There’s a new Marshall in town
8/18/2017 12:05:00 PM | Volleyball
Athletes like Maddy Marshall -- one word: special -- are no stranger to Montana's gym. It's just that they've almost always been playing on the other side of the net, opposite the Grizzlies, leaving fans wondering, Why can't we get players like that?
Consider that sentiment a thing of the past.
Freshmen are often handled by coaches with kid gloves, especially when talking about them publically and discussing their potential. No reason to put undue pressure on anyone or the weight of unrealistic expectations. But Marshall's talents defy the typical coachspeak.
"Maddy is one of those players whose potential is just scary high," says first-year Montana coach Allison Lawrence. "She'll kind of blend in with her teammates, then something will happen when she stands out so much that you kind of giggle to yourself and look around, like, Did anyone else just see that?"
When that comes from an opponent, all a fan can do is shake their head, partly in appreciation, partly in frustration. When it comes from a player in a Montana uniform? Prepare yourself for a season-long case of goose bumps.
"If that can be her normal performance someday, nothing is more exciting than that, especially for our program right now, when we're trying to jump up and play at a higher level of competition," adds Lawrence. "I can't even put a limit on her potential. It's pretty remarkable."
For as easy as it is to write off the short tenure of former coach Brian Doyon, who stepped down in November after two seasons and 41 losses, credit needs to be given where it's due.
He's the one who identified Marshall. He recruited her. He convinced her that Montana was the right place for her to play collegiately. He is the one to whom she verbally committed.
Then came November and the end of Montana's season, when Doyon had to call Marshall with the news that he was no longer going to be coaching the Grizzlies.
"Up to that point, my mind was consumed with Montana," Marshall says. "Then I find out he's not coaching and it's, like, now what? I didn't know what to think.
"I didn't think I'd be able to go there anymore because he was the one who offered me a scholarship. I thought it was done. It was a hard time for sure."
The end of volleyball season comes at an important time in the recruiting calendar. The second Wednesday of November is the start of the NCAA's early signing period. It lasts only one week, Wednesday to Wednesday. Eight days to close the deal and put verbal commitments to paper.
After the Grizzlies went 5-21 last season, Doyon was let go, right in the middle of the week that was the early signing period.
The news left the worlds of Brooke Foster, Bailey Permann and Marshall, all of whom had committed to play for Montana, for Doyon, spinning off their axis. Their collective thought: What now? They had pledged themselves to Doyon and his program, not the coach who was hired to replace him.
That turned out to be Lawrence, at least for the interim, an assistant under Doyon who had a relationship with all three players.
Her top priority -- and it came with a high degree of urgency, considering the end of the early signing period was two days away -- was to keep the three players in the fold.
If not, if the early signing period came to a close without their signatures, the regular signing period did not open until April, five long months away, when anything could happen to prospects who were back on the open market. Lose the three commitments, and the program would have been set back years.
Starting fresh with a new coach is one thing. Starting over with a new coach is quite another.
"I called all the incoming athletes, and Maddy was really upset. She was crying on the phone. She felt like the rug had been pulled out from under her," says Lawrence, who learned in that phone call how tough of an assignment she'd been tasked with.
And she couldn't even talk with authority. All she could do was speak as the interim head coach, as uncertain of the future as the three recruits.
The headline later that week offered a sigh of relief: "Volleyball program adds two from Idaho," meaning Foster and Permann had been successfully re-recruited by Lawrence. She convinced them that they had chosen Montana and everything about it, not just a coach.
But the early signing period ended without a faxed National Letter of Intent from Marshall. "I was definitely open to other options," says Marshall, who hails from the small town of Brooks in the southeast corner of Alberta.
Word of Marshall's quasi-decommitment spread quickly within the coaching world, both in Canada and in the U.S. There was blood in the water, and everyone, it seemed, came circling.
Coaches in Canada tried to convince her to stay true to her home country, a decision that would best align her with her goals of remaining in the Team Canada pipeline. Coaches in the U.S. jumped back in as well, with their own promises.
She was still open to the idea of playing at Montana, but without a coach, what was a girl supposed to think? What is she supposed to commit to?
Montana moved fast and named Lawrence the program's new head coach in early January. Before month's end, she was driving to Brooks. She knew Marshall was the program-changing talent Montana needed, and she was going to do everything she could not to lose her.
"I wanted to see where she grew up, have dinner in the home where she grew up, really get to know her in her world," says Lawrence. "It brought us a lot closer. I felt like we took a huge step forward."
