MCC names new volleyball coach

Payne to lead

Indian squad

McCook Community College has tabbed a Colorado man to lead the school's volleyball program.

Gary Payne will take over the program when the season starts this August.

"I think we're real fortunate to get a coach with his background and his enthusiasm," said MCC Athletic Director Chet DeVaughn.

"You can just tell, he's a hard worker and he's going to be a good recruiter too," DeVaughn said.

Payne graduated from Chappel High School in 1988 where he played football, basketball and ran track.

After high school, he joined the U.S. Army and served in the Persian Gulf in 1991.

He graduated from the University of Nebraska-Kearney in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts in Education, majoring in Business Education and Physical Education and a minor in coaching.

He spent the past five years as Business Teacher in Weldon Valley High School in Weldon, Colo., and served as assistant volleyball coach and head track coach.

Payne said he began playing volleyball in 1995 and said he liked it so much, he began taking volleyball theory and that led to coaching stints with the Kearney Volleyball Club 14-and-under; the assistant volleyball position in Weldon as well as the coach for the Morgan County Juniors Volleyball Club of 17-and-under players.

He has also coached at the Nebraska Volleyball Coaches Clinic at UNL.

In addition, for the past decade, he has participated in numerous volleyball tournaments in Nebraska, Colorado and Iowa.

Payne said he met briefly with many of the team members during the interview process and said he hopes to talk in greater detail with them immediately to find out about summer conditioning so he can develop a routine when the team begins practices in mid August.

"Ideally, I like to run a face-paced offense with quick sets and shoots to the outside, but we'll see what sort of personnel we have at MCC and then go from there," Payne said. "I can't wait to get started."