KARL PEARSON
Star Beacon
July 03, 2009 11:52 pm
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The time has come for Nancy Champlin to spread her wings and fly.
Her opportunity comes this season as she takes over as the head coach of the Jefferson volleyball team, succeeding Sherri Britton, who spent two seasons at the head of the Falcon program. The 40-year-old Champlin is becoming a head coach for the first time after serving as Jefferson’s freshmen coach the past two years, during which the varsity squad compiled a 23-20 record.
Champlin responded to the call after turning down a previous head coaching opportunity.
“I’m excited about it,” the computer science teacher at Jefferson said. “I had the opportunity a couple years ago, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to step up to the varsity at that time.
“This time, I was more available for the opportunity. I’ve worked with Sherri Britton the past couple of years. I’ve also coached most of the girls at one level or another.”
Before she took over the freshmen, Champlin coached the Jefferson eighth graders for two years.
“This year’s seniors were a part of my middle-school team the first year I coached here,” the Kent State University and Northern Kentucky University graduate said. “I think I have a good rapport with the girls from before and I had most of them in class at one time or another. I also think I have good coach-parent relationships.”
While she has not been a head coach during her time at Jefferson or in previous teaching assignments in Virginia and Kentucky, that doesn’t mean Champlin hasn’t had significant roles with Britton and her predecessor, Don Palm.
“I was given the responsibility of organizing the skills camp each year,” the 1987 Conneaut High School graduate said. “I also organized the Volley for the (breast cancer) Cure Night.
“I feel good about the things I’ve learned. I’m going to be using a lot of the things I learned from Sherri and from Don. I also have some ideas of my own.”
Becky DeGeorge, who was Britton’s junior-varsity coach, will return in that role. Katie Mabry will take over as the freshmen coach, while Ashley Febel will coach the eighth-grade team. Mabry and Febel both played at Jefferson for the great Jeanine Bartlett.
The search is still on for a seventh-grade coach.
Champlin is not entirely certain what the makeup of her squad is going to be. There are potentially several returning varsity letterwinners, but some are thinking of trying to split time between two fall sports or heading to other sports entirely.
“There are some girls who played on the varsity who want to run cross country, too,” she said. “There are some that are still undecided.
“We’ve got some depth in some areas. In other areas, we have some young people who are going to have to step up.”
That means big contributions will be needed from a lot of girls from Champlin’s freshmen team that lost only two matches last season.
“We had a lot of strong players on the freshmen team last year,” she said. “Some of them even got some experience at the varsity level at the end of last year. I think they’re ready to take on those roles.
“Many of these girls also played (Junior Olympic) volleyball. We have some strong, athletic groups. Their skill level is top-notch.”
Champlin believes she has power in her outside-hitting group. She is a little less certain about her personnel at middle hitter and setter.
“Our strengths are probably out outside hitters,” she said. “I have high hopes for some of our middle hitters, but they have to develop more experience. We may be looking at two sophomores (Paige Clark and Destinie Hill) as our setters.
“I think we have a pretty strong core group. They’re a really positive group.”
She’s been around Jefferson long enough to understand the outstanding volleyball tradition established by Bartlett and Palm. Now the goal is to try and make gradual progress back to that level.
“I knew coming in what a great tradition and program Jeanine had,” Champlin said. “Don was blessed with some great athletes and continued that tradition.
“(Britton) had a lot younger group the last two years. We’re still going to be looking at building again, especially with our younger girls.”
She isn’t looking to make any wholesale changes.
“I don’t plan to turn things upside down,” Champlin said. “We’re going to have pretty much the same defensive package. We may bring in some new looks on offense. I’m confident we have the girls that can step into the roles we intend to try.”
Champlin wants to be sure her new charges have an enjoyable experience on the court. She wants them to enjoy themselves the way she did when she played volleyball for three seasons at Conneaut for the newly retired Dave Simpson. She also played a year of basketball for Paul Ruland and finished with two seasons for Simpson in that sport.
“I want volleyball to be memorable and meaningful for the girls,” Champlin said. “I remember playing against (Britton) when she was on (newly reappointed Edgewood coach) Dave Fowler’s team at St. John and playing against the great teams Geneva had.
“I remember playing against (DeGeorge), too. It’s kind of funny that we’ve come full circle. I developed a lot of lifelong friendships playing in high school, in intramurals at KSU-Ashtabula and in sand volleyball leagues.”
She has been married to fellow 1987 Conneaut graduate Donald Osborne for 18 years. They have two sons — Brandon, 16, a junior at Jefferson High School, and Tristan, 10, a fourth grader at Jefferson Elementary.
There are other things Champlin’s Falcons have to look forward to and items they have to deal with. The first is the move into the new Falcon Gymnasium.
“I had hoped we were going to open the season in the new gym, but we’re going to start in the old gym and move over as soon as possible,” she said. “We’re hoping to be in the new gym during the season and for the (Division II sectional-district) tournament.”
The other factor is Jefferson needs to function as an independent for the foreseeable future after the dissolution of the Northeastern Conference. She knows there isn’t much that can be done about that.
“We’re going to be focusing on developing the team,” Champlin said. “We’re looking at a team where possibilities for a lot of other girls could open up. We’re looking at developing one game at a time.
“We may not go undefeated, but I want the girls to love volleyball and learn from every match. It’s such an emotional sport.”
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