She returned from the trip hardly convinced she'd done enough. Talk around the dinner table, with Marshall and her parents, barely touched on volleyball at all, or her vision for the program as its new coach and what it could do for Marshall. She could have forced it, but she trusted her instincts.
She listened more than she talked. She learned how Marshall played ringette, a variation of hockey, as a youth. How she followed in her sister's footsteps and tried fencing, only to drop it after a year, tired of getting poked. How she copied her older brother and played baseball.
All until the sixth grade, when a friend convinced her to go to volleyball tryouts at their school. She still instinctively rubs her forearms at the recollection. "I wasn't much of a fan. It hurt my arms," she says.
It brought Lawrence's and Marshall's stories in sync. Growing up in Southern California, Lawrence was all about tennis until she attended a volleyball camp as a 12-year-old. She was hooked.
For Marshall, it came after that sixth-grade tryout. "That's when it started growing. I stopped ringette and fencing, and it's been volleyball ever since," she says.
Still, when Lawrence left Brooks, bound for Missoula, she was filled with nearly as many doubts as when she'd arrived. They had hardly talked volleyball. The conversation, as enjoyable as it was, never allowed her to make her big pitch. Part of her worried an opportunity had been lost.
Her anxiety was unfounded. The visit sealed the deal for Marshall and her family.
"That she came to Brooks was super special," says Marshall. "When she was there, we didn't even talk volleyball. We just talked about life and how things were going. There was no pressure.
"After that, I knew Montana was where I needed to be. She is just super special. She is such a genuine person who cares. That's when I knew this is where I needed to be."
It wasn't just Lawrence, the person, she was attracted to. It was also Lawrence's belief that collegiate players should be allowed to pursue volleyball opportunities outside of their program, a big-picture open-mindedness that is surprisingly rare among U.S. coaches.
Marshall has been representing her home province at national competitions for years, such is her talent. It's of great importance to her, that loyalty to home and the teammates she's played with for years, enough that it became a deal-maker or deal-breaker.
The Canada Summer Games come around every four years, Olympics-style, receiving nearly as much attention throughout the country, and they happened to land this summer, in early August, overlapping the start of the NCAA start date for collegiate volleyball programs.
"There were some coaches, when I mentioned the Canada Games, they wanted you there the day they wanted you there," Marshall says. "But there was no way I was going to miss it."
Lawrence promised she wouldn't. So last week while Montana was reporting and starting its preseason practices, Marshall was in Winnipeg, fulfilling a dream. Except for the last little piece: She and Team Alberta lost the gold-medal match to Team Manitoba.
"It was my final summer playing with those girls. There was no way I wasn't going to do it. It was an amazing experience. That was a huge reason I'm here, because that was such an important thing to me," she says.
Marshall first joined the team at Flathead Lake this week, while the Grizzlies were enjoying a midpoint break from training. A little more than one week in. A little more than one week until the first match of the season.
She attended her first practice on Thursday.
"Learning our system is a priority, but she can catch up. To be able to compete at the highest level in your country, with that kind of pressure, it was going to teach her as much as practicing here, if not more," says Lawrence.
And it wasn't just the Canada Games. Marshall joined her teammates in Edmonton on July 5 for two weeks of training. Then it was off to Florida for the USA Volleyball High Performance Championships.
Then it was off to Winnipeg. The gold-medal match drew a sold-out crowd of 3,500, almost all of them there to support the home team. Playing against Team Manitoba and its fans, Marshall and Team Alberta won the first set but lost the next three to settle for silver.
And some -- perhaps most? -- college coaches believe the best thing for Marshall and her development as a volleyball player would have been to skip that experience just so she could report to campus for two-a-days?
"All the training she got as part of that was great for us," says Lawrence. "She played more than anybody else on our team this summer, so there is no worry she wasn't getting enough volleyball.
"Being a part of the Team Canada system and feeling like she can develop that side of her game and keep on track with those goals while playing here, every player deserves that chance.
"If that means missing some of what we're doing, I still think it's to the benefit of the athlete and our program. The things you learn in those environments are things we can't teach here."
It's been nine months since Doyon stepped down, seven since Lawrence was hired as his replacement. It feels like it's been an eternity since Montana last took the court and yet a whirlwind of an offseason that seemed to fly by.
In the end, discord has been replaced with a sense of calm, of hope, of excitement. New feelings for a program that has long been locked in a struggle against itself.
Finally, everything has come together. For Marshall. For Lawrence. For the Montana volleyball program, one week away from beginning anew.
