Lauren Herseth: volleyball veteran, mentor and coach
ELLENSBURG, Wash. (BVM) – Born in 1993, Lauren Herseth grew up in Olympia, Wash. only about three hours away from Central Washington University, the school that she currently coaches at. In 2003, at age 10, Herseth began her volleyball career.
Herseth was a defensive specialist/ libero for her middle school team at St. Michaels, a K-8 Catholic program. Although she loved the sport, she didn’t see herself continuing down the path of volleyball once she got to high school. She started playing basketball at Olympia High School, but stopped her sophomore year when a coach turned her off of the sport.
“We all have had that one coach that just changes our feelings about the game, whether it’s good or bad,” Herseth said.
Herseth then continued with volleyball and decided that she wanted to be a part of a college program.
When explaining her recruiting process for college she said that “the number one thing that [she] was looking for was a coach that had been with the program for a while and someone that was going to stay”, which in her opinion meant that the coach truly loved the game, and was willing to put in the time and effort into each player. In Herseth’s opinion, the head coach at Central Washington, Mario Andaya, fit that description.
In 2014, during her senior year at Central Washington she was named team captain. Her goal earlier in her college career was to make it to the NCAA Division II tournament. Central had not made it to the tournament for about 10 years. To her luck, they made it to the tournament her sophomore year, and Central has attended every year since.
After her college career, Herseth became a physical education teacher at St. Martins middle school, teaching for five years and then moving to the volleyball staff for an additional three.
In 2019, Herseth was given the opportunity by Andaya to become an assistant coach at Central Washington. Her positive experience as a player made this decision easy for her, and she soon accepted the job.
Herseth has only been coaching at Central for two years now but intends on staying for a while, eventually moving into a head coaching role. Coaching came easy to her. She was already a veteran at the sport and she knew how to speak to the players in what she calls a “two way dialogue”, making sure that her coaching isn’t a one way street but rather a friendly conversation.
“The hardest thing about coaching,” Herseth said. “Is keeping up with the world we live in.”
Volleyball continues to change every year, whether it’s rules or new girls coming into the team, so the idea of adapting is challenging to Herseth, but she still gets the job done. She is a big believer in mental health and makes it a goal of hers to ensure that every player feels they are being taken care of, not only on the court but off of it as well.
Her favorite part of being on the coaching side of volleyball is being able to see the growth the players go through physically and emotionally. She wants to be a part of the good volleyball experience that players go through, like what she went through when she was on the team at Central.
Every coach goes through the challenge of having to adapt to the game they love, and to the girls they coach. But Herseth loves her job and explains that she wouldn’t change where she’s at. Her excitement to grow as a mentor is hopeful to hear, and shows that there are still coaches out there that care about every aspect of the game; the good, the bad and the ugly.
