Volleyball is a game of endurance, intensity, and a great test of personal strength and the will to win. No one knows that more than Grambling State Volleyball Head Coach Kim Young, who can be seen at every game calm and collected.
Her accomplishments as head coach have been well documented, a 26-9 record and number one seed in the SWAC conference last season are just a few of her milestones as a coach.
On Friday, Young will step into the Assembly Center in front of a crowd; however, it will be bigger than any game she has coached or played in.
Earlier this month Kim Young was named as one of the inductees to be enshrined Grambling State Hall of Fame. To her it’s something that still has not sunk in yet.
” Seems so surreal,” said Young.
Young will go into the Hall of Fame as an athlete stemming from her playing days here at GSU.
During her playing days, she was one of the best volleyball players at this school.
Under the direction of Head Coach Fredrick Payne, she was a three time SWAC player of the year from 1996-1998, and also she won back-to-back SWAC titles.
After the 1998, season Young played for the United States Professional Volleyball league.
In 2002, she returned to Grambling State as an assistant volleyball coach under Frederick Payne.
Since taking over the volleyball program, Young has won 114 games in the past five seasons, including a couple appearances in the SWAC championship game.
Every day Young is about her business and really never thought about going into the Grambling State Hall of Fame, until a conversation with a friend foreshadowed events.
One of her friends and old teammates, Yolanda Brown, posed the question to her.
Brown asked her friend, “What would you do if you were inducted into the Grambling Hall of Fame?”
Soon after that conversation with her friend, the Hall of Fame committee contacted her asking for a picture. Then weeks later she received a letter from the committee saying she was in the Hall of Fame.
Reaching the Hall of Fame is an accomplishment that has humbled this volleyball coach; however, she is swift to thank all the people who helped her reached this milestone in her life.
First, Young thanked God and her late father Kimmer Young Sr.
Kim’s dad was a single father who was always there for her with open and arms and encouraging her. After that she wanted to thank all of her coaches that saw the talent and potential in her and that never gave up on her.
She also thanked her teammates she said that she would not be good without them.
For this great occasion, Young said that she is having friends and family coming from all over the country.
Never the emotional type, Young will admit that she might shed a tear at the ceremony.
Kim Young, at age 32, has already secured a spot is the Hall of Fame as a player. Maybe someday she will have another spot as a coach.