Volleyball at its Prime
Despite being formed in 1968, Coach Johnson did not have much to work with when it came to the women’s varsity volleyball team. She had to build the team up herself from scratch due to the lack of funding given by the school and the lack of interest from the students. However, despite the hardships that Coach Johnson was forced to overcome, she was able to lead her intercollegiate team to a Zone Championship in 1975, followed by an invitation to the state playoffs that same year (Trinity University, 2011). Even though this focused and hopeful team was advancing to the state playoffs, an event most athletes dream of playing in one day, there were still critics and skeptics who thought this was simply luck. An article in Trinity University’s The Trinitonian, wrote that “the Tigerettes surprisingly won their Zone Tournament” (Trinitonian, 1975 p 10 ). By the author of the article using the word “surprisingly,” this exemplifies that even after the women’s volleyball team had proven themselves, there were still people who viewed a women’s team winning as a surprise. Unfortunately, Trinity’s volleyball team did not win the state championships, but the experience gave multiple girls a chance to experience something athletes dream about doing.
One of these girls was Lynn Luna, who later returned after graduating to take Johnson’s place as head coach of the volleyball and basketball teams. When asked how it felt going against teams like Baylor and the University of Texas, Luna replied that her and her teammates felt that there was never any added pressure from Coach Johnson to do well, and the only time Johnson would get upset at them was “if we were not playing up to our potential” (L. Luna, personal communication, April 23, 2016). At Trinity, Luna was captain of the volleyball team where she received several awards including being chosen for the TIAA-All Conference first team in volleyball, TIAA-All Conference second team in basketball, and MVP in both volleyball and track (Trinitonian, 1980, p.10). When asked to discuss who it was that she attributed her success to, she named Coach Libby Johnson. “She was a good person, motivator, had lots of inner strength…everybody loved playing and there was nothing negative about it [the experience].” (L. Luna, personal communication, April 23, 2016).
Libby Johnson was very much a disciplinary and demanded her player’s to give it all they had. She had rules that were to be followed. Shirley Poteet described a time when one of Coach Johnson’s players showed up late to go to a game at University of Incarnate Word, which is walking distance from Trinity, so they left without that player. That player showed up late to the game at University of Incarnate Word’s gym and took her place on the bench. As soon as Coach Johnson saw the player, she told the player to leave. According to Shirley, none of Coach Johnson’s players showed up late again after this (S. Poteet, personal communication, April 29, 2016).