After LA: Ursula Quoyeser

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It's not easy leaving a place where you've perpetuated a legend, and a place that has become less a job and more a home and family.

That's why it was so hard for Ursula Quoyeser to tell her Episcopal School of Acadiana volleyball team Tuesday morning that she was leaving her coaching position, and to repeat that announcement Wednesday in front of the entire school.

"I asked the seniors to come in the meeting with me," Quoyeser said, "even though they won't be around next year. I needed them to support me because I knew it would be tough, and when I told the school they came up on the stage with me."

What Quoyeser told the team and the school was her acceptance of a position at St. John's School in Houston, a teaching position that won't entail any head-coaching duties in any sport. And that was by her choice.

"I told them I don't need to be a head coach," she said. "I've been that."

She has been that very well, having executed the last half of one of the nation's most prestigious high school success strings. ESA won 16 straight Louisiana Division V state volleyball titles from 1987 through 2002, and Quoyeser was the coach for the last nine of those crowns.

She also led the ESA track and field team to four state titles from 2000-03 as either head coach or co-head coach, coached golf for six years and soccer for two years and had a state runner-up finish in both.

But for her, it wasn't about the coaching, and it definitely wasn't a desire to leave ESA.

"I love it here," she said. "It's my home and my family. The kids and the parents I wouldn't trade for anything. But the parents and the kids know me and know I'm an adventurer. I have an adventurous spirit and I love doing different things.

"My window of opportunity is ripe right now, with 20 years experience. If I wait too much longer, there are a lot of jobs I wouldn't be able to consider. It's the time in my life that if I'm going to make a move, it's now."

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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

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She was a large part of one of the most prestigious success strings in the country's high school athletic history, and the Louisiana Volleyball Coaches Association is now honoring Ursula Quoyeser for that role. The Lafayette native, who did more than her part in guiding ESA to 16 straight Louisiana Division V state volleyball titles from 1987 through 2002, will be inducted into the LVCA Hall of Fame today during that organization's annual All-State and awards banquet. The banquet is scheduled for noon at Drusilla's Restaurant in Baton Rouge. Brenda LeBlanc, who preceded her at ESA before going on to continued success in the Baton Rouge prep ranks, will introduce her for induction. Quoyeser coached at ESA for 11 years before accepting a teaching position at the prestigious St. John's School in Houston in 2005. The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

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The names and faces of all the players were new to Ursula Quoyeser.

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