A more seasoned second-year coach

MEDICAL LAKE - A rookie head coach no more.

Hailey Van Soest has a lot better understanding as she enters her second season with Medical Lake High School volleyball.

One thing Van Soest learned in 2022 with a team that finished 5-13 was how to depend on herself as a coach. Good thing because she'll not have an assistant this season.

Van Soest, who spends her daytime hours "coaching" kindergarteners at Hallett Elementary, went through a series of trial-and-error periods she said.

"It was definitely a good year to kind of figure out the ropes and how to coach a team and the proper way," Van Soest said.

One of the helpful takeaways were establishing relationships and connections with players.

"I was really fortunate to know a lot of them prior to starting (as head coach) and so it just helps to have a good relationship with them," Van Soest explained. She first served as ML's C-Squad coach in 2021 but jumped in as head coach for the final three woes of the 2021 season following a resignation.

But there's a big difference between playing the sport, which she once did as Hailey Bridges before going on to attend Eastern Washington University and graduate with a degree in education.

"I knew the player side of having a team with girls and how challenging it can be," Van Soest explains. "But as a coach, it's much different and so that was kind of a surprise to me."

One thing that was a pleasant surprise was discovering the girls stepping into leadership roles.

"It was good to see that those girls had that maturity and were able to talk to me and we can work it out as a team and individually as well," Van Soest said.

While the coach is familiar for the upcoming season, some of the faces may not be.

"We had five seniors leave our team last year, so I have five spots to fill on varsity," Van Soest said. They include All-NEA first-teamer Rylie Spring at outside hitter. Marin McKee the other outside hitter, libero Ailahni Viloria as well as RyleeJo Garrison and Mikalah Hernandez all graduated.

Several middle hitters - another key part of the offense - who were juniors conclude their Cardinal Carrs and include Tessa Appel and Chiche Okemgbo. Madi Spring and Zoe Wilson, both setters, and Trinity Auckerman who "Played a little bit of everything last year," round out the returnees.

With plenty of uncertainty due to the aftermath of the Gray Fire, the Cardinals start the season jumping into league play at Riverside - another fire-ravaged area, Sept. 5.