Volleyball Coach Receives Honor

On August 17, 2023 the Yetis made history—again. The women's volleyball team stepped onto the court at Wake Tech Community College to play its first-ever game. Head Coach Jamie Wilson had coached winning teams at Crest High School for 17 years, but this would be her first season as a college coach.

She wondered if she would be good enough for college-level play, plus she had to learn the art of recruiting, one concern a high school coach doesn't have. "Recruiting for the first season was hard," she said. "Lots of players didn't want to take a chance on a first-year program. The eight girls who chose to come are very special."

That group of special players set some lofty goals at the beginning of the season. They didn't want to just be the College's first team; they wanted to be the first winning team in Yetis volleyball history. With that goal in mind, the players and Wilson went to work. "They gave 100% every day," said Wilson.

The team won that very first game against Wake Tech, went on to have a 21-12 overall winning season and finished third in the conference's regular season with an 8-3 record. In postseason play, the team made it to the semifinals of the Region 10 conference where they lost to the reigning national champion Richard Bland College. The loss was tough, but the team and its coach were already successful.

The players did what they set out to do. They will go down in Yetis history as the first winning volleyball team, and the coach who wasn't sure she was good enough was named Region 10 Coach of the Year. 

"I was shocked and honored," said Wilson. "There are some great coaches in Region 10, so to be chosen by them makes it very special, especially because it was my first year coaching college." Wilson went on to say that she would not have gotten the award without her team. "We started as strangers from different places with different personalities, and we became a family."