The one constant in high school sports is change.
Big changes are coming to the volleyball landscape at Shady Spring High school next year.
Not only will highly successful players Meg Williams and Chloe Thompson be graduating, there will be major changes on the coaching staff.
Head coach Kelly Williams and longtime assistant coach Sharon Pinardo have decided the time has come to step down.
“I really do feel like my plate is full. I’ve been given so many years of amazing volleyball with amazing girls. The community and the parents have been great. I can’t say enough about the support that we have had over the years,” Williams said. “I hope they all understand that I have truly been blessed to have such a great group of girls. When it is your time to go, it is your time to go.”
With the head coaching position at Shady Spring in flux, Williams was named head coach prior to the 2016 season.
A coach at the elementary level prior to taking the high school job, Williams had witnessed first hand the talent blooming in the Shady Spring area.
“One of the reasons I took the (high school) job was I was in the elementary school system and I saw, even then, the talent in the younger players. I just knew they had great things in them,” Williams said.
An accomplished volleyball player in her own right, Williams vowed to make Shady Spring a state championship contender during her time. That including doing all she could to be the best coach possible.
“I wanted to give high school coaching a shot. I have watched a lot of YouTube. I have learned a lot from Sharon and from travel ball,” Williams said. “I have tried to do my best to be the best coach that I can be. I have tried to be the most positive and the most effective coach that I can be.”
Willing to do everything possible to make her players better, Williams also established a level of expectation that became the foundation for future success.
“The girls that first year were great. They were very responsive and did a great job. I remember all of those names,” Williams said. “The girls have always wanted to work for me. We do a lot of timed stuff and we were focused on different skills. When you are standing around, nothing is getting done. Over the years we developed a plan for practice.”
Shady Spring lost in the sectional round her first year, but it was the only time the Tigers did not make the state tournament under Williams.
Still striving to make the team better, Williams coaxed Pinardo back into coaching to start year two and the dynamic duo combined to send the Tigers on a spectacular six-year run.
An all-state player in high school and former player at Fairmont State, Pinardo was an assistant head coach for the highly successful Woodrow Wilson program under Shirley Brown. She also laid the ground work for Club Attack which has been the key to success for numerous local high school players.
“Sharon and myself have worked hard to make sure the girls are in the best position they can be. We put in lots of hours in the spring and summer, getting them in the gym as much as possible to push them to be the best that they could be,” Williams said. “We tried different things. We taught them all of the positions and tried to make them good all around volleyball players.”
The Tigers won their way to the state tournament the next two seasons, but untimely injuries and illness sent them home after round one.
With the addition of her daughter Meg along with Thompson, Shady transformed into one the the top volleyball teams in the state, regardless of class.
The next four years Shady Spring advanced to the Class AA state championship match and won the state title in 2020.
During that four-year span the Tigers won the regional title each year and did not drop a set to a Region 3 AA opponent.
“They have been a strong group,” Williams said. We survived Covid and didn’t even know if we would even get to play volleyball.”
The main reason the time has come for Williams to step down has to do with her family.
Williams’ daughter Meg will be playing volleyball next year at Concord University, while son Tommy is college junior playing basketball at Fairmont State. The youngest Williams, Jack, is a sophomore basketball player at Shady Spring as well.
“I love these girls and I keep up with them even outside of volleyball. I am going to love coming back and watching them,” Williams said. “I wish them all of the best and they know that. I am going to enjoy going to the next level and watching volleyball too. I still watch my girls that are in college.”
While the change is big on the surface, Williams is convinced the program which she invested so much time will carry on at a high level.
“I am sure that it will continue to be successful because we have great volleyball players coming up too. You see it at the clinics. We have the little girls that want to be volleyball players,” Williams said. “You see how they look at these girls and you can tell they will be great volleyball players at Shady Spring High School one day. There is no doubt that this program will continue to do great things.”