"It's new for her and new for everyone," says Marshall. "We'll be able to work together and reach the same goals. I think it's going to be an amazing experience."
Consider that sentiment a thing of the past.
Freshmen are often handled by coaches with kid gloves, especially when talking about them publically and discussing their potential. No reason to put undue pressure on anyone or the weight of unrealistic expectations. But Marshall's talents defy the typical coachspeak.
"Maddy is one of those players whose potential is just scary high," says first-year Montana coach Allison Lawrence. "She'll kind of blend in with her teammates, then something will happen when she stands out so much that you kind of giggle to yourself and look around, like, Did anyone else just see that?"
When that comes from an opponent, all a fan can do is shake their head, partly in appreciation, partly in frustration. When it comes from a player in a Montana uniform? Prepare yourself for a season-long case of goose bumps.
"If that can be her normal performance someday, nothing is more exciting than that, especially for our program right now, when we're trying to jump up and play at a higher level of competition," adds Lawrence. "I can't even put a limit on her potential. It's pretty remarkable."
For as easy as it is to write off the short tenure of former coach Brian Doyon, who stepped down in November after two seasons and 41 losses, credit needs to be given where it's due.
He's the one who identified Marshall. He recruited her. He convinced her that Montana was the right place for her to play collegiately. He is the one to whom she verbally committed.
Then came November and the end of Montana's season, when Doyon had to call Marshall with the news that he was no longer going to be coaching the Grizzlies.
"Up to that point, my mind was consumed with Montana," Marshall says. "Then I find out he's not coaching and it's, like, now what? I didn't know what to think.
"I didn't think I'd be able to go there anymore because he was the one who offered me a scholarship. I thought it was done. It was a hard time for sure."
The end of volleyball season comes at an important time in the recruiting calendar. The second Wednesday of November is the start of the NCAA's early signing period. It lasts only one week, Wednesday to Wednesday. Eight days to close the deal and put verbal commitments to paper.
After the Grizzlies went 5-21 last season, Doyon was let go, right in the middle of the week that was the early signing period.
The news left the worlds of Brooke Foster, Bailey Permann and Marshall, all of whom had committed to play for Montana, for Doyon, spinning off their axis. Their collective thought: What now? They had pledged themselves to Doyon and his program, not the coach who was hired to replace him.
That turned out to be Lawrence, at least for the interim, an assistant under Doyon who had a relationship with all three players.
Her top priority -- and it came with a high degree of urgency, considering the end of the early signing period was two days away -- was to keep the three players in the fold.
If not, if the early signing period came to a close without their signatures, the regular signing period did not open until April, five long months away, when anything could happen to prospects who were back on the open market. Lose the three commitments, and the program would have been set back years.
Starting fresh with a new coach is one thing. Starting over with a new coach is quite another.
"I called all the incoming athletes, and Maddy was really upset. She was crying on the phone. She felt like the rug had been pulled out from under her," says Lawrence, who learned in that phone call how tough of an assignment she'd been tasked with.
And she couldn't even talk with authority. All she could do was speak as the interim head coach, as uncertain of the future as the three recruits.
The headline later that week offered a sigh of relief: "Volleyball program adds two from Idaho," meaning Foster and Permann had been successfully re-recruited by Lawrence. She convinced them that they had chosen Montana and everything about it, not just a coach.
But the early signing period ended without a faxed National Letter of Intent from Marshall. "I was definitely open to other options," says Marshall, who hails from the small town of Brooks in the southeast corner of Alberta.
Word of Marshall's quasi-decommitment spread quickly within the coaching world, both in Canada and in the U.S. There was blood in the water, and everyone, it seemed, came circling.
Coaches in Canada tried to convince her to stay true to her home country, a decision that would best align her with her goals of remaining in the Team Canada pipeline. Coaches in the U.S. jumped back in as well, with their own promises.
She was still open to the idea of playing at Montana, but without a coach, what was a girl supposed to think? What is she supposed to commit to?
Montana moved fast and named Lawrence the program's new head coach in early January. Before month's end, she was driving to Brooks. She knew Marshall was the program-changing talent Montana needed, and she was going to do everything she could not to lose her.
"I wanted to see where she grew up, have dinner in the home where she grew up, really get to know her in her world," says Lawrence. "It brought us a lot closer. I felt like we took a huge step forward."
She returned from the trip hardly convinced she'd done enough. Talk around the dinner table, with Marshall and her parents, barely touched on volleyball at all, or her vision for the program as its new coach and what it could do for Marshall. She could have forced it, but she trusted her instincts.
