Grace Academy has announced that Hillary Hamilton has been hired as its high school varsity head volleyball coach for next season. She will teach first grade at the school beginning next school year.
Hamilton played volleyball for four years at East Ridge High School and at Tennessee Temple University. She did not coach last fall but was head coach of Temple’s high school team the two years before that.
Hamilton succeeds Shana Ivarson, who resigned as volleyball coach but will remain a Grace faculty member.
“She did an outstanding job and really raised our level of competition,” Grace athletic director Les Compton said of Ivarson. “We’ve been competing for district titles, and we’ve competed well in a very tough region.”
Ivarson gave Compton a recommendation to hire Hamilton, whom she had gotten to know because their teams competed for two seasons in District 5-AA.
“I know the girls coming back are highly skilled and very well versed in volleyball,” Hamilton said. “I want to try to get them further along in the tournaments than they’ve been. They’ve already done a marvelous job. I just want to continue growing the program and get it to where all Grace athletics are expected to be.”
Hamilton’s boyfriend, Darris Waters, was an assistant coach on Grace’s state-runner-up boys’ basketball team this past season. He teaches second grade at the school.
Hamilton has two sisters who are assistant coaches at the high school level in the Chattanooga area. Heidi Moses helps with volleyball and softball at Ooltewah. Holly Hamilton assists with volleyball and girls’ basketball at East Hamilton.