Volleyball has always been an integral part of Holly Motheral’s life, as either a competitive college athlete or for the last eight years, as the head coach of the Messiah University’s women’s volleyball program.
Motheral, who grew up in Paris, Ontario was surrounded by a sports-loving family, found her love of volleyball during her time in elementary school.
“Sports have always been part of my life. My parents love sports, my sister loves sports, and so it’s just always a part of who I was.…I attended Central Baptist Academy from kindergarten through grade eight…there were many sports played like soccer, floor hockey, volleyball, and basketball, but I really loved volleyball. I didn’t get into it competitively until ninth grade [in] high school, when I went to North Park Collegiate,” said Motheral.
However, when Motheral became involved with Rick and Sandy Beetham’s Brant Youth Volleyball Club around 2001, it helped her truly hone her skills.
“The club level just took volleyball to another level….the speed of the game was higher than I experienced at the high school level, because we were playing teams from Waterloo, London and Toronto as they had more experience…Rick was my first club coach, and he taught me a lot about being a middle blocker and the ability I had, because of my speed, to get off the net after blocking and become an offensive weapon,” explained Motheral. “Sandy coached me later as well as at the high school level…she taught me the foundational skills, [while] pushing me to be the best I could [and] encouraging me go for provincial tryouts.”
One of Motheral’s early highlights was traveling with the club team to the United States where she got to match up against strong American competitors, testing her meddle.
“When I was 16, we traveled over spring break to Hawaii to play in a tournament…we had a pretty good team [as it was] all the top players from the Brant County high schools that year…we went and battled hard against the American teams, and they were tough…but it was great to be exposed to that high level of play,” recalled Motheral. “Without Sandy and Rick being a part of my life, I wouldn’t be where I am today, because I wouldn’t have had the knowledge or even the drive to become a better player and now as a coach.”
Although Motheral loved volleyball, she also enjoyed playing basketball, which gave her a tough decision to make when picking a university to go to.
“I was a decent basketball player [and] I think I was a smart basketball player just because of the training I had with Andrea Hawkins who coaches at North Park Collegiate. She’s one of the best high school coaches in Ontario, and I was getting recruited to play basketball in Canada because of how well our team did [at the] tournaments she was involving us in. [But] I wasn’t getting recruited that much for volleyball, because it’s a sport that wasn’t as high as a level as basketball was in Brant County, so we weren’t getting as much exposure there,” noted Motheral. “I almost stayed in Canada…[with a chance] to play basketball at Wilfrid Laurier University. And Miss Hawkins, who was one of my mentors, sat me down and we went through [my options]…that’s when I ended up deciding that going to play volleyball at Houghton [University] (in New York state) was the best for me.”
Nevertheless, Motheral gained a deeper insight into Houghton College through a personal connection as a family in the Brant County community had several family members who had attended the school.
“I really enjoyed the smaller school setting at Houghton, and the Christian community there…I wanted to be around people that were going to encourage me and influence me in my walk,” said Motheral. “Also financially, it was going to be about the same money to stay in Canada as if went to the United States [while] I was able to get a scholarship to play four years in volleyball, and I also played a year of basketball my junior year at Houghton,” said Motheral.
After a successful four years at Houghton, where she was a two-time All-American Mideast Conference player and a NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) Scholar-Athlete All-American, Motheral began to think about what was the next step in her life.
“I thought about moving back to Canada to be a teacher [and I also] thought about teaching in the United States because I had my certificate to teach in New York state. But then there was also [my] dream of coaching at the college level…I knew that the best way to get to do that was to become a graduate assistant. It’s a role where you’re a graduate student, but you’re working for a coach as an assistant,” explained Motheral. ”A coach from the University of Rio Grande reached out to my college coach looking for a female graduate assistant that could work for them for two years…I applied and got the role [and] into the Master of Educational Leadership Program. And during that time, I learned a lot…[and] it definitely took some time to build relationships and seek out community there. But it was a great opportunity for me to get my foot in the door when it came to coaching and it led me to where I am today.”
After her time at the University of Rio Grande, Motheral then took a full-time assistant position at Montreat College in North Carolina, which was part of the NAIA before moving to Indiana and becoming the head coach for Taylor University. This then led to a career-altering opportunity.
“I was [at Taylor] for three seasons as a head coach…it was a great community there; really high achieving, both academically and athletically [and] they were one of the top winningest programs in the NAIA for volleyball. So, I was set up with a really good situation, [however] the only thing that was lacking was the social community aspect. It was kind of in the middle of nowhere, so work became my life, and I started to get a little burnout after year three,” explained Motheral. “I was considering taking a coaching job back home, [until] a job in Pennsylvania opened up at Messiah University (which was a college then.) I came here in 2016, for the full-time head coach volleyball position [and] then became the assistant director of a program called AROMA which stands for ‘A Revolution of Missional Athletes.’ My time here has been amazing [and] I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else right now.”
As Motheral was starting her fourth year as head coach in 2020, the appointment of Sarah Gustin-Hamrock as Executive Director of Athletics in the same year was one of the highlights because of the winning mind-set that she brought.
“She played volleyball at Michigan State, and has coaching experience at the NCAA Division I level. She was also an alternate for the Olympic team at one point when she was younger. It’s been great to have her as a mentor [and to be] able to go to her for advice, whether it’s about conversations I need to have with my players, or tactical strategies for matches. She’s been really supportive of us as coaches…letting us to our own thing with our programs [while] still holding us to a high standard,” stated Motheral.
Motheral, who is going into her eighth year of coaching the program, is looking to continue the strong athletic tradition at Messiah University.
“The goals going forward are definitely to win our conference and get to the national tournament. Division III is the biggest out of all the divisions in the NCAA [with] over [400 universities and colleges competing], and people don’t always know that…it’s challenging to be a top dog in NCAA Division III, just because it’s such a large division,” noted Motheral. “However, Messiah is known for excellence across sports…we’ve had our soccer programs and field hockey program win national championships, same with our wrestling program…so my goal is to get our volleyball program to be a well-known name, [and] when people see us, they know it’s going to be a good game.”
