt. Mary Catholic Central to a state volleyball championship in January.
But facing another exhausting battle with the disease, O'Brien elected to step aside this summer as SMCC prepares for the 2021-22 season and chance to claim a third straight title.
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Cassie Haut, who assisted last year with the varsity,will take over O'Brien's role indefinitely.
"It was the plan that I would take a larger role," said Haut. "Her plan is still to be around and be here to coach and help, but it's more about just doing what she can do now. She needs her time, so I said I'm more than happy to help take that over."
Haut is no stranger to SMCC volleyball.
She graduated from SMCC in 2015, helping the Kestrels win a state championship her senior year. She went on to a successful volleyball career at Eastern Michigan University where she became one of the top hitters in Eagles' program history.
The transition from assistant coach to head coach has been smooth for the former Kestrel, who has inherited a young, but energetic team. SMCC graduated seven seniors who all played significant roles last year.
So, there's a lot of work to be done to fill the gaps.
"We're just trying to find where all our pieces fit this year," Haut said. "Every year is different. Every year you lose and you gain. We're young but it's about finding where all the pieces fit. It's about finding the connections and who molds where."
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Senior Ava Kuehnlein said the faces around the gym during practice may be a little different, but it's still the same SMCC volleyball.
"For having so many new, younger, less experienced players, I thought we might have a little trouble at first in our practices, but we've really evolved over the last two weeks," she said. "At our scrimmage, you could tell we were new and coming together still, but everybody here is ready to work for it."
Kuehnlein will play libero/defensive specialist for SMCC this year and is one of five seniors on the team who are helping guide the next generation of Kestrels into becoming part of the team'sstoried culture.
"We're teaching them about our traditions and how it's always been here," she said. "We believe strongly in welcoming everybody here. It's all about family and coming together. ... Without being a team and coming together as one, we can't play as one."
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Culture is as important as practice in establishing a team during the summer.
That's been one of the biggest goals for first-year varsity coach Angela Tedora at Monroe High.
The Trojans have had three different head coaches in the past four years, but Tedora provides a familiar face. She has coached the junior varsity team for the past six seasons and briefly stepped in as varsity coach a few years ago to help the team finish out the last few weeks of its season.
"I love this sport and a lot of these kids I've been with their entire high school career," she said. "Being able to finish some of them out is a great opportunity."
Tedora's tenure took a tough turn in the first week of practice in the gym. Severe storms took out the power at the school during tryouts last week.
"We finished out tryouts in the dark," she said. "We were actually here when the storm hit and we only had emergency lights. So, we finished in the dark. Then we practiced in the dark the rest of the week with emergency lights only."
Senior Mackenzie Tucker laughed at the memory of practicing in the dark.
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"It was a little rough, but you just have to deal with it," Tucker said. "It wasn't too bad. It made it a little more casual. It was in the dark, so it can't be too hardcore."
Tucker is a senior with three years of varsity experience. Anna Tedora also is a three-year returner. Seniors Gabriella Anderson, Kamryn Bice, and Abbie Rorke also return.
"We have a lot of seniors and a lot of returners," Tucker said. "We have a lot of people who have been on varsity and only a couple new people, so we know how it is and what we have to do."
That group has brought a lot of passion and energy to practices and summer workoutsearly in the season. That's something that has been missing in recent years, according to Tucker.
"I really enjoy how it is right now," Tucker said. "We're sitting down and talking through a lot of things in ways we didn't before. We're talking through a lot of things and trying a lot of things that we didn't do in the past."
Coach Tedora said she has noticed that same energy in the girls.
"There's a ton of excitement in the gym," she said. "They're all excited to be playing. We went to a preseason scrimmage at Owens Community College and the energy I saw from the kids there was better than the energy I've seen in the last five years."
That's exactly the legacy Tucker and the other seniors hope to leave behind long after they walk across the stage at graduation next spring.
"Everybody is doing that, everybody is working for what we want to become," Tucker said. "I just want to do the best we can. It's always the goal to win, but there are games we've played in the past where we played really well even though we lost. ... We want to play like that all year."
