After Hannah Sipe completed her volleyball career at Indiana University Southeast, she knew she wanted to return to Seymour someday and help coach the volleyball team.

Earlier this year, she contacted Owls head coach Angie Lucas about the possibility of joining the Seymour High School staff, and Sipe is returning to her alma mater as a varsity assistant this fall.

“I coached club volleyball at Union (in New Albany) for five years,” Sipe said. “Then I took a year off and I really missed it, so I wanted to come back and give back to the program that gave so much to me.”

Lucas said, “Hannah will bring a wealth of knowledge of setting to our coaching staff and players. Because she played at a high level, she also brings a fun, competitive attitude to our gym. Her focus will primarily be with our setters and secondly with our varsity team.”

Sipe graduated from SHS in 2017 where she played volleyball for four years and was a varsity starter two years.

“I was a setter, so it depended what kind of an offense we were running,” she said. “I either played all the way around or three rotations in the back row.

“To be a setter is like a really big leadership role. You’ve kind of got to know where everybody is on the court, what kind of offense you need to run, so it’s a big leadership role. I like that because you learn a lot about the game, and you kind of have to know every bits and parts of the game.”

Sipe said you’ve got to know what type of sets your offense wants.

“Everybody is different. Everybody’s vertical is different,” she said. “You’ve got to know on the other side of the court and have enough intelligence of the game to be able to play that position, so that’s what I like about it because you learn a lot.”

She started at the setter position at IU Southeast all four years she played there.

“I’ll be helping with the varsity a lot, kind of all over the place,” Sipe said. “I’ll be working a lot with the setters.”

She said just like every position on the floor, there will be stiff competition to be the starting varsity setter.

Sipe said she wants to help build team bonding.

“We’ll kind of build that chemistry up and understand what it takes to be a setter and how to run an offense, so it’s really important to understand from a young age,” she said.

Lucas said, “We are very excited to add her to our staff as a volunteer assistant. For me personally, I valued and trusted our relationship as coach/player and now get to see that carry over to our coach/coach relationship.”

Sipe said volleyball has always been her favorite sport.

“It’s a really hard sport, it’s a momentum thing and it’s a game with a lot of energy, so it’s really important to understand,” she said. “It’s not all about skill. The culture, chemistry, the communication, your energy, your attitude, that all contributes just as much as talent does.”

She said it is always nice to win the first set of a match.

“But the most important part is how you respond, whether you win or lose,” she said. “The talent can be hit or miss, but everything else that you can’t necessarily teach is something that has to be there, like the communication, the leadership, the chemistry between each other. That’s something you can’t really teach.”

She is looking forward to the season.

“I’m very excited about this team,” she said. “I’m looking forward to coming back. There are a lot of people fighting for spots. We’ve got a pretty solid team.”