The Capital high school volleyball varsity team has gotten a new coach and the school has gotten a new teacher as well. Katie Turcotte, the new Health and Fitness teacher, is now the new Varsity coach for the Capital volleyball team.

Turcotte has a long history in the Olympia school district. She played for varsity team for Capital and started to coach volleyball teams in the year 2000. Turcotte started her coaching career as the JV coach for Capital but then went to Olympia and coached their C Team for two years, after which, she coached the JV team for another seven years. Turcotte spoke of what important qualities that are in an ideal athlete that coaches look for.

“”Probably just a good hearted person who is always looking out for their teammates,” Turcotte said. “An ideal athlete, obviously you want a skill level to be there as well, but that they are willing to do what it takes for the team and they’re putting their team first.”

Turcotte wasn’t always a part of Capital though. She coached for a total of nine years at Olympia. However, her decision to come back to Capital was a very difficult choice to make.

“Yeah, it was a really tough choice,” Turcotte said. “The final factor was that there was a teaching position here that opened up in the health and fitness department and so I thought long and hard about the decision and one of the other things that was definitely a plus for me is that my son is a senior here at Capital high school and so being able to be involved in the school and being able to see all of his fun stuff that gets to happen like the pep assemblies and those kinds of things while he was here was something that was gonna be really special.”

When she is finished with her coaching career, Turcotte wants to be remembered as something more than just a varsity Capital volleyball coach.

“Well hopefully when that my former players remember is just being somebody who is very positive and encouraging and who pushes people to be their best in all areas of their life and not just on the volleyball court,” Turcotte said.

Turcotte, the new varsity coach for volleyball, has come back to Capital to teach our new and old players. Not only about volleyball, but about them as people themselves, building upon their characteristics as students and teenagers. Welcome back to Capital, Coach Turcotte!