ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The Liberal High School Lady Redskins volleyball team will be looking to do some rebuilding for the upcoming season, and a new yet familiar face is looking to help do just that.
Former Seward County Community College Lady Saint Jelena Čohadarević was recently announced as the new Lady Redskins head coach for the upcoming season, and she is no novice when it comes to the game.
“I've been involved with volleyball for about 15 years altogether. I started my volleyball career in Serbia, where I'm originally from, and after high school, I moved to the U.S. and played for Seward County Community College,” Čohadarević said. “While at SCCC, I was an All-American and am currently the only SCCC Lady Saint volleyball player to record 1,000 digs and 1,000 kills. After playing at SCCC, I transferred to Florida Gulf Coast University, which is a smaller Div. 1 school, and then after finishing there, I moved back to Europe and played in Athens and Northern Cyprus. After all of that, I had my first child and stopped playing volleyball for a while, but I traveled with my husband, Darko, who is a professional basketball player. We traveled around the world for about 10 years, and then we came back to the U.S. in 2019. Volleyball was my first love, and I'm very passionate about the sport. I was asked to be an assistant coach when we came back to the U.S. in 2019, but we had to wait for a year, and then circumstances changed. Since I work at LHS as a teacher, I heard the position became open and decided to apply.”
Čohadarević said she was very excited to get the official news about her new position.
“I was very excited, and I'm still very excited coming back to the court after so long. Even though I'm older than when I played, my mind is still young and I still feel like I did back in my 20s. I'm very hard-working and have high expectations for the girls who will be on the team,” Čohadarević said. “When I officially got the news, I was immediately thinking about winning the WAC and going to the State tournament and winning every other possible title. I believe we can work hard and have that work pay off, so my main goals are to work hard, get to know the girls and push them as far as possible.”
Čohadarević said there has already been quite a bit of preseason work done.
“Before I left for Europe for this summer, I had already been working with the team for about a month, so I'd already built a mental list of what players were coming to the summer workouts and all of that, and it also helped me see what talent I'll have,” Čohadarević said. “My goal is to create a team of good student-athletes. I want the girls to be good students who do well in the classroom and also have a good personality on and off the court who can work together as one unit. When we establish that, we'll work hard and achieve as much as possible. In today's world, we need more good people, and coaches are looking to work with quality athletes – they're looking for the talent, yes, but they're also looking at attitudes and overall how well their athletes work in a team setting, and I want to be the same way.”
Čohadarević added there is a lot to be excited about with the upcoming season.
“This season will definitely a learning experience for me as well, so I'm going to work with the girls and the assistant coaches so we're all on the same page as far as our goals and everything else for the team,” Čohadarević said. “There will be some bumps, there are always are, but I'm ready for them and hoping we improve day by day. I read in a book once 'If you improve even by 1 percent from yesterday, you're still improving.' If we push ourselves each day to be better than the day before, I feel like we'll be on a good road to having a successful season. It will take time to make the needed improvements with the program, but I'm willing to work hard and give everything I have and use all of my volleyball knowledge to help the Lady Redskins have a good season. I'm really excited for the season. The girls are already showing so much energy and positivity, and they were working so hard with the summer workouts and everything else, and that's great for me to see as a coach. Seeing that level of energy and positivity also motivates me as a coach because it shows me I'm starting off on a good note. I'm expecting us to have fun, rack up wins, and continue learning as the season goes on.”
Čohadarević said she hopes the girls on the team learn some valuable lessons and added she will be learning along with them.
“A big challenge for me will be changing my mindset from that of a player to that of a coach – when I step on the court, I'm still thinking like a player and plotting out strategies and wanting to hit the ball,” Čohadarević said. “That change in mindset will definitely be different, and since I'm also a teacher, being a coach will help add on to my experiences. All of my girls are different and have different skills and strengths, and I'll also need to keep that in mind as we go about drills and everything else we'll do in practices.”
Overall, Čohadarević said, it will be a good season for the Lady Redskins.
“I would love to see big crowds at all the Lady Redskin volleyball games, I would love to see that community support for the girls. If we can get the community cheering for us,” Čohadarević said, “I feel like that will help us get some good results for the season. I think it's going to be a really exciting year because it's a new team, new coach, all of that. But these girls are going to play hard each match and go for everything they can. These girls have not given up at all with all the changes that have happened so far, and you're going to want to see them play this year.”
