Lancaster Bible College and the Lancaster Bible College Athletic Department are pleased to announce that Micah Herron has been named Head Women's Volleyball Coach, and will begin in the coming weeks.
 
Herron, who served as an assistant coach during the 2017 season, takes over Jacki Smith who resigned last month to take the same position at Carleton College in Minnesota.
 
Herron graduated from Northland International University (Wis.) in 2011, and was a four-year member of the men's volleyball program, as well as a two-year student-athlete on the men's soccer team where he played alongside current Lancaster Bible Men's Soccer Head Coach Tom Ardt.
 
Herron has been on the staff for just one season, but learned a lot during his first year in Lancaster, including just how much the team wanted to improve, both on an individual level and as a team.
 
"I was impressed by their hunger and their desire to get better," Herron explained. "They wanted more knowledge about the game, and they wanted to improve. I think Coach Smith raised the bar in terms of expectations and I hope to continue raising that bar."
 
Herron takes over a program that has appeared in the North Eastern Athletic Conference Playoffs in each of the last seven years, but has only advanced to the NEAC Semifinals once in seven tries.
 
"One of the things we talked about as a team prior to the summer break was being ready for preseason in August, and how that can jump start our season," Herron said. "I expect the team to not only be ready to go on day one of preseason, and that they are prepared both physically and mentally to compete as an upper echelon team in the conference. We can't start behind during the short preseason we have, and need to be prepared to fine tune during that week or 10 days, and not waste time getting in shape."
 
Herron was quick to credit Coach Smith that in her short time in Lancaster, she was able to begin a new chapter of the program, and began raising the bar and expectations to new heights, something Herron, as well as the athletic department would like to see continued.
 
"Like Coach Smith, I'm very competitive," Herron explained. "We have skill on this team and in this program, but we need to be working hard every practice and every point of every game. We are going to win matches because we out-worked teams, and that is the mentality we need to have from day one."
 
Herron was also quick to point out that the more competitive and successful the team is, the better opportunity the program will have to build on its platform.
 
"The ladies know my heart, and I want to be competitive and win matches," Herron said. "But I want those things because the more success we have, the more our platform grows to further the Kingdom of Christ. The better we are on the court, the more impact we can have off of it."
 
Lancaster Bible Director of Athletics Pete Beers explained that he believes Herron can not only continue the positives from last season, but build upon them and take the program to the next level.
 
"One of the key considerations in hiring our women's volleyball coach, was to keep as much continuity in the coaching staff as possible," Beers said. "We felt, in the best interest of our ladies, that Coach Herron would be able to fill the void the best and build upon what was started last season. We look forward to seeing the program continue to grow and to thrive under Micah's leadership."
 
In addition to the hiring of Herron, the Chargers will also be keeping assistant coaches Kaitlyn Gochenauer and Julie Brubaker on staff for the 2018 season and beyond.