Emma Strand

This 2024 volleyball season, BHS is not only gaining a new JV coach but also four other coaches distributed among sophomore and freshman teams.
At first Cleary turned down the position because she was excited at the chance to be able to work with higher caliber athletes, but club volleyball is where her passion for the sport was re-ignited.
“I could easily see the difference I was making in the player’s abilities and development there, which made it really hard to want to leave,” says Cleary. “Brianna reached out a second time a few months later and I decided that it was worth stepping outside of my comfort zone and expanding my abilities as a coach.”
Cleary was cut from volleyball her senior year of high school. Although she had already signed to play in college, she was still devastated. The following years, Cleary wanted to prove to herself that one coach or program cannot determine an athlete’s approach to their success.
“It changed the way that I related to my coaches and teammates. It made me much more aware of myself as an athlete and as a person,” says Cleary. “It also drew me to coaches that saw me as a person first and an athlete second, because that is how it should be.”
When she got cut her senior year of volleyball the athletic director at Horizon called her and offered her a job as the 8th grade B coach. Cleary said yes because she wanted a way to stay connected to the sport. It taught Cleary a whole different way to see the game and it made her a stronger player by forcing her to break down everything and explain why she was teaching them what she was teaching them.
“Coaching was consistent through all the ups and downs of my volleyball career and post college it played the biggest role in healing my relationship with the sport,” Cleary says, “Getting the opportunity to watch my players’ hard work pay off. Seeing them recognize their own growth at the same time that they are growing their confidence in their ability and themselves as a person. Seeing that light in their eyes and the ear to ear smile when a new skill clicks or they find success in something they have been working on. There’s nothing like it.”
Cleary’s goal with BHS is to push athletes to their utmost potential as a player while also teaching them to not compromise themselves, their physical health, or their mental health in the process.
Cleary is already planning and working to continue to build on the coaching values that she has been developing over the years. She strives to be a combination of the coach that she needed when she was the student’s age and the coach that she needed when she was going through college volleyball. Cleary is a great new addition to BHS’s volleyball coaches.
“I strive to help this program become like a family. Recognizing that these girls are people first and athletes second. Helping to create a culture where mistakes are not the end of the world, and that we are invested in their whole journey and not just the end results. Having the type of coach/player relationship that is based in mutual trust and respect that will carry on into their future,” Cleary said.