ROCKINGHAM – When she moved to Richmond County from Long Island, N. Y., just before the start of the 2012 school year to teach mathematics, Ashleigh Larsen visited a Richmond Senior High School volleyball summer workout.
Checking out the program was a part of her official visit to RSHS’ campus, and Larsen soon found herself as the Lady Raiders’ junior varsity coach. And since then, she has helped turn Richmond’s program into a perennial powerhouse on the court.
Now six years later, Larsen was announced as the head varsity coach Wednesday, as former head coach Shellie Wimpey made the decision to transition to Richmond’s cross country program.
“This is the most excited I have been in quite some time,” Larsen, 28, said in a sit-down interview with the ROSports department. “My dream has always been to become a (varsity) head coach. I’m super ecstatic to be the next head coach at Richmond and am ready to get rolling with a new group of girls.”
With Larsen comes a wealth of playing and coaching experience following a historic 2017 season in which Richmond went an unprecedented 25-1, including a perfect 25-0 regular season. The Lady Raiders also went a perfect 14-0 in the Sandhills Athletic Conference in the regular season, and swept competition to win the SAC tournament championship.
Larsen grew up in Islip Terrace, N.Y., which is located in central Long Island. She played varsity volleyball at East Islip High School for four years as an outside hitter, which is when her love for the game blossomed. In college, Larsen was a three-year starter at St. Joseph’s College (Long Island, N.Y.), playing right side as a sophomore, before moving to outside hitter during her final two seasons.
She graduated from St. Joseph’s with her degree in mathematics education in the spring of 2012 and applied to “schools all down the eastern seaboard.” Larsen found herself in Richmond County thanks to a program called Teachers to Teachers, and got a job offer from Cory Satterfield, who was Richmond’s principal at the time.
Noting she was “ready for a change of scenery,” Larsen accepted the job and made the 650-mile move south to rural North Carolina. At the same summer workout she went to on her official visit, she happened to meet her husband, Chris Larsen. Two weeks ago, Chris was introduced as the new Richmond boys and girls soccer head coach after Bennie Howard’s 30-year career came to an end via retirement.
With summer break quickly approaching, Larsen is looking forward to getting the Lady Raider volleyball program fitted to her style.
“I’ve spent about 85 percent of my life involved with volleyball, and I love the sport,” Larsen commented, noting she’s played beach, indoor and co-ed volleyball. “It’s always been such a big part of my life. Richmond’s program is growing, and I want to get the girls to love volleyball like I do.
“The positive side of taking over now is that it’ll be a fresh start for everybody,” Larsen added.
And by fresh start, she means just that. Richmond is losing four of its starting players, as UNCW commit Altman Griffin, Brianna Baysek, Owen Bowers and three-year setter Mackenzie Webb are graduating on Friday.
Griffin was recognized as the SAC’s Player of the Year in 2016 and 2017, and led Richmond with 259 kills last season. All four graduating seniors were also named to the All-SAC team the past two seasons.
But Larsen will have three starters returning in rising All-SAC senior Savannah Lampley (outside hitter), and rising juniors Layne Maultsby (libero) and Allexis Swinney (outside hitter.) She’ll also have Savannah Chappell (rising senior, middle hitter) and Jadyn Johnson (rising junior, outside hitter) returning to the varsity squad to offer their skills this season.
“It’s going to be a big hit losing those four girls,” Larsen admitted about the seniors. “But we’ll find new leaders and replace them with new people. Filling the setter role will be a top priority because Kenzie did such a great job. There will be three good returning starters and it’ll be good to have a solid core of girls coming back.
“And I’ve got a young junior varsity team with nine freshman that will be returning as sophomores,” she continued. “It’ll help to have all of them back to restart for a new season.”
Having spent the last six fall seasons at the helm of the junior varsity program, Larsen is no stranger to the ways of coaching. In that time, she also assisted Wimpey with the varsity team during matches. From it all, Larsen feels that she’s more than ready to take the program to new heights.
“As the JV coach, it helped me develop good rapports with the players,” she expressed. “Most of them have played under me at some point, and I’ve seen their skills during games and practice.
“I think Wimpey has done a great job the last couple of years turning the program around,” Larsen said. “And now I want to take (this program) a step farther to the next level. I’ll have to do some fine-tuning, and the only obstacle I see is getting the players adapted to my style. But it shouldn’t be too difficult.”
In terms of what she expects the next couple of months to look like with summer workouts and practice, Larsen hopes to get a “good bunch of girls” on the court and keep the “interest of the sport growing” in Richmond County. She expressed her hopes of reaching out to area middle schools and possibly even starting a travel volleyball program.
“I’m most excited to just be able to be with my girls and have the opportunity to develop my own program,” Larsen said. “I want to keep the intensity that the team had last season, and I’ll only have to make a few tweaks because the program is already in a good place — I just want to make it my own.
“I love this sport so much and am excited to share this with my girls,” she concluded.
