By Mike Coppage VSN Correspondent
Waylon Young is a volleyball junkie.
His fascination with the sport began in the 1990s, when Young was a toddler fetching balls at Notre Dame of Crowley practices. His mom, Tara, was and still is the Pioneers’ coach. Waylon is also on the staff, but more on that later.
“I’ve been obsessed with volleyball as long as I can remember,” Young said. “I would run around and shag balls for the girls….be their human target. I just love sports.”
One of Young’s favorite pastimes is watching football. He can couch surf for unlimited hours while watching NCAA or NFL football, but says “there is something about being in a competitive volleyball match that is enthralling. It’s so fast-paced. It grabs you.”
As a youngster, Young walked around the house, leaping to touch the top of door frames and practicing his spike technique. Though his love for volleyball remained steadfast, Young didn’t expect to make a career out of coaching the sport, even though his family has a rich tradition in the vocation.
“I was set in college on not being a teacher or coach,” he said. “Anything but that. But once I got to college and started playing, I went to mom and told her I wanted to coach.”
At UL, Young played pickup games sometimes every night of the week at Bourgeois Hall. He helped assemble an intramural team that reached the state semifinals twice and won a championship against a team from Southeastern Louisiana.
Young made his debut as a Notre Dame assistant in 2015, working with the setters. He spent a few years as a “small voice” on the coaching staff. In 2020, he began running practices.
“Mom and (longtime assistant) Brad Petry liked how I ran practices,” Young said. “They gave me a larger voice within the team.”
When Waylon’s grandmother died in 2022, Tara Young stepped away from coaching to tend to family business in California for an extended period of time.
“She didn’t know when she would be back,” Young said. “After a few staff meetings, it was decided that I would be the voice of the team.”
Young led the Pioneers to a Division IV runner-up finish in 2023. His mom returned to Louisiana and helped coach the Pioneers, who have won five state championships (2007, 2010-2012, 2021).
“Ultimately, mom is probably the best team player there is,” he said. “She’s had an amazing career, possibly a Hall of Fame career, and she put herself on the backburner.”
Their roles switched this season when Young’s wife, Meghan, gave birth to a baby girl in August. Young, who took a month off, subsequently returned to the team.
“It’s an ever-changing dynamic,” he said of the Notre Dame coaching staff. “I think we work really good together. The dynamic is good. Mom and I are both severely competitive. We have arguments and disagreements.”
Young is as passionate as ever about volleyball, but the birth of his daughter Camilla put things into perspective.
“Honestly, fatherhood is way better than I would’ve ever expected,” he said. “Ever since I started coaching, I would lose sleep, fretting over every little thing, but this has given me new insight.”
Young has another full-time job as a coach at Cajun Elite Volleyball in Lafayette, a powerhouse club program that trains players from ages 10-and-under up to 18. In addition to coaching, he serves as the social media coordinator and website manager.
“I’m basically involved in everything,” said Young, who won a club state title at Cajun Elite with a team that featured players who are currently juniors and seniors at three-time defending LHSAA state champion St. Thomas More.
“My bosses thought it was a good idea to let me coach them,” Young said. “Crystal Miciotto, who played at Southern Miss, coached them as 12-to-14-year-olds. She’s an amazing volleyball mind. The kids on that team really put me on the map. I don’t think anyone would know who I am if not for them.”
Notre Dame has a 15-10 record heading into Wednesday’s match at STM (22-2), which is No. 2 in the Varsity Sports Now/Geaux Preps Power 25 state rankings. You can catch all the action on VSN at 6 PM.
The Pioneers, who are No. 6 in the Division IV power ratings, are led by seniors Annalise Maloz, Riley Shuff, Alex Meche and junior Valerie Brown.
Maloz, an outside hitter, is the team captain. Shuff is a right-side hitter who Young said provides a steadying presence both “physically and mentally.” Meche is often the key to victories as a “solid setter.”
Brown, another right-side hitter, is one of the best at serve receive in the program’s history, according to Young, who added that the junior “is a really, really talented player. She is going to be very important for us to be successful.”