Bio

Coach Hayley Kobza is in her eighth year as the coach of the Lady Indians.

She was named the Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022.

Since taking over a team that won just two games the season before her arrival, MCC increased its win total and decreased losses for four straight seasons before the shift to an abbreviated spring schedule in the Covid-19 year of 2021. MCC has topped the 20-win season in five of the past six seasons with the exception being a 17-12 record in the Covid-19-shortened spring season. Her teams have posted winning records the past six seasons.

Her career mark stands at 133-111 with a .545 winning percentage.

YEAR                W-L             WINNING %

2016                 8-24                  .250   

2017                20-19                 .513

2018                21-14                 .600

2019                25-12                 .676

2021 (Spring)   17-12                 .586

2021 (Fall)       20-18                  .526

2022                22-12                  .647

TOTAL           133-111             (.545)

THE TEAM WENT 21-10 during the 2022 regular season and 1-2 in the Region IX post-season tournament. A 7-3 record in the south sub-Region IX standings is the best mark since Kobza assumed head coaching duties in 2016. MCC has only posted a winning mark in the south region one other time – when the team went 6-4 in 2019.

Kobza picked up her 100th career win as a coach in September of 2021 and closed out the 2022 season with a 133-111 record at McCook. There have been 31 of her former players who have moved on to four-year schools since 2018 and 34 overall. 

She is a four-time Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference Coach of the year. Her teams have gone 28-2 in NCCAC play over the past five seasons.

FOUR MCC PLAYERS received post-season and conference and Region IX awards following the 2022 season. Fernanda Merancio received first-team all-Region IX honors while Victoria Thomas, McKenna Crews and Jessie Jerome were named to the second team. Merancio, Jerome and Alexis Pontine were named to the all-NCCAC team and Kobza was named coach of the year.

Four sophomores and a freshman from the 2022-2023 team moved on to four-year programs include:

• McKenna Crews signed with Division 2 Minnesota State University
• Makayla Brown will play Division 2 Shaw University in North Carolina
• A’Dasia Porter moves on to NAIA Blue Mountain College in Mississippi
• Jisell Chumacero is moving to Missouri Valley, an NAIA school in Marshall, Mo.
• Freshman Alexis Pontine (Ignacio, Colo.) signed on with Division 2 Adams State in Colorado 

Academically, the team earned a 2023 United States Marine Corps/American Volleyball Coaches Association Academic Award. MCC was one of six division 1 schools in the National Junior College Athletic Association to receive this award, designating the top 20 percent of team grade point averages. There are 98 volleyball programs competing in division 1.

In addition, MCC’s team GPA of 3.73 earned the team NJCAA designation as an Academic Team of the Year. Seven MCC players earned NJCAA academic awards for GPAs higher than 3.60. Among MCC’s six athletic teams volley ball was named MCC’s academic team of the year in May of this year.

The Athletic Directors in Region IX named Kobza the Assistant Women’s Region IX Director in 2021, for all women’s sports and she also serves as the chair person for volleyball in the region’s south division and chairs the NJCAA Cheerleading committee.

She presented at the 2022 AVCA Convention in Omaha on the same platform as her podcast “Coaching, Caffeine and Comedy.”

Playing Career: Southwestern Oklahoma State University - Collegiate Volleyball Player

Family: Kobza and husband Clay have two children, Tripp and Leddy.