Moran grad Hise gets one last chance to play with mom, coach at all-star volleyball match

Going to a small school like Moran, it was pretty hard for Johnnie Hise to blend in as just one of the girls on the volleyball team.

After all, her mother was the coach – and the school’s principal. Oh, and another thing – mom also is a Moran grad and was a standout volleyball player in her day.

That’s a lot for a youngster to live up to.

“As a coach’s kid, you don’t get nearly as much recognition from your coach, because your coach is your mom,” Hise said. “Everyone is going to think there’s favoritism.”

So no matter how hard she worked to earn her spot on the team, Hise believed her teammates thought she earned it because she was the coach’s daughter.

“I didn’t get favoritism,” Hise said. “I had to work a lot harder than everybody else, but everyone would say, ‘Oh, it’s just because you’re the coach’s kid.’ But, no, I was in the gym for hours and hours just trying to make sure that I could stay on top of everybody.”

It wasn’t just a four-year gig, either. Hise’s mom also is an assistant coach for the junior high. So, the younger Hise worked with her from seventh grade on up. That’s six years together.

“I had her forever,” Hise said.

Well, forever is about to end.

Hise will play in the Big Country Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ All-Star Volleyball match at 11 a.m. Saturday at Wylie’s Bulldog Gym.

Hise’s mom, Jo, is an assistant for her daughter’s North squad, too. So, they get one more match together before the younger Hise goes to college at Texas A&M.

“I’m kind of excited, because I have other coaches with me this time,” the younger Hise said. “At school, it’s just her. I wouldn’t say there’s a lot of pressure, but you’re still the coach’s kid. I’m just here to play, really.”

Mom, too, is thrilled with the opportunity.

“I’m excited to work with the other two coaches also and gain more experience for myself," Jo Hise said.

Sweetwater’s Mitzi Bell will lead the North team, while Cooper grad Kianni Mitchell, a coach at Clack Middle School, and Hise will be her assistants.

Most of the players and staff are all from large schools. Few even know where tiny Moran is. It’s located about halfway between Cisco and Albany.

“Once I say Albany and Cisco, they’re like, ‘OK,’ and they’ve got some idea,” Jo Hise said. “Don’t blink or you’ll miss it.”

The younger Hise is more concerned with how she’ll measure up with the other girls. Nearly all played club ball and have more experience.

“I’m kind of nervous, really,” Johnnie Hise said. “I did a camp at Tarleton, and they were all club girls. That’s what I’ve gotten from a lot of these girls. They’ve played club, and I never did that. It makes me nervous, but I’m excited. I’m just trying to be as strong a team player as I can be.”

Holding court at home

When practice and matches are over, players and coaches usually go their separate ways. That hasn’t been true for the Hise family the past six years.

Mom and daughter talked volleyball all the time, especially during the younger Hise’s time in high school.

“We talked a lot about the team and things that I thought needed to be adjusted,” the younger Hise said. “We normally agreed on the same issues. We would discuss upcoming games and things we needed to work and the little things that you do.”

Jo Hise said the relationship was a two-way street. She knew she could count on her daughter to be a leader on the court at all times.

“It was fun because she is a strong leader,” the elder Hise said. “I knew I could count on her to get done what I needed to get done. She kept me straight, and I kept her straight. It was a mutual partnership.”

The younger Hise, however, could separate volleyball from home at times and vice versa. Her mother, though, doesn’t separate home from volleyball.

“A lot of the girls on my team needed a second mother figure in their life,” Jo Hise said. “So, I took that on. I didn’t separate being her mom and her coach, just like I didn’t separate being the rest of the team’s mom or coach. I figured they need a strong family atmosphere and relationship, before they could really dive back into a coaching relationship.”

Whatever the team needed, Johnnie Hise did. At a small school, that meant being able to do a little bit of everything.

“I have to fill in a lot of gaps,” the younger Hise said. “So, that’s another reason I stayed (after practice) so long, so I could practice my setting and serves and stuff. We never had the same team. It always changed.”

Jo Hise said her daughter was a joy to work with.

“She was dependable,” Jo Hise said. “She was fun to coach. Her heart was in the game, and she loved to play it.”

Johnnie Hise, the valedictorian of Moran’s Class of 2022, which was a whopping four seniors, also competed in cross country, basketball and track in high school. However, she gave up track her senior year to focus on FFA and 4-H.

She plans tp major in agricultural studies at A&M.

Great expectations

And while the younger Hise felt the need to always do more than everyone else, just to prove she belonged, so, too, does her mom.

Jo Hise wants the team to succeed because it’s the place she grew up and played before playing the game two seasons at Cisco College.

“It’s hard,” said Hise, who finished her college studies at Tarleton. “I want them to achieve more than we did.”

She said Moran restarted its volleyball program in 1992 and won a district title in 1993. The Lady Bulldogs haven’t won another since.

“I so want to give them that opportunity and that chance to get a gold trophy,” Coach Hise said.

That quest will continue next season without her eldest of four children. She also has two boys, Ellis, 15, and James, 11. The youngest, Emmie, 10, begins fifth grade in the fall.

Emmie will follow in her older sister’s football steps and play volleyball, too.

“She comes and helps me during two-a-days, and I’ll put a ball in her hand,” Coach Hise said.

And when Emmie grows up, she’ll have to live with the comparisons – just not what her mom did, but what older sister Johnnie did.

Coach Hise said there’s no comparison between mom and daughter.

“She’s a lot more versatile,” the coach said of her older daughter. “I couldn’t set. She far exceeded me a long time ago – probably by eighth grade. She’s always self-motivated. She’ll watch YouTube and figure out new drills and stuff.”

And for all the negatives and extra pressure that came with being a coach’s kid, Johnnie Hise must adjust to soon being on her own. No more mom and coach sharing the same roof.

“I have to be my own coach now,” Johnnie Hise said.

Joey D. Richards covers Abilene high schools and colleges, Big Country schools and other local sports. Follow him at Twitter at ARN_Joey. If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.

Big Country FCA All-Star Volleyball

When: 11 a.m. Friday

Where: Bulldog Gym, Wylie High School

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Moran's Hise plays for Coach Mom one last time at FCA volleyball event