Montrose - Daily Press

MONTROSE — Recently named volleyball Coach of the Year by the Rocky Mountain News sports writers and editors, Montrose High School head volleyball coach Shane Forrest responded, “It’s a huge honor and shocking for me.” Part of the surprise is because the honor normally goes to the coach of a state champion team. Of the five coaches nominated this year, three were state champions, one a state runner-up, and Forrest, whose team made it to the final eight in the state tournament but was not among the top finishers. So it is very special to be selected for the honor among very elite company.

Assistant coach and husband Joel Forrest explained the selection: “Shane has a great relationship with a lot of coaches, so as she’s started to have more and more success, it seems that the coaches around her are genuinely happy for her. The volleyball community also recognizes the difficulty of building a successful program so far from a metropolitan area.” Heidi Voehringer, Forrest’s other assistant coach added, “I think Shane’s selection is recognition that she’s something special. She has become a very highly respected member of the volleyball coaching community.” Voehringer added that it is rare to have a Western Slope team’s coach selected. “She coaches for all the right reasons — to have a positive impact on youth, teach them about things bigger than themselves, and impart some of her passion for the game. The volleyball community [statewide] is beginning to see and recognize that,” Voehringer added.

It’s something of a joke around the Daily Press that so often I point out someone who is a former student of mine. Steve Woody suggested handing out tee-shirts to members of the alumni, Shane (Edmondson) Forrest being one. She graduated from Montrose High School in 1985 and was a member of the advanced sophomore English class I taught in 1983. There have been many outstanding individuals whose names I’ve had in the grade book, but Shane would be a unanimous Hall of Famer on the first ballot, and certainly not merely for her coaching accomplishments.

Shane Forrest, Colorado's 2008 volleyball coach of the year, in her guidance counselor's office at Columbine Middle School Advertisement

A standout volleyball player at Mesa State College where she met Joel (then a leader on the pitching staff of the Maverick baseball team), she earned the first of two master’s degrees at the University of New Mexico in therapeutic recreation. The couple moved to Denver where she spent four years from 1992-1996 as a recreation specialist for adults and children with developmental and physical disabilities. Part of that work included coaching volleyball with middle school students and seniors, 65 years and older. That experience, she described as “a kick, especially getting the seniors out on the court.”

But her roots in Montrose called, and she and Joel wanted to be in a smaller community. Returning to Montrose in 1996, she worked for a year as a paraprofessional in special education for the school district and then for a year as case manager for the Partners program. She accepted a new position with the school district as case manager for expelled students from 1998-2004, a job with, to understate the issue, many challenges. Attending summer sessions with Adams State in Alamosa and Grand Junction, she completed a second M.A. in counseling and has been working as a counselor at Columbine Middle School since 2004.

“I love the job, especially the energy of the kids,” Forrest said in a recent interview in her office. She also has strong ties to her family and is especially proud of being an Edmondson. She actually resisted getting into high school coaching. “My dad was always a strong influence and wanted me to coach.” Dick Edmondson, her father who died in 1995, urged her to consider coaching, which she said, “turned out to be a source of great balance and perspective,” particularly having worked in the expulsion program. She eventually accepted the invitation to assist MHS volleyball coach Vicci Carricato for the 1996 season, taking over as head coach the following year.

Concluding her twelfth season as head coach, Forrest said that developing the program has been a long process. “I wouldn’t have thought it would take that long, but I can’t stress enough the support and commitment of my assistant coaches.” To achieve the current level of competitive success takes much more than can be accomplished during the formal high school season, and she recognizes the outstanding efforts of her two assistants, especially working with the club and conditioning programs. Husband Joel puts the focus on Shane and Heidi Voehringer. “They simply work very hard. Heidi is always there for Shane and the program.” Joel cited the importance of loyalty and said, “If your staff is loyal, then they’ll run through fire to do what needs to be done for you. That defines Heidi.” It clearly defines him as well, and it is a loyalty both Joel Forrest and Heidi Voehringer will insist is earned by their head coach.

Characteristically, Shane Forrest gives credit to others. “This (Coach of the Year) honor is wonderful, but I’m especially proud for the team to be recognized.” She went on to say of her players, “They were so easy to coach. I didn’t have to worry about things off the court. They were always on time and ready to work and do everything I asked. They are a super group of girls.”

They were fortunate as well to have been coached by one who deservedly earned the recognition as being Colorado’s outstanding volleyball coach.

 

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