Sara Todd says she is thankful she has had a chance to coach volleyball in the community in which she grew up.

She is in her sixth year as volleyball head coach at Medora High School.

There’s no other place Todd would want to coach.

“I love it here,” she said. “You know everybody, you know all your girls and your girls know you. You come out here, and you hope you do a good job. I do the best job I can. I’m not the best coach going. I’m not the worst coach going.

“If I can come out here and they can have a good time together and we can win a few games in the meantime, I think that’s a success. Success is not all about a win-loss record. A lot of people don’t know what you’re battling when you’re here in practice.”

Todd said the fun part is building a team from the ground up.

“Every year, we have returners. You have to go with that Medora offense. You’ve got to find out what you have. Do you have hitters? Do you have setters?” she said.

“You’ve got to find out what you’re going to do and who’s going to excel at what. The main part that I enjoy is finding what that kid excels at, putting them in that position and just seeing it on their face. Put them in to blossom, to grow in it.”

Todd graduated from Medora in 1990. Her class was the first one to play in the Medora High School gym for four years, and her volleyball coach was Lisa Ferguson.

She played volleyball at Indiana University Southeast for three years after leaving Medora.

She returned to her alma mater and began coaching volleyball in 1996.

“I coached fifth through eighth, so I had elementary and junior high,” Todd said. “I did it by myself for three or four years, and then I had another lady come in and help me with elementary, and I did junior high.”

She said she took some time off when her daughters, Avery and Alli, were born. Then she returned to coach the varsity squad.

Todd said the biggest change she has noticed since she has become head coach is the quality of play by opposing individuals and teams.

“I think a lot of people are going to club ball — a lot of people that can afford it,” Todd said. “It has raised the level of play. I think sometimes, you get complacent in your own school with your own coach, and you know how much you can push them.

“I think going out and getting that extra club ball time with different coaches gives you more incentive to push a little harder and learn a little more. There’s more competition out there, so you have to push yourself to play harder, which makes you better than just being complacent in your own little safe place. It used to be everybody was fairly even. Now, you’re talking worlds of difference with girls that play club ball.”

Of her current group of seniors, Todd said only Katie Beesley played club ball. Her daughter, Alli, planned on playing club ball until she suffered a head injury that sidelined her for most of her junior year.

Todd has had to work with small squads throughout her coaching career.

“When I was coaching junior high, they didn’t have a JV team,” she said. “Then we got them coming back. I don’t know if that’s just more girls getting interested or more focus on the elementary and junior high program.”

One senior player moved away last week, leaving five seniors, one junior, one sophomore and one freshman on the roster.

Medora is playing a varsity-only schedule this fall.

Being a Class A independent school, the Hornets are traveling all over southern and central Indiana this fall.

Their schedule features away matches at Indianapolis Arlington, Union Dugger, South Central (Elizabeth) and Cannelton.

“We have to travel to find opponents that are more our size,” Todd said. “We’re just not competitive with the bigger schools. They have so many to choose because there is just so many kids, and we get what we get, and we put a team together with that.”

Class 2A schools on Medora’s schedule Paoli, Eastern (Pekin) and Henryville, and the Hornets play Class 3A Salem. The remainder of the schedule is made up of Class A schools.

“You’ll never find girls with any more heart than these girls have, and they give everything they’ve got,” Todd said. “It breaks my heart sometimes when we play a team and we can’t be competitive with them just because they’ve sent them to club ball. It breaks my heart to see them so disgruntled with themselves when they’re giving me 110 percent, and that’s all I ask them to do, just give me everything you’ve got.”

She said it was hard to get the girls to work on their game during the summer.

“We start open gym in June, but you have girls that have to work, and you can’t get a full team here, so when we start practicing is that first practice in August,” Todd said. “That’s when we put everything together, and it seems like the middle of the season is when everything starts to click.

“They’re starting to mesh well as a team. They’re starting to figure out what their place is on the team, what everybody does best, if she passes a little bit better than me, and it’s close to her, let her take it.”

Todd isn’t afraid to switch up rotations to find the best fit of players.

“That first few weeks we had the full team in here, I’ll bet we switched the lineup every day,” she said. “It’s hard for them to get used to that when you’re switching them. If it isn’t working, you’ve got to try something.

“They’re doing a little bit better at communicating. It seems like when we win, they want to communicate more, but it’s a viscous circle. If you communicate more, you’re going to win more.”

Todd said it has been nice having Alli playing this season.

“She played one game last year,” Todd said. “She was on varsity all four years. Avery and Alli got to play together two years. It was nice having both of them on the floor.”

Todd said she has enjoyed working with assistant coach Missy Stewart the past several seasons.

“God love her heart,” Todd said. “She’s got my back. She is good to work with. I’ve worked wither the past 10, 12 years. Me and her mesh so well together. She’s always there. I find that we say the exact same things on the bench.”

Todd said she looks forward to the remainder of the season leading the Hornets.

“I love it here,” she said. “I don’t think I’d want to do it anywhere else. Down here, it’s more like family than it is a job.”

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“I love it here. I don’t think I’d want to do it anywhere else. Down here, it’s more like family than it is a job,” Medora High School volleyball coach Sara Todd

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