head coach, Gwinn Modeltowners

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GWINN — The recently departed varsity volleyball head coach at Gwinn High School has been honored for the second time in three years with an award from the American Volleyball Coaches Association.

Toni Roberts was recently named an AVCA ThirtyUnder30 High School Award winner. And she is the only one of the 30 coaches who has been honored multiple times after she won the same award in 2018.

Gwinn's Toni Roberts coaches the Modeltowners during the third set in a high school volleyball match against Negaunee held in the Gwinn gym on Sept. 26, 2019. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

Roberts stepped down from the position at the end of this fall season, citing her pregnancy as she is expecting her first child in January.

“I am ready to transition from ‘Coach’ to ‘Mom,'” Roberts said in a Wednesday email. “I also want to say thank you to the coaches who worked with me and taught me so much, and to the Gwinn (athletic director), Rob Soyring, for his constant support over the years, but most importantly to the dedicated girls that have come through the program.

“I am honored and humbled to receive this award for the second time in three years. I owe so much to the girls I have coached over the past 10 years and to the coaches I have coached under and beside. It is a validation of doing things right to just try to keep the sport of volleyball growing and trying to become as competitive as possible in the (Upper Peninsula).”

Roberts is a 2011 graduate of Gwinn High School and started coaching volleyball with the Modeltowners the following fall. She spent five years as JV coach and won three Mid-Peninsula Conference titles, then the past five years as varsity coach. With the varsity, Gwinn won its conference title in 2017 and she was named M-PC Coach of the Year, while in 2019 Roberts earned West PAC Coach of the Year.

“Coaching at Gwinn was an easy job,” Roberts said in her email. “For 10 years, I had wonderful support from the athletic director and sports boosters and had many great athletes and families pass through our program.

“I am excited to pass the torch to the next coach and see what they can do, because I know it’s time for me to step away.”

AVCA said its awards program for coaches under 30 years old is designed to spotlight and encourage aspiring high school and interscholastic coaches and future leaders with their state volleyball coaching communities.

To be eligible, a coach had to 30 or younger at the end of 2020; actively engaged and affiliated with their state association; an active AVCA member; and be a “rising” active high school girls or boys head coach, assistant coach or junior varsity head coach.

This was the fifth year of the ThirtyUnder30 award and AVCA said it felt the program was particularly important with the completely altered landscape of high school volleyball due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.