Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Wildcats land the coach next door

Wesley Chapel finds the perfect person to guide the volleyball team in Ann Marie Marvin, who works at Wesley Chapel Middle School.

By JOHN C. COTEY
Published August 10, 2006

WESLEY CHAPEL -Faced with a volleyball coaching search just two weeks before the start of practice, Wesley Chapel principal Andy Frelick said he would cross his fingers and hope to find someone with a background in the sport.

Little did he know the middle school next door housed the perfect applicant.

Monday, Ann Marie Marvin started her new job as the Wildcats coach, sliding over from Wesley Chapel Middle School to get her team ready for a season just a few days away.

In Marvin, Wesley Chapel landed a former college standout with St. Scholastica, a Division III school in Duluth, Minn. Marvin, a 2003 graduate, ranks in the school's top single-season record book for attack percentage, aces, blocks and points. A 5-foot-6 middle hitter when she played, Marvin led St. Scholastica to four straight conference championship games and earned first-team all-conference honors as a senior.

"We were very surprised ...she was right next door," athletic director Steve Mumaw said. "We're very pleased."

Because they did not have a coach after Laura Lee Hawkins resigned last month after one season , the Wildcats have been without extensive summer-league play and do not have a preseason match scheduled. Mumaw said the 25-year-old Marvin will have a tough task ahead, but she is eager to attack it.

"It's very difficult because the first day of practice was July 31," he said. "It puts the team and the program a week behind. But she's not looking at it like that."

Mumaw also said Wednesday that Scott Boyd, an assistant baseball coach, was hired last week to coach the girls golf team at Wesley Chapel.

Injury ousts Hudson coach

Flo Massaro stepped aboard a flight to Seattle, walked toward her seat and in the process tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee.

Facing the uncertainty of surgery and rehabilitation visits three times a week, Massaro resigned as Hudson's girls basketball coach.

"I want to be fair to the girls," Massaro said. "I feel like I'm building something here."

Massaro, who went 7-19 in her only season, hopes she can contribute in some capacity. The search for her replacement began this week, Hudson principal Angie Stone said.

"We had no plans to look for a new coach until she tore her ACL," Stone said. "She came to us pretty disheartened.

"She just felt she couldn't give the program the time she needed to as a head coach."

[Last modified August 10, 2006, 06:30:39]