Kent State volleyball coach Haley Eckerman is no stranger to comebacks. One of the key pieces of her resume is the 2012 NCAA Division I Volleyball championship.

“We were down 0-2 [sets] against Michigan in the semifinal … then it was like we were on this momentum train, and that let us into the championship where we swept Oregon,” Eckerman said.

That championship is one of the reasons why Eckerman was inducted into the Texas Hall of Honor Sept. 12, officially etching her name into the Texas history books.

In addition to the national title, she won the Big 12 Player of the Year award in each of her last three seasons, to go along with winning Freshman of the Year. She ranks in the top ten for kills at sixth with 1,662.

After her career at Texas, Eckerman played volleyball professionally in five different countries, something she credits with helping her develop her coaching style.

“Every country was different,” she said. “It helps knowing and being able to bring in the good and knowing what did not work.”

She also was a trailblazer for minority voices in the sport, forming an all-Black volleyball team called Team Dream that would be the first of its kind to win the USA Volleyball Open National Championship. 

“I didn’t really have a ton of Black volleyball role models to look up to on the national team when I was playing, so I really wanted to showcase that, and that’s why we put the team together,” she said.

After her playing days ended, her coaching career started off in her hometown at Waterloo West High School in Iowa. She led the team to a regional final appearance. This also marked the beginning of adjusting from playing to coaching.

“I think the biggest adjustment is having to take the player mindset out of it and knowing that success is gonna look different at every level,” she said.

After a year in the high school ranks, Eckerman transitioned into college coaching, serving as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, during the 2019 season.

A year following that, she joined as an assistant at Tarleton State, also in Texas, in 2020. She helped the team transition to playing Division I volleyball, where the team finished with a winning record in their first season at the Division I level after dominating the Division II ranks.

“It took some time getting them to understand like it is okay if we do not win. You know we are just trying to make strides and grow,” she said.

Also, during 2020, she co-founded Think Outside the Box, a company focused on coaching and athlete development, while also providing resources for diversity in the sport.

Following one last assistant job at Texas Christian University in 2021, Eckerman was hired at Kent State in 2022. Sport Administrator for volleyball and Senior Associate Athletic Director, Trent Stratton, was one of the key figures in the search.

“Just her ability to be at different levels prior to coming to us,” he said. “All the recommendations that we got in her references spoke so highly of her.”

While there have been growing pains, there have also been shining stars. Under the guidance of Eckerman, Mackenzie McGuire became the 17th player to reach 1,000 kills for her career.

“Haley, over my four years here, has turned into a great mentor and getting to grow alongside her has been a great experience,” McGuire said in a statement.

She was a part of Eckerman’s first team here, earning MAC all-Freshman honors in 2022. That was the peak of Eckerman’s tenure. The team won six games in 2023, reaching rock bottom in 2024 with two.

Eckerman herself has also grown as a coach during this period, as Stratton pointed out.

“She is coachable,” he said. “She was coachable as a player, and I think she is coachable as a coach.” 

So far this season, Kent State has five wins, which is more than double from last season. Eckerman credits a strong returning class with helping in the rebuild.

“The girls who are now sophomores, Haley, Avrey, Kayla, Nadia and Ava were able to build a culture over the spring,” she said.

The culture change is working, as in practice Eckerman walked in relaxed and joking around with the players. She then went and broke down film with a position group before doing a blocking drill with them, hitting the balls for the drill effortlessly.

Once the team period started, she took more of a backseat role, watching the team practice while Assistant Coach Liv Setla broke down film and helped with drills alongside Assistant Coach Tyrell Jamison. Still, she would chime in intermittently with tips and feedback for players.

Stone O’Bryant is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].