STARKVILLE — A typical day for Maureen Whann starts at 4:30 a.m.
Following the usual morning preparations, Whann drives one hour from Starkville to Tupelo to her job as a computer programmer.
The second part of Whann’s day begins when her 9-5 job is done and she travels back to Starkville and enters the Starkville High School gym for a vigorous three-hour practice.
She wasn’t looking to get back into coaching, but a call from Mississippi State volleyball coach David McFatrich changed that.
“He called me and said, ‘Please,’ ” Whann said. “I said, ‘I don’t know. I work full-time. I’m in a huge project at work. I’m working 55-60 hours a week.’ ”
McFatrich felt Whann would be a good fit for the Starkville High program after Lauren Love stepped down following the 2015 season. Whann decided to take the job after talking with McFatrich and others in the Starkville community. Practices this week have ranged from 5:30-8:30 p.m., which makes for some long days, but she has enjoyed her time preparing the Lady Yellow Jackets for the season that begins Saturday, when Starkville plays Tupelo and Lake Cormorant in Tupelo. Starkville will play at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at New Hope.
“It’s a crazy commitment on my part,” Whann said. “I love to coach. I think I have a lot to offer. I really like to take raw talent and develop it. I’ve always just had a knack of teaching the game. I have loved the game since I was 11 years old, and I’ve played since I was 11 years old.
“I love coaching and I had been out of it long enough to forget how hard it is sometimes. You forget all the roughness of coaching.”
A native of Southern California, Whann played at MSU from 1987-88. She was a Rust College volunteer assistant coach from 2012-13. She started the Tupelo Juniors Volleyball Club in 2004 and was the director and a coach until 2010. She also refereed, including 11 years with the Mississippi High School Activities Association.
Whann isn’t doing it by herself, though. She has help from assistant coach Anna Price, who played at Grace Christian School in Louisville.
“We get along really well,” Price said. “She’s been a great example of a good, honest coach. She’s been a joy to work with.”
Whann knows Love and has all the respect in the world for her. She knew what kind of coach Love was and said their styles and approaches are very different, leaving the players to have to make an adjustment.
“Coach Love is very kind, sweet, and soft-spoken. I’m not any of those things,” Whann said. “I’m tough, I’m honest, not that she wasn’t, and I’m very vocal. Like I told my kids and the parents at the parent meeting, ‘If your kids are on the bench, you’re going to know why and your kid’s going to know why.’ I’m very honest about their abilities. I’m going to encourage them, but I’m also going to say, ‘Hey, you need to work harder. I’m not going to put up with an slacking.’ I’m a lot tougher.
“I think they really appreciate I’m honest. What you see is what you get.”
Last season, Starkville finished 22-10 and lost to Hernando in the first round of the MHSAA Class III State championship tournament.
Seniors Kelsey Jones and Shundericka Fason return to help lead the team. Whann also is really excited about sophomore Haley Korynas.
However, there has been a learning curve in the first week. She brought in six former college players, including former Starkville High standouts Vicky Vo (Belhaven) and April Reese (Middle Georgia State) to help in practice Thursday.
“When you play people that are better than you, you’re going to get better,” Whann said. “The philosophy is to get in here and just try to beat them up, so when we play Tupelo, who doesn’t have six college players on the team, they’ll be able to score points and go on runs. If they can take points off of us, they can take points off of anybody.”
Whann appreciates the support she has received from athletic director Milton Smith and others at Starkville. They have worked around her schedule and been flexible with her weird hours because of her full-time job.
Although reluctant at first, Whann is glad she accepted the job. She enjoys coaching and wants to make sure what Love built on isn’t dismantled.
“Lauren (did) such a good job with Starkville, and she really has had great seasons, and I just felt it would be unfair to the kids to just bring in somebody who didn’t know anything. I didn’t want her legacy to get dropped,” Whann said.
Girls Soccer
n Starkville Academy 14, Greenville St. Joseph 1: At Starkville, Sydney Passons, Shelton Spivey, Hannah Cuevas, Savanna Hubbard, Lauren Lyle, Amber Bock, Lake Little, Hays Miller, and Anna Claire Heflin were among the players who scored goals Thursday to lead the Lady Volunteers in their season opener.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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