For the first time in 11 years, the STU women’s volleyball team has a new head coach, Kim Colpitts.
Born and raised in Salisbury, N.B. coach Colpitts won the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) women’s volleyball championship with UNB as a player and has a background of over two decades of coaching experience.
“I believe in practicing the way we want to play, working hard in the gym, investing the time we have in practice so that we’re presenting the best version of ourselves when we play,” said Colpitts about her coaching philosophy.
She describes herself as a private person who loves gardening and pottery, as well as being constantly active and competitive. She loves working with people, which has been her main motivation to be a dietician for the past 30 years.
“What would I like everyone to know? Just that I’m very passionate about the things that I commit to do.”
For her, respect and attitude are two non-negotiable values her team needs.
“Respect applies across all spectrums. Respect for yourself, your teammates, your coaches and referees, but also respect for your school and the fact that you’re representing something bigger than yourself.”
Colpitts said that her path to becoming the new women’s volleyball head coach started a couple of years ago when she grabbed a coffee with former head coach, Don McKay.
“I told him at the time that I would be interested in [taking over], I’ve watched the team play for years. So, when the position opened it wasn’t even a decision. I knew that I was interested and I was very fortunate to have been selected as the new coach,” said Colpitts.
Colpitts believes what makes a great team are the different values and personalities athletes and staff bring, at the same time as understanding one another with respect, equity and communication.
“The big thing is not that everybody has the same values as me, but everybody understands each other and respects the role that everybody plays on the team because that’s what makes strong teams.”
When she first arrived at STU as the new head coach, Colpitts held one-on-one meetings with every player from last season to “share information with them about [her], but also to get information about them and about their experience.”
“The pride that the athletes have in playing for their school was very, very clear to me.”
Colpitts said that it did not take much time for the team to be on the same page and her expectation for this season is to take care of their “business on [their] side of the net.”
“Regardless of what the score looks like, I really want us focusing on what we’re doing, because if we can focus on what we’re doing consistently then I think our chances of doing well this year are very good,” said Colpitts.
Co-captain of the STU women’s volleyball team Kathleen Boyle said that she was already coached by Colpitts when she was younger, which made her excited when she found out she was going to be the new head coach.
“When we first started practicing with her, you could already tell the difference,” said Boyle. “She is just so passionate about it and you can tell she wanted to coach us.”
Boyle said that the team has been practicing a lot during the preseason where they’ve competed against AUS teams.
“We are ready to compete.”
“We are considered the underdogs right now because we have lost a bunch of people on our team, so our main goal is to challenge people,” said Boyle.
The Honduran second-year player Alessandra Hernandez said that Colpitts makes her feel comfortable as she reminds her of her coach from back home.
“The fact that Don and Kim are working together for her to get to know us makes me feel really good and comfortable because you see interest from both sides to make us a better team,” said Hernandez.
