Scott Swanson
Mary Hutchins has spent almost a lifetime in the Sweet Home gymnasium, so as she takes the reins as the Huskies’ new volleyball coach, she knows what she’s getting into.
Hutchins, whose maiden name was Aiello when she played basketball and volleyball for Sweet Home in the mid-1990s, takes over for Alicia Meier, who stepped down earlier this year because her family is moving to Washington.
Meier had coached the Huskies since 2010.
Hutchins was born and raised in Sweet Home. She graduated from Sweet Home High School in 1996, after playing on a fifth-place state placewinner in volleyball.
And a lot more.
“In high school I did everything,” she said. “I was super involved – National Honor Society, volleyball, basketball, Leadership, Pacific Rim trips to Washington D.C. and Hawaii.”
She was a valedictorian for her graduating class.
She married David Hutchins and settled down to raise a family, she said, when she got a call from Steve Emmert, her former high school volleyball coach, who was now the athletic director at Sweet Home Junior High. He talked her into coaching his seventh-grade team.
She coached at the junior high for a couple of years, then at Lebanon High School for two more before coming back to Sweet Home, this time to the high school, where she’s spent the last 10 years as an assistant, first to Debbie Danielson and then to Meier.
Now she finds herself as head coach.
She comes into the position with experience in the community, coupled with the expertise brought by Meier, who grew up in Bend and played at Mt. Hood Community College and Willamette University.
“Alicia was awesome,” Hutchins said. “She is a skills technician. She is very technique-oriented. She really brought some refined techniques for hitting and blocking. She was really open to trying new stuff.”
Meier also started a club volleyball program, with support from Hutchins and other assistants, for Sweet Home girls, in an effort to raise the Huskies’ skills and experience to what the competition is bringing. The club team is entering its fifth season this winter, running through the first week of May. Sweet Home has moved up in the club rankings over the years, Hutchins said.
“It’s a very active, full program,” she said.
Players and parents have shown commitment and enthusiasm and the Huskies’ age 14-and-under and 16-and-under teams, in particular, had good seasons. The Huskies also fielded a 12-and-under team for the first time.
“We’re getting lot of support from kids and parents, which is great,” Hutchins said. “ We finished very well. Our (age) 14s team did really well last year and our 16s team won a lot of tournaments.
“I think it’s really helping our high school program. I think that was one of the best things Alicia instigated.”
Volleyball, as is true of other sports, is constantly evolving in styles of play and other areas.
“That’s what’s good about club – you get to see what’s new, what other coaches are trying, new stuff that’s out there, and talk to the other coaches,” Hutchins said. “That’s been really helpful for me, and I know it has been for (fellow-assistant) Shawna (Baxter) too.
Hutchins said that, despite the demands of volleyball in today’s world, she still encourages girls to participate in other sports, even if they are playing club.
“We have so many kids who play softball, we try to work around all of that,” she said. “We are pretty open to that. We want them to play basketball.”
Hutchins said she wants to pursue a team approach to coaching with longtime fellow assistants Baxter and Michelle Knight. She also welcomes back Haley Fisher, who assisted last year, and former Huskies Emilee Riggs McGee and Meagan Graville.
“It’s all the familiar faces,” she said. “We’re going to continue on in the vein we’ve been going. I’m really excited. We’ve got a great group of kids. They have great personalities and they’ve put a lot of time and energy in. We have height coming in.
“The goal is obviously to keep growing the program, to provide opportunities for kids.”