She listened more than she talked. She learned how Marshall played ringette, a variation of hockey, as a youth. How she followed in her sister's footsteps and tried fencing, only to drop it after a year, tired of getting poked. How she copied her older brother and played baseball.
All until the sixth grade, when a friend convinced her to go to volleyball tryouts at their school. She still instinctively rubs her forearms at the recollection. "I wasn't much of a fan. It hurt my arms," she says.
It brought Lawrence's and Marshall's stories in sync. Growing up in Southern California, Lawrence was all about tennis until she attended a volleyball camp as a 12-year-old. She was hooked.
For Marshall, it came after that sixth-grade tryout. "That's when it started growing. I stopped ringette and fencing, and it's been volleyball ever since," she says.
Still, when Lawrence left Brooks, bound for Missoula, she was filled with nearly as many doubts as when she'd arrived. They had hardly talked volleyball. The conversation, as enjoyable as it was, never allowed her to make her big pitch. Part of her worried an opportunity had been lost.
Her anxiety was unfounded. The visit sealed the deal for Marshall and her family.
"That she came to Brooks was super special," says Marshall. "When she was there, we didn't even talk volleyball. We just talked about life and how things were going. There was no pressure.
"After that, I knew Montana was where I needed to be. She is just super special. She is such a genuine person who cares. That's when I knew this is where I needed to be."
It wasn't just Lawrence, the person, she was attracted to. It was also Lawrence's belief that collegiate players should be allowed to pursue volleyball opportunities outside of their program, a big-picture open-mindedness that is surprisingly rare among U.S. coaches.
Marshall has been representing her home province at national competitions for years, such is her talent. It's of great importance to her, that loyalty to home and the teammates she's played with for years, enough that it became a deal-maker or deal-breaker.
The Canada Summer Games come around every four years, Olympics-style, receiving nearly as much attention throughout the country, and they happened to land this summer, in early August, overlapping the start of the NCAA start date for collegiate volleyball programs.
"There were some coaches, when I mentioned the Canada Games, they wanted you there the day they wanted you there," Marshall says. "But there was no way I was going to miss it."
Lawrence promised she wouldn't. So last week while Montana was reporting and starting its preseason practices, Marshall was in Winnipeg, fulfilling a dream. Except for the last little piece: She and Team Alberta lost the gold-medal match to Team Manitoba.
"It was my final summer playing with those girls. There was no way I wasn't going to do it. It was an amazing experience. That was a huge reason I'm here, because that was such an important thing to me," she says.
Marshall first joined the team at Flathead Lake this week, while the Grizzlies were enjoying a midpoint break from training. A little more than one week in. A little more than one week until the first match of the season.
She attended her first practice on Thursday.
"Learning our system is a priority, but she can catch up. To be able to compete at the highest level in your country, with that kind of pressure, it was going to teach her as much as practicing here, if not more," says Lawrence.
And it wasn't just the Canada Games. Marshall joined her teammates in Edmonton on July 5 for two weeks of training. Then it was off to Florida for the USA Volleyball High Performance Championships.
Then it was off to Winnipeg. The gold-medal match drew a sold-out crowd of 3,500, almost all of them there to support the home team. Playing against Team Manitoba and its fans, Marshall and Team Alberta won the first set but lost the next three to settle for silver.
And some -- perhaps most? -- college coaches believe the best thing for Marshall and her development as a volleyball player would have been to skip that experience just so she could report to campus for two-a-days?
"All the training she got as part of that was great for us," says Lawrence. "She played more than anybody else on our team this summer, so there is no worry she wasn't getting enough volleyball.
"Being a part of the Team Canada system and feeling like she can develop that side of her game and keep on track with those goals while playing here, every player deserves that chance.
"If that means missing some of what we're doing, I still think it's to the benefit of the athlete and our program. The things you learn in those environments are things we can't teach here."
It's been nine months since Doyon stepped down, seven since Lawrence was hired as his replacement. It feels like it's been an eternity since Montana last took the court and yet a whirlwind of an offseason that seemed to fly by.
In the end, discord has been replaced with a sense of calm, of hope, of excitement. New feelings for a program that has long been locked in a struggle against itself.
Finally, everything has come together. For Marshall. For Lawrence. For the Montana volleyball program, one week away from beginning anew.
"It's new for her and new for everyone," says Marshall. "We'll be able to work together and reach the same goals. I think it's going to be an amazing experience."
Players Mentioned
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/ Volleyball
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