By Matt Vines, Communications Specialist, LSUS Public Relations; featured photo by Kyle Richter, LSUS Marketing and Communications
Caitlin Clampitt had a decision to make.
The volleyball outside hitter completed her junior college career in Texas, but she was homesick to return to her Shreveport roots.
Clampitt was leaning toward coming back to Shreveport and ending her volleyball playing career when a local club coach relayed news that made her decision a no-brainer.
LSU Shreveport is starting a volleyball program.
“I was really on edge the entire time – do I want to keep playing (offer from NAIA member Texas Wesleyan) or come back home to be near my family,” said Clampitt, the homeschooler who played sports at Evangel Christian. “When I heard that LSUS was starting a program, I was so excited and sent coach (Callie Houlihan) my film.
“This opportunity was perfect, and I’m really excited to be able to come in and build something from the ground up.”
Clampitt will be one of 17 student-athletes to don LSUS volleyball uniforms for the first time in school history.
Players take the court for the first practice Monday as they barrel quickly toward competitive play with scrimmages on Aug. 15 and Aug. 18 with the regular season opening on Aug. 21.
The Pilots play their first 11 matches away from home at invitationals and classics, and LSUS will open the home chapter of its program on Sept. 11-12 with the Red River Athletics Conference opener against Texas College. LSUS plays Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at noon.
First-year head coach Callie Houlihan knows time is short to implement her style and build the team culture foundations, but that’s exactly what she signed up for when she accepted the job in December.
“Being a college head coach has always been a dream for me, so when I saw this opportunity, I knew I had to take it,” Houlihan said. “Team chemistry is the top priority, getting everyone to know each other on a personal level.
“We want to run a little bit of a faster system, so we’ll make sure everyone’s on the same page on how we’re doing things. We’re going in with an open mind.”
Outside hitter Logan Hamilton played under Houlihan for the past two seasons as Houlihan was an assistant coach at McPherson College, which reached the NAIA Tournament quarterfinals this past season.
Hamilton had her best career game in that final match (14 kills) for 34-3 McPherson, and she’ll be key in helping her new teammates acclimate to their new coach.
“Knowing that Coach Callie was there took away a lot of the uncertainty of transferring to a brand-new program,” Hamilton said. “She’s very understanding, and players can go talk to her easily.
“I’m excited to get to know everybody and start building a great foundation. It’s fascinating to watch a team come together, and we’ve all played on enough teams to know that each team is different and we have to work on coming together.”
BUILDING THE VISION
The decision to add a new sport has been years in the making.
When athletics director Lucas Morgan came to Shreveport in 2016, LSUS quickly reinstated men’s and women’s soccer.
Volleyball and softball have long been on the whiteboard as possibilities, given softball’s long-standing tradition in the region and volleyball’s recent rapid rise in popularity.
Volleyball could play and practice in a facility that already exists (the basketball gymnasium), whereas softball would not only need its own stadium but would require a comparable setup to baseball’s turf field and indoor facility.
“Volleyball made the most sense because from a startup standpoint, it’s significantly less expensive,” Morgan said. “We wanted to make sure we also had the resources to do this successfully and not just limp through and hope to be good in two or three years.
“We researched the budgets of better programs in terms of travel, recruiting and scholarships, and we put pieces in place to be competitive before we officially announced we were starting the program.”
That announcement came in December in conjunction with a posting for the head coaching position, which Houlihan accepted later that month.
“I felt like if we got the right person to lead this program, we were going to be ready to go for the fall and be able to compete for conference championships and at the national level,” Morgan said. “I felt very comfortable from Day One with Callie that we’d not only be able to field a team but that we could compete immediately.”
BUILDING THE ROSTER
Houlihan’s first mission was to recruit.
Recruiting was her primary task at McPherson in her two seasons, and she put those skills to work in building a roster that includes two Division I transfers, one Division II transfer, four from Division III, five from the junior college ranks and two from fellow NAIA schools to go with five freshmen.
