News Story - Idaho State Journal

Krobinett@journalnet.com

POCATELLO - Kolay Mickelsen was pleased to see the Idaho State volleyball team end its spring season by winning three straight exhibition matches at Reed Gym on Saturday. But what really made her happy was knowing that the next time she takes the court with her teammates, the Bengals will have a head coach again.

Idaho State administrators have informed the ISU volleyball team that within the next two weeks they should finally be ready to hire Mike Welch's replacement.

That is terrific news to most players. Seeing as how their former coach stepped down almost four months ago and Mika Robinson, the team's associate head coach who has been running the show since, will soon begin a new job in Georgia, they've needed a new leader for quite some time now.

''We're definitely ready for some closure on the issue,'' said Mickelson, a soon-to-be junior. ''We've built our hopes up on getting someone new for a while now, but it hasn't happened. At this point, we're just ready for an answer.''

The past four months, indeed, have been tough on the Bengals.

With no head coach, the players learned to follow Robinson and claimed to have truly enjoyed the experience. They liked that she was able to bring in two recruits, and they liked her style. Some actually hoped she would be named their next head coach. But she had already accepted another job by then.

''Mika is amazing,'' junior-to-be Emily Waldron said. ''She knows she's not going to be here next month, but she keeps pushing us like she's going to be around next year. She's still pushing us like a champion.''

Still, in the back of everyone's mind, they all knew another coach could would be taking over at some point. Most of the time, the players looked to each other for leadership rather than who was coaching them.

Waldron is just glad the team was strong enough to overcome the rough situation.

''We depend more on each other than whoever our head coach is,'' Waldron said. ''It's been frustrating at times, but the bright side is it helped us come together. We were close anyway, but now we know we can play with or without a coach.''

That's a trait not many teams in the country will be able to boast next season. Robinson believes Idaho State is one of the few teams around who could develop that kind of trust in each other.

''To most teams, this really would have been a bad deal,'' she said. ''But this is such a great group of girls who have a real drive to get better. I don't think it's bothered them much at all. Not like a lot of people would think from the outside looking in, anyway.''

In a weird way, some are hopeful that the Bengals will emerge as a stronger team thanks to the time without a coach.

''We've been through a lot,'' Mickelsen said. ''But I think it will help us. When you go through things like this that's when you learn lessons that will help you in life. That makes you stronger, and it will make us stronger as a team.''

By Kellis Robinett

This document was originally published online on Tuesday, April 22, 2008

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