Brooklynn Buck, the long-time assistant volleyball at Stone Memorial High School, has been tabbed to move one seat over on the bench and take over as head coach.
Stone Memorial Athletic Director Nathan Brown has announced Buck will replace former Stone boss Tori Permenter, who resigned earlier this spring. She will be taking over the volleyball program at Upperman in the fall.
“I was offered the job and I did a lot of thinking on it,” Buck said. “Change is scary, I think, for a lot of people. I am happy for Tori, but I was going to stay on as the assistant coach, and I wasn’t even necessarily going to apply.
“After further thought, I decided that I might as well just take it. It was not my original plan.”
In addition to coaching, Buck is finishing her degree at Tennessee Tech University.
Buck said she understands making the move from assistant coach to head coach is a leap. However, she said people have been pouring into her and helping boost her confidence.
“I definitely have big shoes to fill because Tori is a fantastic coach, and she was definitely born to coach volleyball,” Buck said. “I do think that we share the same expectations, morals and values for the girls in the program. I know the foundation that she was building, and so it gives me a little more confidence knowing that I kind of learned from the best in that aspect of.”
After having played for and coached with Permeter, Buck said she expects her teams to look similar to past teams.
“I think that my team will have its similarities to Tori’s,” Buck said. “I think that there will be some differences because of our personalities and stuff like that. It won’t be my team, it will be Stone Memorial’s team.”
Buck is already planning for next year’s season. She encourages any student that would like to play for her team next year to contact her about tryout times.
“I definitely think that we can achieve just as much, if not more than last year. We lost some great talent and those girls are very hard to replace,” said Buck. “However, we have great girls coming in and we still have great talent on the roster.”
And Buck said she hopes the community will support the volleyball program in the future, just like it had done in the past.
“I think that we have great parents and I hope that they show up and show out like they did last year,” said Buck. “The parents at Stone are a very tight knit community and I love that. I think the parents are amazing and I look forward to seeing them all next season for sure.”