Oakland names Jessica Garcia new volleyball coach

Jessica Garcia

MURFREESBORO – Jessica Garcia received the text from Smyrna High volleyball coach Abbey Thomas.

An opportunity to have a “dream job” had opened up.

Garcia was named the new Oakland High volleyball coach this past week, replacing former coach Ken Nolan Jr., who had left to teach and coach at Oakland Middle across the street.

“This is what I want to do,” said Garcia, who will be a wellness teacher at Oakland High. “I was working at Healthways as a health coach, and now this amazing opportunity has opened up at Oakland, which is a great school and has great people at it.”

Garcia is a Goodpasture graduate, who has been coaching at Alliance Volleyball Club, is a former Riverdale volunteer assistant for former volleyball coach Jerry Snider.

Oakland finished third in the District 7-AAA regular season in 2014. Garcia said she has not had tryouts yet, but will have them in July after the TSSAA two-week dead period.

Oakland Principal Bill Spurlock said Nolan left the program in good shape for the upcoming season before his departure.

“He set everything up for us — everything from tryouts to a schedule,” Spurlock said. “He left us in good shape.”

Spurlock, who has had to replace four head coaches this year, said finding Nolan’s replacement wasn’t an easy task. Oakland will also have new head coaches in boys basketball (Troy Bond), football (Kevin Creasy) and softball (Luke Sheppard).

“It was a challenge,” he said. “We wanted someone with a background that had played and coached it. She is someone that fits in with our expectations of Oakland High School.”

Garcia said she has recently been coaching 14- and 15-year-olds at the club level, which is a level that requires her to do a significant amount of teaching the sport.

“That age is a prime stage of wanting to learn,” Garcia said. “They want to pick your brain. I hope it’s that way going into this program. They’ll see what I have to offer and want to pick my brain if they have questions.

“If they don’t get something, we can slow it down a little bit. Coaching younger kids has taught me how to coach to a different learning style.”

Contact Tom Kreager at 615-278-5168 or tkreager@dnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Kreager.

New faces on Patriot Drive

Oakland will have four new head coaches for the 2015-16 school year.

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