Nathan Daugherty takes over Silverdale Baptist Academy volleyball

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

Silverdale Baptist Academy has hired Nathan Daugherty to coach its varsity high school volleyball program.

Daugherty, who is succeeding one-year coach Lisa Davis, was hired as a teacher at Silverdale before last school year and coached the middle school team. SBA high school athletic director Tim Couch said he approached Daugherty about the high school position when it came open in the spring.

"I had just finished a long club season and I was ready for a break," Daugherty said. "I didn't want to think about it at the time. I've got a daughter almost 3 and a son about to turn 1. I have some responsibilities at the church that are also important to me. It wasn't the right time."

When plans of a different hire didn't work out over the summer, Daugherty was approached again. Couch said he liked what Daugherty had done working with the middle school program.

"I feel really good about it because he was one of the first people we considered for the job when it first came open," Couch said. "We like for our high school coaches to be on faculty. We feel like better relationships can be built that way."

Daugherty also has some experience working with high school level players, having coached the Adrenaline 16-1s to an 81-35 record last club season with five tournament-finals appearances and two championships. He also coached the Chattanooga Patriots' junior varsity in 2012.

Before that, Daugherty got the recreation volleyball program started at the Hamilton YMCA.

Daugherty met with the Lady Seahawks and they had two practices earlier this week and are currently participating in a play day at Baylor. The TSSAA season, where Silverdale competes in District 5-A, begins Aug. 18.

"We're rusty, just getting to know each other," Daugherty said. "Obviously we want to win, but we're a Christian school, so we want to win the right way. I'd like to think we can finish in the top one or two of our district. We finished third last year, so we want to improve on that."

Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.

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