When Caldeonia High School recently moved to virtual learning, it not only denied its volleyball team the chance to test its skills against Heritage Academy, it denied longtime Caledonia coach Samantha Brooks the opportunity to coach against her daughter, Tori, the new coach at Heritage..
Once an All-State player for Caledonia, Tori has since followed in her mother’s footsteps and taken to coaching. Her volleyball heritage runs deep, which helped make her an excellent candidate for the job, and even at a young age she is demonstrating leadership and knowledge of the game.
“Tori has had a volleyball in her hands since she was a baby,” Samantha said.
As a volleyball enthusiast and lifelong player and coach, Samantha was proud to see her daughter share her passion and is even more proud to see Tori coaching others the “right way” to play the game.
Samantha Brooks comes from a volleyball background, having grown up playing in Kansas and Indiana, and she was a scholarship athlete at Mississippi University for Women. She helped start the volleyball program during her first year as a teacher at Caledonia High School, nearly 21 years ago, when she was pregnant with her twins, Tori and Tony. She served as an assistant coach for five years before taking over as head coach, coaching Tori in school and club volleyball along the way.
Tori was a multisport athlete growing up, playing basketball and softball as well as volleyball, and it isn’t hard to see why. In addition to her mother’s athletic past, her father is a baseball enthusiast and twin brother Tony plays baseball at East Mississippi Community College. But Tori’s passion always has been volleyball.
“Volleyball to me is more of my life than just a sport,” Tori said. “It’s always been my way to escape everything else causing me stress.”
Coaching volleyball has allowed Tori to further her passion as she works toward a degree in speech pathology. “I love helping others and seeing them grow and learn,” she said.
With her playing days behind her, Tori has embraced her role as coach, trying to relate to her players. Though she pushes them to work to improve as much as they can, she believes that empathizing with them is just as important, a skill she says she picked up from her mother.
“If I can tell someone is putting in the work to improve and show that they want to play, I’ll put them in,” Tori said. “My mom is the same way, always being fair and rewarding hard work in practice.”
“I’m really proud of her for all the hard work she’s done, and she’s definitely made me a better person, athlete and now coach,” Tori said. “She’s a workaholic, but she always comes home as happy as she can be and does so much for our family. She inspired me to be a coach and have a love for the game. She makes me want to be a better person.”
And Samantha couldn’t be more proud.
“Makes me smile,” Samantha said. “Seeing my daughter as a young woman teach kids how to play the right way is very exciting for me to see.”
Caledonia and Heritage plan to reschedule their match for a date in September.
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