Steph Huse picked to lead Pony volleyball into the future

The Havre High volleyball team is anxious for the fall season to start. And, the Blue Ponies will have a new head coach in Stephanie Huse. Huse was announced as the new head volleyball coach at HHS Tuesday.

Huse, who was a high-level volleyball athlete for Montana Tech back in the 1990s, where she played for the Orediggers on scholarship for four years, while earning a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering in 1999 and then a master's degree in counseling from Montana State University-Northern in 2006. In present day, Huse works as the Licensed Therapist for AltaCare Counseling at Havre Middle School. Huse is married to MSU-Northern Lights head basketball coach Shawn Huse and has three children, as well.

Since her college days, Huse has coached a mixture of different programs, from high school to club sports and more.

"I was a coach for Anaconda High School back when I first got out of college," Huse said. "I played for Montana Tech, was on scholarship and played for four years. After I got done, I coached at Anaconda for two years. I had and have been coaching middle school and intramural volleyball the past few years. I'm very excited. I feel like the female athletes at Havre High are very strong right now and they're all really good classes."

Following her playing career, Huse had a lot of opportunities across Montana to gain experience. Huse started her coaching career as a head coach right off the bat, coaching the Anaconda Copperheads volleyball team for two years in the early 2000s. after her time in Anaconda, Huse eventually made her way to Havre and coached at Havre Middle School, as well as other intramural programs in Havre.

Huse has found quite the correlation with her success as an athlete and her coaching experience, making strides to not only improve her coaching experience, but understand the game even better than she did before. With her skills as a player and as a coach, Huse is ready to be a part of Havre High volleyball, even if it has been some time since she coached a high school program.

Huse has many different takeaways from her previous years as a coach.

"I have learned a lot about myself and my development on how to work with kids," Huse said. "Like teaching them fundamentals and how to apply that within the system of the program. I've learned a lot about how kids compete, what motivates them, pushes them, frustrates them and I'm hoping to apply all that to our program now. I'm excited to work with them, but I'm a little nervous because it has been some time since I coached a high school program. But, I've been involved in coaching around the area for quite some time and I think I can apply those things to the high school now."

Another thing that Huse has at her disposal is her experience with student-athletes. Her work at Havre Middle School has opened up a great repertoire with the students who have come through the programs at the middle school to the high school, giving a good sense of familiarity for the new head coach of the Ponies.

And at the end of the day, Huse understands and encourages the importance of her team balancing their academics and athletics, especially when it comes to the 2020 season.

"First and foremost, they are student-athletes," Huse said. "Taking care of their academics comes first and after that, not only are they working hard in the classroom, but the they are going to work hard at practice and develop a true sense of being good teammates to one another. I want them to work hard to achieve goals that are set for the season."

The 2020 fall season will be quite a different experience for Huse, though, as with the COVID-19 concern staying in the way of many things, the Montana High School Association had to adjust the fall season to keep things safe and healthy for the teams and their communities.

Guidelines for the 2020 volleyball season include each player being required to shag their own ball during warmups, social distancing guidelines must be met at all times, no coin toss will happen, teams cannot switch benches between sets, pre- and post-match handshakes are not allowed and touching is not permitted during celebrations. These rules go into more detail, but Huse and many other coaches across Montana have read these guidelines to prepare for the upcoming season.

But at the end of the day, Huse was glad to see that MHSA has put something together so that her team can compete this year.

"It was really nice to hear that the MHSA took into consideration the need for student-athletes to be competing and participating within athletics," Huse said. "The athletes that I've been working with over the summer have been really talking about how much they want to play. They want to be with others for their emotional and mental well-being. It's important to them. I'm just glad that the MHSA made the decision to move forward in a manner that is safe, and what they laid out is very manageable. It's something that I feel we'll be able to put in place right away to keep the girls safe."

As the fall season draws closer, Huse and the Blue Ponies will be preparing themselves for not only another tough season, but a strange one, as well. As the new head coach, Huse is excited to bring her experiences as an athlete and a coach to help lead Havre to success under her guidance. Things will feel a little different this season, but Huse will be ready for any challenge that may come to face her in the future.