By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
LEBANON, Ore.– After some time away from the game of Volleyball, Kate O’Connor has returned to coach the sport.
And in a familiar spot as well, returning to Scio High School where she coached from 2016 and 2017 before departing for Silverton, where she coached until 2021. O’Connor returned to Scio in 2022 as an assistant under then-Head Coach Lori Ramsay before taking some time off away from the game.
Those two years O’Connor was with the program as Head Coach she set the foundation that saw the program continue to develop into a respectable 3A squad. Since that 2016 season, the Loggers have reached the playoffs seven of those ten seasons.
O’Connor admitted there were some nerves returning to the sidelines, but after a handful of open gyms and Summer League games, they quickly faded. Before long, she was back to being the passionate coach she has always been.
“I was nervous, ‘have I lost a step. Will I be as good as I was before?’, just for being gone for a few years. But now that we’re getting into the gym more and we’re running drills, it’s just following , it’s coming right back,” said O’Connor. “I just want them to be happy and play with a passion and it starts with our coaching staff. Pumping them up, knowing that a mistake isn’t the end of the world. We just move on and recover and we’ll get the next ball. As a coaching staff, we believe in them and now we have to make them believe in themselves and that’s showing them with our passion and the excitement that we have.”
O’Connor is inheriting a super young team coming off a four win season. The squad last year had no seniors, and only two juniors on it, so O’Connor is expecting to return a core that has a year of Varsity experience ready to go.
And with these Summer League scrimmages, on Thursday they were at Lebanon playing the Warriors JV and Varsity squad, O’Connor sees the benefit with them in knocking off the rust in time for Camp and Try-Outs in August. But at the same time, the veteran coach admits too she would like to limit the miles on their legs for the long haul in hopes to return to the 3A State Playoffs and hopefully reach the 3A Final Site.
“It’s good because the girls are getting some of the rust off when we go into camp and try-outs. Typically I don’t like doing scrimmages because I don’t like to force the girls to be playing all Summer long and they get burnt out by the time playoffs and, fingers crossed, State Tournament comes around,” starts O’Connor’. “I feel like doing a few here in Lebanon, it’s close to Scio, we don’t make it a requirement and the girls are on fire, they want to be here.”
The Loggers will open the season at Santiam for a jamboree in August 27 with their first official game coming September 1 at Monroe against the Dragons and North Douglas.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
