State-title winning Bell City VB squad gathers once again with legendary coach

Saturday proved to be an emotional day for veteran volleyball coach Erin Hoffman, as she got to enjoy the experience of being around an MSHSAA state championship-winning group of athletes.

In addition, she also enjoyed winning a title with her current team, the 2023 Advance Hornets.

You see, Hoffman’s extraordinary coaching career came full circle over the weekend, as she was surrounded by her title-winning past and present.

The 2003 MSHSAA Class 1 state championship volleyball squad from Bell City gathered on Saturday with former Cub coach Erin Hoffman (far right) to be honored prior to the 2023 Class 1 State Final match, of which Hoffman was coaching Advance. Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

Each year, at the MSHSAA Volleyball State Finals, the championship and runner-up teams from 20 years ago are recognized prior to the current state championship match. In a strange twist of history, Hoffman guided the Bell City program to the Class 1 state title in 2003, so that group was honored before Hoffman’s 2023 Advance High School squad played (and won) the 2023 Class 1 championship.

“That was like my last ‘Wow’ moment at Bell City,” Hoffman said.

In 2003, Hoffman was a young 28-year-old coach in her first season with the Cubs, and she set pretty high expectations after leading the program past Lockwood 15-25, 25-23, 25-19 in a thrilling state final at Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg.

“It was a pretty rocky season, honestly,” Bell City team captain Katie (Niemczyk) Henry recalled. “We lost to some teams that we absolutely should not have lost to.”

The Cubs, who had been good in prior seasons, but had never advanced past the District level, endured some growing pains under their new and “very stoic” head coach.

“A lot of times,” team captain Whitney (Abner) Asher said, “we played to the level of our competition. But then, towards the end of the season, everything just clicked.”

The Cubs (24-9-1 that season) were a “short and scrappy” group, according to Asher.

“We did not give up,” Asher said. “We had a lot of heart. I think that was the difference.”

That was evident in the state title match.

The Cubs dropped the first set in a best two-out-of-three format and trailed in the second set before seizing a 25-23 win and closing the day with a 25-19 win.

The 5-foot-3 Henry had 17 kills and 30 digs in the title match.

It was the second state volleyball championship for Bell City, which had also won the Class 1 title in 1996.

“It about gave me a heart attack,” team manager Amy Green said of the stress.

The victory was the first of six MSHSAA state championships won by Hoffman, with the sixth being Saturday with her latest Hornet squad.

“She was very stoic,” former Cub Megan Blattel said of Hoffman, “and she always has been. I would describe her as being very well respected. From my perspective, I was very intimidated, but in a good way, because I respected her.”

Blattel, who was a freshman during that 2003 season, ultimately enjoyed a lot of success with Hoffman, who led Bell City to third-place finishes in 2005 and 2008, as well as a fourth-place finish in 2006.

Henry said that the adjustments eventually happened, and the team just grew stronger as the postseason neared.

“We didn’t know (Hoffman) at all,” Henry said. “I guess getting to know her, and her getting to know us, and us just figuring things out. We had all been playing together forever, but she came in with a totally new rotation, and a new style of volleyball that we were not used to.

“But it obviously worked out well for us in the end. We have really, really good memories. We had a lot of fun. There were a lot of ups and downs, but it worked out.”

One of those “really, really good memories” was recalled by the group, who got a police escort from Morley to Bell City after winning the state championship.

“We were kids,” Tori Gibson said. “We were on top of the world. We had never had anything like that.”