In Karen Chisum’s 40 years as Texas State’s head coach, she never had a spring training quite like the one Sean Huiet is having — especially not in her first semester as the leader of the Bobcats.
Chisum reached out to Huiet right as the Sun Belt Conference shut down all organized athletics-related activities on March 16 to help slow the spread of COVID-19, which included all spring volleyball practice and scrimmages. She was confused as to what exactly was happening.
“I was like, ‘Well, here's what's going on. Thanks for handing that over to me,’” Huiet said.
Huiet was in the earliest stages of putting his mark on a team coming off back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances when everyone was sent home. He’d discussed with his players about thinking bigger. They wanted to enter into uncharted territory — top-25 in the polls, a Sweet 16 appearance. The Sun Belt championship is still a goal, but it’s no longer the biggest.
Huiet’s new assistants, Keith Anderson and Tori Plugge, were beginning to find their voices. The players were responding well to all the new post-Chisum changes. Huiet’s first few months on the job couldn’t have gone much better.
“The first couple weeks were very slow because I was letting Keith and Tori get in there and kind of teach some of the things that they knew. And they do a lot of the same things we were already doing, just maybe some different verbiage and the way to say it,” Huiet said. “And it's awesome sometimes because as a coach, you get frustrated because you can say something a million times and then one person says it one different way and then a kid gets it. And so it was kind of fun to see, you know, just maybe it's a different voice they're hearing because they had heard the same three voices for so long.”
The team held one more practice before spring break, knowing there was a chance it could be the last for a while. It was one of the best of the semester.
“In the first, probably, six weeks that we had, I think there was only one day where we had to get on to them about their work ethic and kind of taking it easy and they were kind of mentally checked out.” Huiet said. “We did a couple drills and then we went into a scrimmage and we looked really, really good. And we were like, ‘Well, if that had to be our last practice, that was a pretty darn good practice to end on’ because it was pretty good.”
Texas State would’ve played its first spring scrimmage at Incarnate Word last Friday. They’d be gearing up now for a match at TCU on Saturday. Huiet said he would’ve liked to see what certain lineups looked like in an actual in-game scenario and wanted the players to get used to Anderson and Plugge joining them on the sideline.
But for the most part, he isn’t too worried about his players getting time on the floor. Most of the freshmen last year — players like Caitlan Buettner, Courtney Heiser and Lauren Teske — were already a regular part of the rotation last season.
“They're not all going to be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I've never played before, I haven't been in a match,’” Huiet said. “I'm not freaking out a ton because, like I said, those kids have been on the court before. So, that's been nice.”
The same goes for the players’ individual training now that they’re home. Initially, Huiet was in a “freakout mode” about not seeing his players everyday. Anderson and Plugge put him at ease.
“It was so awesome because Keith and Tori, they both have known so much about Texas State and they've played against us and they've seen our program,” Huiet said. “And they were just like, ‘Here's the thing of all things that we don't have to worry about: we don't have to worry about what our kids are going to do. You know, none of our kids are going to go home and lay on the couch. Like, this group is on a mission. They're going to do the work, whether we can check in on them, whether we can actually have them show us what they're doing, none of that matters. Where our program is right now, these kids are going to put in the work to make sure they're ready come fall.’ And that was kind of like a, ‘OK, yeah, you're right.’”
The coaches have been staying in touch with the players daily using an app called Teamworks. The team is praying things get better by the time they start summer workouts. Huiet said his heart goes out to the winter- and spring-sport teams who had their seasons cut short and feels fortunate his isn’t going through the same.
He knows it’s a difficult time. But his team has to get used to making it through uncharted territory.
“This isn't how your first year as a head coach is supposed to go?” Huiet said. “I thought this was the norm.”