Those players stretch across classification levels as well – five freshmen, two sophomores, four juniors and six seniors.
They hail from nearby places like Shreveport, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas while also stretching around the globe from places like Brazil, Egypt and Turkey.
“Recruiting was the most exciting part for me when I came into the college ranks, and we were able to get a great combination of girls,” Houlihan said. “Recruiting the whole roster gives me the chance to start a brand-new culture, and that was a big draw at a school where every other sport is successful.
“When you start recruiting in December, it is in more of the transfer recruiting season. But I wanted a mix of players that had experience at different levels and that spread across the age range. We wanted to build a culture that our players could move forward for players coming in for the next year.”
Houlihan said one key element she looked for in her players was an excitement around building something of their own.
“Building a new program could be seen as scary because people are scared of the unknown,” Houlihan said. “I was really looking for girls who wanted to start a legacy because we want to create a lasting legacy for our girls and our school.
“There were girls were nervous about us having enough players … so it was process of narrowing it down and finding people who were excited about starting something brand new.”
The two Division I transfers have starting experience (Farah Helmy at Oral Roberts and Hanna Pereira at Southern), and many others have starting experience at their various levels of competition.
Helmy led her team in assists as the setter while Pereira ranked fifth on the team in blocks from her middle blocking position.
In addition to finding players, Houlihan set to work on finding non-conference opponents and making sure the program had equipment and uniforms.
A new gym floor complete with volleyball lines, new logos and holes for a volleyball net came to fruition this summer, and a locker room was built.
BUILDING THE STAFF
A first-year head coach benefits from a veteran volleyball voice, and Houlihan found that in Aubrey Beaumont.
Beaumont has been the head coach at Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) and Rocky Mountain (Mont.), putting together winning seasons in two of her three campaigns at the helm.
Houlihan is connected to Beaumont through McPherson, where Beaumont served previously as an assistant before Houlihan’s tenure at the Kansas school.
“It’s incredible to have someone like Aubrey who has extensive experience as a head coach and an assistant,” Houlihan said. “It’s rare that you get to have two head coaches for a program, and she has extensive knowledge of things like travel and budgets.
“And of course show knows the coaching aspect, and we bounce stuff off each other.”
BUILDING THE COMMUNITY
Caitlin Clampitt, the Shreveport native who played at Evangel, knows the Shreveport community is starved for college volleyball at a local public institution.
Clampitt coaches with local club TC Elite and started coaching the freshman team at C.E. Byrd this summer.
“I think this is really cool, and I think having a public-school volleyball program here will help grow the sport,” Clampitt said. “We have a lot of really good athletes here, and now they have access to scholarship volleyball in their own backyard.
“It’s weird that volleyball hasn’t been bigger sooner in this area given how big it is in Texas and South Louisiana, but the sport is growing at the club level, middle school level and high school level.”
Houlihan and Beaumont will be on the volleyball community frontlines as coaches at TC Elite, fostering relationships that will drive interest and attendance for LSUS volleyball.
“We’re going to be at high school games, and we’re going to be involved in the volleyball community and in the city overall,” Houlihan said. “We’re looking forward to bringing our girls out to support our local teams, and we’ll certainly want to bring that excitement back in our gym for our games.”
Support from fellow students and the campus community is also key.
Morgan said adding an indoor sport in the fall provides students an additional opportunity for campus engagement.
While he’ll journey up to the team’s opening matches in Oklahoma City, he can’t wait to see what the atmosphere will be like Sept. 11 when the first serve goes up at The Dock.
“When we announced the program, my inbox was full with messages from people in the community, and from local coaches,” Morgan said. “Teams wanted to connect for camps and clinics, and the way volleyball has grown locally in the past few years has been tremendous.
“There’s a lot of energy around our first home game, and it’s a chance for our students, our campus, and our community to show their Pilot pride.”