A familiar face will return to Philomath High School volleyball this fall with Whitney Rasmussen beginning a second stint as the program’s head coach.
Whether you’ve known her as Whitney Thomas back during her playing days in the 1990s, Whitney Stearns when she served as head coach in 2009-10 or Whitney Rasmussen as last season’s junior varsity coach, she has a strong connection to Philomath’s program.
Rasmussen succeeds Autumn Hilberg, who resigned from the job in April with the desire to spend more time with her children. Players will experience a sense of continuity with no huge changes in terms of coaching philosophy.
Basics and fundamentals will be strong components in her approach.
“In recent years with what I’ve seen around the state and being back at the high school level is the overcoaching of players and trying to do things that are too technically sound versus just going back to basics and playing volleyball,” Rasmussen said earlier this week. “I would like to focus on that and on defense and winning long rallies, which is a really big part of volleyball — getting your serve in and winning long rallies.”
Shelly Brown will be the full-time varsity assistant coach under Rasmussen.
“Shelly and I have coached together in the past at the high school level,” Rasmussen said. “We have a history of playing and coaching volleyball together.”
A PHS graduate with the Class of 1999, Rasmussen played under PHS Hall of Fame coach Fern Robinson during her freshman and sophomore seasons and Toni Thomas, her mother, during her junior and senior seasons. The Warriors had an overall record of 118-24 during those four years. Philomath reached the 3A finals in 1998 but lost in three sets to Marist Catholic in a tight match at Gill Coliseum.
In addition to volleyball, Rasmussen also competed in softball and dance in high school. She went on to play volleyball and softball at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton.
Rasmussen was an assistant coach at West Salem before joining PHS as its head coach in 2009-10.
“I’ve actually coached at Philomath for a few different times in my life — softball and volleyball,” Rasmussen said. “When my kids were busy with sports, it was too hard to try to be a head coach and be able to go to all of my own kids’ stuff so I stepped back from that and started coaching through PYAC.”
Last season, Rasmussen was a member of Hilberg’s staff and coached the junior varsity program. With her youngest son, Mason Stearns, graduating with the Class of 2024, more time became available to throw her name into consideration for the head coaching job after Hilberg moved on.
“To be honest with you, it’s this specific group of girls,” Rasmussen said when asked why she wanted to return to the program this season. “This group, I’ve known the majority of them since they were little and have known their families forever because of my own kids and coaching at the PYAC level. And I was asked on several different occasions if I would please continue with them.”
Last season, Philomath went 14-9 overall and 8-2 in the Oregon West to earn automatic qualification into the 4A playoffs. The Warriors lost at Crook County in the first round. Philomath brings back more than 70% of the roster.
“They’re really just a fantastic group — so dynamic, so willing to learn and so willing to just really do anything you ask of them,” Rasmussen said. “I’m happy to be back being the head coach this year. We’ll get them going and it’ll be fun.”
Several players were participating Monday during an open gym opportunity.
In addition to open gym, the volleyball team will be participating with several other schools in summer league matches at Blanchet Catholic.
