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Believe it or not, there was a time when Wendy Hall wasn't a very good volleyball player.

"I was horrible, in fact," Hall said. "I was a good athlete, but I was so far behind the rest of the team. But they were patient."

You see, Hall had an agreement with the coach from Northwest College in Wyoming that she would play basketball - her more natural sport - and volleyball.

"He was recruiting one set of athletes to play both," Hall said.

But after not playing much her freshman year, volleyball started to come to Hall. By her sophomore year, she was starting and playing the middle between two All-American outside hitters.

And so began Hall's love of volleyball.

Now Hall, who is entering her 22nd year coaching volleyball and 16th year teaching in the Steamboat Springs School District, is as well known for her ability to mold state-championship caliber teams as she is for shaping the lives of the girls she has coached.

"She is someone who will always be in my life," said Tara King, a 2006 Steamboat graduate who played for Hall and now plays for Mesa State College. "She's a great person and has done a lot with volleyball. I know that she's affected a lot of people's lives. She's more than a coach to a lot of people."

After two years as an assistant, Hall took over the volleyball head coaching position at Steamboat Springs High School in 1989.

She had two state runner-up teams in 1998 and 2002. While Hall said those teams are certainly memorable, her time coaching in Steamboat has been more about the everlasting relationships she's formed.

"You hope, you really do, that at some point in their lives they look back and say, 'I get it now,'" Hall said. "I hope they're able to say, 'I learned from that program, and it helped shape me.'"

While Steamboat hasn't been to the playoffs in several years, Hall said she's itching to get back. Hall still goes and watches the state volleyball tournament, and each time she steps into the Denver Coliseum she gets chills.

"I'm at 21 years now," Hall said, "and I'm not close to finishing my coaching career."