WATSONVILLE — Kiley Woods, the coach responsible for ending Monte Vista Christian’s 19-year Central Coast Section title drought, is stepping down from her post after seven seasons, she announced earlier this week.
“It felt like it was the right time to close this chapter of my life at Monte Vista Christian,” Woods said on Thursday evening. “It’s going to be tough to leave, but it’s time.”
Woods said she plans on moving to San Antonio, Texas to be closer to her family and faith.
She also has hopes of eventually becoming a homeowner, and returning to coaching sometime in the future.
“We’ll see what’s out there for me,” Wood said. “I still want to coach. It’s what I love to do.”
M.V.C. Athletic Director Matt Coleman commended Woods for her work at the Watsonville-based private school as both a coach and a teacher, saying she led the program with the “highest level of integrity.”
“No doubt she moved the volleyball program forward during her years as head varsity coach while leaving a lasting impression on those she coached,” said Coleman, who added that the “national search” for her replacement is already underway.
Woods became M.V.C.’s third head coach in as many years when she was hired just a few weeks before the 2011-12 school year.
Before the season began, Woods told the team she believed they could win the Monterey Bay League championship. They were fresh off finishing last the year before.
“Every girl laughed,” Woods recalled. “They were like, ‘OK, coach, sure.’”
Sure enough, M.V.C. went 11-1 and won the program’s first league title since 2007.
Woods posted a winning record in all but one of her seasons with the Mustangs, and helped the program win the CCS Division IV title — its first since 1997 — and reach its first-ever California Interscholastic Federation Northern California regional final in 2016.
M.V.C. also won the MBL-Pacific division in 2013 under Woods’ tutelage.
She leaves with a 131-75 overall record.
“We accomplished a lot more than what was expected of us when I took over,” Woods said. “Every year we kept building on top of what we did the year before. We kept improving as a program in different ways. I’m proud of that.”
The daughter of a football coach in the Lone Star State, Woods compared her childhood to that of Hayden Panettiere’s character in the movie “Remember the Titans.”
“My first word was ball,” Woods said. “I grew up around sports. I was always on the field with my dad’s teams…I’ve always wanted to be a coach.”
She attended Oregon State and had the opportunity to soak up lessons from Taras Liskevych and Mark Barnard, whom coached the U.S. and Australian women’s national teams, respectively. As an assistant and team manager at O.S.U., she learned how to break down film, consistently motivate her players and keep practice fun and challenging.
Endowed with that knowledge, Woods ran M.V.C. like a college program, implementing a summer regiment and raising the expectations of her players.
“Without those four years of learning from those coaches, I think I would be a much different coach,” Woods said.
