Its only up from here.

This past Tuesday Waynesburg University hired a new volleyball coach. This should be a relief to the players after not knowing for months who their next coach was going to be.

This new hire, Hayley Kirby, has a solid track record. She previously coached at Earlham College, where she spent two seasons as an assistant and was later promoted to associate head coach, where she won nine games as interim head coach.

When she arrived at Earlham, the team was in a situation that is quite similar to that of Waynesburg. The Quakers were 4-24 when she arrived in 2014. In 2015, the Quakers won five games, and then in the 2016 season they won six games. The progression was slow at first, but then this past season the Quakers managed a 15-13 overall record and 3-6 in their conference. The 3-6 conference record might not seem that impressive, but it was the first time the Quakers had won any conference games since before 2009. In the case of the Yellow Jackets, they went 1-25 last season and have not won a conference match since 2015.

So, it will be interesting to see if she handles this situation similarly to Earlham. I would say that three seasons is a pretty good turnaround for a struggling program. The goal should be to start winning more games and try to move up in the conference. Teams to chase are Grove City, Saint Vincent and Thiel, all of whom finished in the bottom tier of teams in the PAC last season.

This will still be a challenge because the second lowest win total was 10 and the second lowest PAC win total was four. It will definitely be an uphill fight and even though she just got hired, Kirby said she has seen some of the girls on the team play and thinks that there is potential.

She will get most of the team back because there are only three players graduating. With that, she has some young talent to work with in the returning players.

Previously, the members of the team played in positions that they aren’t used to. So, obviously one of the first steps would be to put those players in the correct positions. Now, as of now it’s uncertain what recruits will be coming in next year and what their impact will be, but returning juniors Jordyn Wyllie and Cassidy Guiser, as well as freshman Hannah Colvin, will be among the key players for the team if used correctly.

A coach like this could be huge for the Jackets, especially if she is able to bring some of the magic she had at Earlham.

They say those who can’t do coach, but I don’t think there is any truth in that when you talk about Kirby. She was a standout outside hitter at West Virginia State University, which is a Division II school.

Solely based on her track record, I think Kirby has what it takes to turn the program around. Having said that, the success of the team won’t be immediate, and it might take more than a year for them to see a major turnaround. So, don’t give up on them just yet and be patient as the team looks to make progress under Kirby.