Traverse City Record-Eagle

Sports

February 4, 2012

Gladiators hire Homa

Former TC Central coach back in game

By MIKE ECKERT meckert@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Tim Homa is back coaching volleyball.

After stepping down as coach at Traverse City Central following the 2009 season, Homa accepted the varsity head coaching job at St. Francis on Friday.

"I took a couple of years off because my daughters were high school age and I wanted to be a dad following their careers," Homa said. "(Now) both of my daughters aren't playing fall sports, so it opened up an opportunity to get back into coaching. The door opened at the right time."

St. Francis had a vacancy with the program after Tami Kitzmiller stepped down following the fall season.

"I'm so excited for our kids and our school," St. Francis athletic director Tom Hardy said. "Having somebody that has a passion for volleyball, and will turn around and pray with our kids everyday, we couldn't ask for more."

Homa also works as a pastor at Bay Point Community Church.

"The tradition of St. Francis athletics was a huge draw for me," Homa said. "They have a great program at all levels. Secondly, when you're at a private school, it's more family-oriented. There's such a family feel. It's not overwhelmingly large and you can really tailor the program around the personality of the girls. At the big schools, you often have to have players adapt to the program. At the smaller schools, you adapt the program around your players."

Besides his four-year stint at TC Central, Homa previously coached 10 years at Faith Lutheran High School in Las Vegas, where he reached the state finals three times.

And during the last two years while he wasn't coaching, Homa wasn't too far removed from volleyball.

"I missed volleyball, absolutely," Homa said. "It was kind of bittersweet. I got to spend more time with my daughters (Jordan and Jensen), but I truly love coaching. I didn't completely stay away from the game. I spent two years reffing and stayed in contact with the sport. But I definitely missed coaching."

That included calling matches at St. Francis.

"I primarily reffed St. Francis games, so I had an opportunity to see the girls play," Homa said. "In the back of my mind, I always wondered if the chance would ever come up to coach there. I coached at a private school in Las Vegas for a number of years, so going back to a private school is very comfortable."

With volleyball camps still months out, Hardy had plenty of time to fill the vacant position.

"I've talked to Tim for the last month," Hardy said. "It gave him time and it gave the school time to process. To make sure it was a good fit. That's the most important part when you hire coaches. It's got to be a fit, for our philosophy and for his philosophy. It's got to be timing. A lot of things have to fall into place. This downtime for volleyball certainly has given us that time to make sure we made the right hire."

Homa is excited to get started with St. Francis.

"They had a really young team this year with a bunch of sophomores and juniors," Homa said. "That makes it really exciting walking through the door your first year, knowing you're going to have some leadership there with some seniors. I believe right away when you step into a program, you don't want to rebuild, you want to be successful right off the bat. For me, that success is creating an environment of fun and success with the game of volleyball."

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