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Get to know new Saint Thomas More volleyball head coach Evan Hook
Courtesy: Hook family

Get to know new Saint Thomas More volleyball head coach Evan Hook

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — After the retirement of Coach Kelly McClure in May following the big volleyball state championship, The High School of Saint Thomas More has brought in volleyball veteran Evan Hook to lead the Lady Sabers in the new season.

“We will be focused on creating a solid teamwork mindset that can overcome adversity and achieve our goals,” Evan says.

He knows last year’s win is probably on the minds of the team and is counting on what the Sabers have learned to build for this new year.

“Coach Kelly and I have spoken several times, and of course her insights from last year’s team are helpful,” he says.

Evan is certainly no stranger to high school volleyball, having played himself in Huntington Beach, California, where he grew up. He had the benefit of a strong program both in the academic world and on the court—or the sand, rather.

“[B]each volleyball at that time was in its heyday with legends playing on the beach I grew up at, so it was exciting,” he says. “Long Beach State was also the number one men’s program in the country at that time. [I]t was only 10 miles from where I went to high school.”

Playing alongside Olympic champions and coaches allowed Evan to develop his skills so he could start coaching himself, first in California and then back here in Champaign where he and his wife, Ellen, started Standard High Volleyball. The club was going strong until the pandemic started, and when Evan was first approached about the job at STM it wasn’t on his radar.

“[H]onestly, I was not even considering going back to coaching school yet as we still haven’t ramped the club back up from Covid shutdowns, so I immediately said ‘no,’” Evan says. “But after praying about it and talking [about] it further with my wife and the STM administration, it felt like the right program at the right time.”

There are some differences between coaching club volleyball and high school volleyball, but Evan says he sees one important similarity.

“[P]layers are always wanting to get better,” he says. “That doesn’t change, and neither do the life lessons that come with playing sports so I teach that consistently no matter what.”

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