Longtime area volleyball coach John Finn talks with some of the members of the Waynedale volleyball team. Finn was recently named the new head coach of the Golden Bears.Submitted
John Finn has been around volleyball long enough that a short break wasn’t going to make much difference. As he prepares for his first season as Waynedale’s head coach, he expects to hit the ground running.
First, though, he needed a little convincing to take the gig. With a longtime career that included stops as head coach at Triway and Central Christian behind him, Finn originally believed he was just helping the school in its search, rather than becoming the object of it.
“Their athletic director Andrew Johnson called me to see if I knew of anybody, probably a young woman, who could coach,” Finn said. “Magically, (Waynedale Director of Operations) Erich Riebe appeared in the room, I guess, on the other end of the line. We exchanged our greetings, and somehow the conversation changed to me. I missed (coaching), and I debated it and talked it over with family and my wife and everybody and decided to do it.”
The Bears are coming off a 13-11 season in 2024, 6-8 in the Wayne County Athletic League. That followed a co-championship season in 2023; the team had been a contender throughout the 2020s until last season.
The Golden Bears should return All-WCAL performer Callie Wolf. The 5-foot-7 hitter was a stat-sheet stuffer from her hitting position and could also appear in a defensive specialist role, showing her versatility.
Current sophomore Bella Parry, a 5-9 hitter, should be a key player next season for the Bears, who were mostly underclassmen a year ago.
“I know it’s always been a competitive program,” Finn said. “They’ve always been tough, always been fundamentally sound, had good athletes and a competitive culture overall in the athletic department. They’ve been strong and especially at volleyball. From that standpoint, it’s very appealing.”
While Finn hasn’t coached in the WCAL, he faced plenty of its programs while at Triway. He knows the competition is fierce and his team will have to be good to get back to the top.
He’d rather have it that way than be easy. There aren’t many nights off in the conference, and that eventually pays dividends.
“It prepares you for the postseason, and you want to have a competitive schedule,” he said. “When I was at Triway, we played at least half of the Wayne County Athletic teams every year. It’s a good situation.
“Obviously, you want to compete for the league title. That’s a big deal. There’s a lot of good teams that stand in the way. I always use 20 wins as a barometer. If you get to 20, you probably had a pretty good year. Not saying we’ll do that, but that will be a goal to try to reach.”
Finn said while most teams look at passing and defense as keys to success, those are a given, and instead, he looks to net play as what sets apart the good teams from those chasing them.
“To win you need to be able to win the game at the net,” he said. “You have to be able to block, and you have to be able to attack. I think if we’re tough at the net, we’ll be strong.”
Overall, Finn sees Waynedale as a perfect situation to enter as a coach. Sweeping changes are not in the offing.
“When you buy a home, sometimes they say it’s in move-in condition,” he said. “I would say the Waynedale position is like that. You don’t need to change a lot. Take what you have and try to have them advance their skills and reach the proverbial next level.”
