Megan Distler has gathered plenty of experience coaching with various Central Missouri volleyball programs. Now she's getting to lead her own program.
"I'm very excited," said Distler, who announced last week she had been named the head coach of the Blair Oaks volleyball team. "I haven't gotten to meet everybody just yet, with the quarantine, but I'm really excited to hopefully get to meet them soon and get this started."
Distler, a Helias graduate who played volleyball for the Lady Crusaders, has spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach for the Jefferson City Lady Jays volleyball team. Before that, she was an assistant coach at Fatima.
Blair Oaks will be her first time as a high school volleyball head coach.
"It's something I've wanted to do the last couple of years," Distler said. "It's definitely been a goal of mine. It's also very nerve-racking, since I'm now the one in charge.
"But so far, it's been really good for the little bit I've gotten to do here and meet with the people at Blair Oaks."
Distler also has experience as a club volleyball coach. She started off with the Central Missouri Volleyball Club and most recently coached for the Osage County Volleyball Club and Missouri Juniors Volleyball.
She has coached against plenty of Blair Oaks volleyball players, both as a high school and club volleyball coach.
"They've had a very strong program here, especially the last couple years," Distler said. "They've had great success here."
Distler replaces McKenzie Bennett, who had an 84-12-2 record in three seasons at Blair Oaks. The Lady Falcons posted a 30-5 record in 2019, their fourth 30-win season in the past five years.
"There are some key pieces that left the program, but their JV team also had a successful year," Distler said. "We have those younger varsity players that are still there. There should be a lot of good pieces in there that we can really put together."
Last season, Distler helped the Lady Jays win their second district championship in three years. Jefferson City also defeated Blair Oaks in its regular-season meeting last fall, snapping a four-match losing streak against the Lady Falcons.
"We had a great season, a great group of girls and a great group of coaches. Just getting to experience that season was awesome," Distler said. "I loved every minute of being in the gym with them. The girls had so much fun, which was a huge part of our success."
Distler has yet to meet with her players amid the coronavirus pandemic, but that first meeting could come rather soon.
"Blair Oaks has put out some guidelines, as far as what we can do," Distler said. "We are going to start having open gyms next week, so that will be our first introduction to the girls."
The open gyms may be modified for the first week, but the hope is to compete against teams later in the summer.
"We're pretty limited as far as competitions that we're going to do, just because they don't want us traveling around with everything going on," Distler said. "We're staying local, doing a couple of scrimmages, hopefully with schools around here, as long as health guidelines allow us to keep going in that direction."
For now, Distler is working on the final decisions for Blair Oaks' playing style, implementing some of the techniques she has picked up through the years as an assistant and club coach.
"I'm really looking forward to being part of the Blair Oaks community," Distler said. "It's a very strong one, a very passionate one."