Marian Central's Watling girls volleyball Coach of the Year

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The best season in Marian Central girls volleyball history nearly didn’t happen.

Three losses in a four-game stretch – let alone losing back-to-back matches – stunned the Hurricanes, leaving them unsettled with questions abound just one month into a season carrying high expectations.

Marian coach Laura Watling wasn’t going to let her players abandon their aspirations for a standout season after a sub-par showing at the Mother McAuley Preview Tournament in September. During a team talk, Watling eliminated the doubts, let any concerns be aired and made it a point to move on.

“It could have easily gone the other way,” Watling said. “That was a trying time for the team because especially coming off of last year the girls weren’t used to losing.”

From that point forward, the Hurricanes lost just three matches the rest of the year en route to Marian’s second-most wins (35) in school history and a program-best Class 3A second-place finish.

For her efforts and guiding the Hurricanes to their program’s best season, Watling was chosen as the Northwest Herald’s girls volleyball Coach of the Year. She was selected by the sports staff with input from local coaches, narrowly edging Cary-Grove’s Patty Langanis for the honor. Crystal Lake Central’s Lisa Reddish and Jacobs’ Lisa Dwyer also were considered for the award.

Watling, in her third season as Marian’s coach, said this year was the most challenging despite the nucleus that returned from last season’s Class 3A third-place team.

“I’ve never really come into a season with having certain expectations before,” Watling said. “It’s something new to the program, new to me so that aspect was definitely challenging. I think the biggest thing was trying to figure out the working lineup and the chemistry and how we can get all of that to come together this year.”

Even with lofty expectations, Watling always seemed to push the right buttons to get her team going. Watling’s ability to motivate especially paid off in the playoffs where Marian played two teams, Crystal Lake Central and Richmond-Burton, for the second and fourth times this season. In both matches against the Tigers, including the sectional final, Marian needed three games to pull out the wins.

“She’s a very calm coach,” Reddish said. “She definitely motivates and gets the most out of her athletes.”

The Hurricanes’ diverse personalities tested Watling as much as maintaining Marian’s focus on a return to the state semifinals. Finding a way to incorporate the fun-loving personalities with a high level of competitiveness was one of her bigger obstacles. Watling made sure Marian never crossed the line or was disrespectful to opponents though, even if people outside Marian’s program might have at times misinterpreted their actions.

“It was something that we kind of came into the year with the idea that this is the team that we almost need to be because so many of them don’t function well when they’re under high stress, high pressure,” Watling said. “It was kind of a conscious decision like, ‘You know what? They need to be able to have this fun in these moments.’

“It was really for them as a team to be loose and stay together and enjoy the moment because that’s what worked for this team and their identity.”

The camaraderie among the players and the dedication and commitment to one another set this squad apart from years’ past, Watling said. That drive to be the best was inspired in part to give seniors Abby Gilleland, Emma Hussey, Alyse Kolner and Mary Gehrig a proper sendoff.

“The juniors would openly say, we need to do this for the seniors because we want the team next year to do it for us,” Watling said. “We need to step up our game so that they realize we do want it as much as they do and we want them to have a memorable year. And at that moment I think we all kind of stopped and reflected a little and said that’s pretty awesome. I think that as a unit they got it.”