1990 Houghton graduate, Nancy Cole, has moved up in the ranks of Houghton and is now entering her twentieth year of coaching the women’s volleyball team. Fortunately for us, the Houghton Bubble kept her around after graduation. She got her coaching start while volunteering for Fillmore High School and Houghton Academy’s girls’ athletics. A few years later, she began working with Houghton’s women’s volleyball team and has never looked back.
As we celebrate Cole’s twenty years of coaching she is proud to say, “All of those years have been at Houghton.” She assisted at Houghton for 2 years before becoming the head coach.
Transitioning from player to coach can be difficult, especially when your transition is in the same program you participated in. However, for Cole the experience was different. She says, “When I started coaching here, it was already home.” Cole assisted her own college coach, Coach Skip Lord. The strong values the volleyball program had established such as living a Christ-centered life and exemplifying Him both on and off the court were ones Cole agrees with and wanted to carry on.
Those values were evident as they won regional tournaments, qualified for NAIA nationals, played in Empire 8 conference playoffs and NCCAA nationals, and dined with the Nicaraguan national volleyball team to celebrate 10 years of partnership in ministry. To all of the amazing achievements and memories over the course of her career, she credits her teams. “My teams have been full of amazing young women who love God and each other and they have been a blessing in so many different ways over the years.”
Junior player Anna Coryell explains, “Coach Cole pushes us to be strong women of faith. She takes this strong faith and makes sure that we understand that our volleyball talents are not our own, but God’s. Every practice, every game, every time we touch a volleyball it is to glorify God. It is our form of worshiping God with the talents that we are given. She makes sure that our team is being salt and light to the world in everything that we do.”
Coach Cole’s two favorite things about coaching are interacting with her team and watching them grow as women and as Christians. She says, “I have been amazed and humbled by the faith and courage that some of them have at this age. I definitely was not that intentional about my faith in college. They also make me laugh so much. Relationship tends to put wins and losses into perspective.”
Senior captain Meagan Palm says, “[Cole ] is so much more than just our coach. She is our mentor, our friend, and our mother away from home.” Coryell echoes her teammate by calling Cole her, “mom away from mom.”
Cole describes her team as passionate. “It encompasses a lot of who they are in many ways and the commitment they have for each other and for God.” Members of the volleyball team feel the same about their coach and also describe her as passionate, caring, devoted, and inspiring. No one on campus knows her better than her players.
First-year player Kaylee Haller says, “She is tough when she needs to be, she believes in us with all of her heart, she hurts when we don’t do well, and she praises us for our accomplishments.” Even though Haller is new to the team this year, she can already see how deeply Cole cares for her team in all areas of her players’ lives.
Senior captain Hattie Burgher agrees with this, saying, “She really invests in our lives off of the court and I know I could always confide in her about something that is personally going on in my life.”
Senior captain Jessica Hayner says, “She is a great example of a Godly woman for us. She is not only able to push us to be the best we can be on the court; but she also encourages us to be the best women of God that we can be.” Senior player Stephanie Glick continues this thought saying, “She loves volleyball and expects us to work hard and have the desire to play well. But more importantly, she expects us to play with integrity, and play in a way that honors God.”
Junior player Kayla Bernard describes this dynamic, “Because of the way she acts she makes you want to work as hard as you can, and when you mess up it’s almost more motivating . . . You want to do everything you can to make her proud.”
At the end of the day, Cole is wonderfully invested in the lives of her players, her career, her family, and her God.