By ELIOT SILL

Staff writer

After one of the most successful seasons in recent memory for the Marion Warriors volleyball team, head coach Brady Hudson has resigned after one season as head coach.

The Warriors under Hudson went 28-9, losing in the first round of sub-state to finish the season.

Hudson, a 2010 Marion High School graduate, returned home after attending Columbia College in Chicago. He said he was just trying to see if Marion was a place he could make his permanent home.

“I loved growing up here,” Hudson said. “I loved going to high school here, and I loved the small-town feel most of the time, and having a community that supported you. That’s great and Marion’s great for that. But when you’re not in that kind of mode, and not participating, it’s just kind of like ‘OK, what am I doing?’”

Hudson had a job in Chicago as a licensed massage therapist. The next step for him could be to reclaim that role. Hudson said Chicago and Austin, Texas, were two potential destinations for him.

The Warriors volleyball team loses a coach who brought energy and enthusiasm to the program and catered his coaching to his team’s loose, fun-loving nature.

“Whenever we started to get mad about something he would say ‘Play goofy. That’s how you play your best,’” libero Erika Hess said. “It helped, I thought.”

Setter Kirsten Hansen said he brought modern volleyball knowledge to the position because he played competitively as recently as last year.

Hudson said leaving the team behind was probably the hardest aspect of his decision.

“That probably is what makes me the saddest, is leaving the girls, growing that relationship with them and then being like: ‘OK guys, I’m out,’” he said.

Hudson said he told players he would still be available to provide any advice if they had questions, and that he wanted to see the future of the players’ careers.

Hansen said the team should be able to take what he taught them into next year’s team, provided the school can find a replacement for Hudson.

“Well, we’ve got to get a coach first,” she said. “If we get somebody like Brady then we should be good.”