Williams selected as WCA Jr. High Coach of the Year

Nicole Williams Glenrock Wyoming WCA Jr High Coach of the Year

Courtesy photo

Wyoming Coaches Association Jr. High Coach of the Year award recipient and Glenrock jr. high volleyball coach Nicole Williams discusses game play strategy with her team.

By: 
Cinthia Stimson, cinthia@glenrockind.com

Glenrock Jr. High volleyball coach and Wyoming Coaches Association Jr. High Coach of the Year award recipient Nicole Williams is “really fair and honest with the players on her team,” according to Brylee Carter, one of Williams’ volleyball players in the sixth grade at Glenrock Intermediate School.

The announcement that Williams had won the state’s prestigious WCA Jr. High Coach of the Year Award was released Dec. 7.

Williams is a dynamo, although she wouldn’t ever describe herself that way. She’s always on the go, somehow finding time for her family, her career, coaching, and a helping hand wherever it is needed.

Her players are some of her biggest fans – just ask Carter.

“Coach Williams is very nice to the players and easy to learn from,” Carter said, when asked why Williams is such a great coach to play under.

The nomination for WCA’s Jr. High Coach of the Year came as a surprise, Williams said. She has no idea who is behind her nomination. She’s also really surprised she won.

“(Coach) Heath Hayes told me about the nomination. I have a few ideas of who nominated me. It has to be someone in this town that is very kind or crazy! I am not known in the Wyoming coaching community. My kids are my life, so I fit coaching in, not fit my family into coaching, if that makes sense,” she said.

Award recipients are nominated by their peers, generally other coaches or parents, or an athletic director, someone who writes up a narrative about the coach describing why he or she deserves to be selected as COTY.

The nominations go out to every WCA member and are voted on by their statewide peers. The winners will be honored sometime next summer at the annual WCA Hall of Fame Awards Banquet at the Ramkota Hotel in Casper.

Glenrock jr. high wrestling coach Heath Hayes said he didn’t nominate Williams, but he believes she received the award, “due to the (volleyball) team’s success, and things that other coaches have witnessed during competition.”

“Nicole is very straight forward with the kids and teaches them the basics of the game. She gives them opportunities to be successful,” he said.

Williams teaches fifth grade at GIS. She’s head coach for the jr. high volleyball team. Coaching is in her blood and is in her family’s blood, too, she said. 

“I’ve been with the junior high program for the last five years, two as assistant and three as head coach. I have never coached another sport for the Herders, although I have coached volleyball, basketball and baseball for the rec. AAU volleyball for seven years and have volunteered with junior high cross country.

“I honestly feel like I have been coaching since my kids could walk! My parents are ‘coaches,’ they coached me in volleyball, softball, roping and life. My uncles, cousins and aunts coach. I think coaching people seem to be our family’s personalities,” Williams said.

Williams received her coaching certificate in volleyball and track, but didn’t actually set out to be a coach.

“It just seems the need for a coach happens when I have been in a position in my life where I can help. I love sports, I love watching sports, playing sports and especially taking pictures of sports, even then I am coaching from the sidelines. I love to teach about the sport, but mostly about how sports can teach you to be a better adult, how to handle life’s ups and downs, and how to push yourself to always grow, learn and be better than the day before,” she said.

Williams is thankful to whomever nominated her for the COTY award, although she is not sure she’s earned it, yet.

“I don’t deserve it. Thank you to all of the coaches who voted for me. Thank you to all the coaches in my life, including my parents and husband, who have taught me small and big lessons that have shaped my life. A huge thank you to all the kids I have coached – you have taught me as well,” she said.

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