WILLMAR -- To be clear, Traci Grussing never retired from coaching.
Even when she left Central Minnesota Christian School in 2006 after taking the Bluejays to nine state tournaments in 10 years, she continued to coach Junior Olympic volleyball teams based in Willmar and Bloomington.
Also, in 2010, she was back on the Bluejays bench as co-head coach to take some of the pressure off former player Lindsey (VanderWell) Taatjes, a first-year coach with work obligations and expecting late in the fall season.
This fall Grussing returns to high-school coaching full time heading up the Willmar Cardinals' program.
"When I quit, I was ready for a break," she said. "After two or three years away I was ready to go again. I was pretty sure I would get back to [high-school coaching], but I didn't think it would happen until after my kids were graduated."
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But something happened.
The Willmar position opened up when Terrin DeBoer's coaching contract was not renewed. Grussing could have the opportunity to both coach and see her two daughters play.
Replacing Terrin, a two-time All-State hitter when she played for Grussing as Terrin Post, is admittedly awkward. DeBoer, owner of a formal wear shop, balked at her dismissal.
"It's kind of uncomfortable for both of us," Grussing said Wednesday in a phone interview. "We're friends. Terrin totally understands. She wants my kids to have a good coach. We had lunch yesterday."
The transition should be fairly smooth. Seven seniors graduated off the 2011 team which will mean a "Fresh start with a lot of new faces."
The strategy and tactics should carry over. When De Boer took the Willmar head-coaching job three years ago she pointed to her high school coach was a major influence.
"She is an amazing coach," Terrin commented. "She has a calm sense about her, but you knew when she meant business. She taught us to be good players, but also how to love volleyball while being very competitive."
Grussing graduated in 1983 from Elk River, the last year the Elks were part of the Central Lakes Conference. She played volleyball and basketball at Hamline; her son Joey is now a sophomore there and on the Pipers' track and field team.
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Traci's path to Prinsburg began when she met Steve Grussing, a Clara City graduate, at a Johnny Holms Street Dance on a 4th of July weekend. Traci's parents had long rented a cabin on Green Lake.
She became head coach at the school in Prinsburg in 1991 and would also teach for 5 years.
"When I started there were good athletes and the people were really gung-ho and wanted to succeed," she said. "When we had some success that got all the younger girls excited and then it was just time and effort."
The Bluejays were 1997 state runners-up in and then won the first of three state titles in a row the next year -- all the more impressive because those tournaments were the final two years before the state format went from two to three classes.
The CMCS 10-year run remains one of the most impressive feats in prep athletics in the area covered by this paper. It ranks up there with Bird Island-Lake Lillian's back-to-back duel state titles in football and boys basketball and New London-Spicer's extended state visits and championships in girls basketball and cross-country.
Three times from 1997 to 2006 the Bluejays returned from the Xcel Energy Center with a 3-0 record and five other times 2-1 record and a third- or fifth-place trophy, presumably requiring extension of the trophy case in the lobby.
Each of those state-bound years, the head coach could form the line-up around one or even two exceptionally athletic All-Staters.
Willmar will be different, she knows. The Cardinals play in a metro-heavy AAA section.
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"It's a little scary," she observed. "Willmar is in such a different kind of section [from CMCS] competing against all those city schools where the girls play volleyball year around."
Volleyball had the corner on athletes in the fall and in the spring when a lot of JO volleyball is played. Willmar offers five sports plus danceline in fall and softball and track are both very popular in spring.
Traci said DeBoer's staff returns in tact with Mandi (Illies) Norby (JVI), Jana Peterson (JV2) and Merrianne Werder (freshmen).
Steve, who farms and works for UPS, and Traci live in southwest Willmar. Besides Joey, they have two daughters: Esther is at the middle school and Riley is in tenth, already with a year behind her as the Cardinals' starting setter.
