Merritt Beason makes her feelings clear on how Nebraska Volleyball’s culture inspired Alabama high school coaching role

Former Nebraska Volleyball icon, Merritt Beason, has recently shared her thoughts on how the Nebraska Volleyball program played a major part in her being offered the head coach position. The opposite hitter of Atlanta Vibe was recently announced as the head coach of her alma mater, Gardendale High School, in Alabama.

During her collegiate career with the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Merritt Beason earned numerous accolades. She was thrice named to the AVCA All-Region Team and twice to the All-Big Ten First Team. In 2023, she was named to the AVCA All-America First Team.

During her recent appearance in a post-match press conference, she reflected on the Nebraska Volleyball program playing a significant role in her taking the position of head coach at her former high school.

"I knew that it was not something that I was willing to do if it was going to be, like, take away from obviously this. This is my first priority, but one of my big dreams is to change volleyball in Alabama and in my hometown, and I did camps in my hometown and trying to do that in any way possible," Beason said.

She added:

"Experiencing how Nebraska was here and like being a part of it, and coming back and just seeing how huge volleyball is. That's something that I want to take down south, but specifically to Alabama, and so it's just kind of the first little stepping stone and hopefully changing that."

Merritt Beason was selected by the Atlanta Vibe in the 2024 Pro Volleyball Federation Draft as the first overall pick.

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Merritt Beason thanks Nebraska Volleyball supporters after final-four loss

Merritt Beason at the NCAA VOLLEYBALL: DEC 17 Division I Women's Championship - Teams vs Team - Source: Getty

The outside hitter concluded her career as a Husker with a semi-final loss to Penn State in the 2024 NCAA Championship. During her post-game interview with Hail Varsity, Merritt Beason appreciated the support of Nebraska Volleyball fans and mentioned:

"Huge thank you. Thank you for always showing up. Thank you for travelling all the miles that you travel. Most importantly, thank you for the support and thank you for caring about us as people first, not just like the stats that we put up on a scoreboard. I think it's really special and hard to find." [3:09 onwards]

In her junior season with the Huskers, she was named the AVCA North Region Player of the Year. She became the second player to earn the honours.