Coach: Volleyball team played season with a lot of heart

Unicoi County volleyball coach Tori Cutshall's time in Erwin was short, but most certainly sweet. The second-year head coach's career – for the time being, at least – concluded with the Blue Devils' 25-23, 25-22, 22-25, 25-12 loss to eventual champion Sullivan East in the first round of the District 1-2A tournament on Monday in Bluff City. Cutshall is moving at semester's end to Baxter, where her husband Jacob has been living since taking a job at Tennessee Tech earlier this year. She's also due to have the couple's second daughter in February. "I definitely would've stayed at it for the long haul," Cutshall said. "I've loved Unicoi. I mean, I wasn't born and raised in Unicoi, but I definitely get that family camaraderie – the community vibe." Cutshall appreciated the assistance of everyone from director of schools John English to her fellow coaches. "I've asked baseball coach Chad Gillis for plenty of advice," she said. "Abby Hensley, the softball coach, I've talked to her a lot – like for how to do fundraisers, how to do all these things. I've been pretty lucky to have the Unicoi coaches accept me and bring me in. "I've worked with both the girls and boys basketball coaches (Jordan Simmons and Brandon Broyles) – like when do we share the court, what are some fundraiser ideas you have done that have been useful," she said. "And I've been really lucky to have good assistants." Cutshall doesn't want to get in the endorsement business, but it's obvious she'd be satisfied to see assistant Brooklyn Jones become her successor. "I don't want to speak for her or for Dr. English," Cutshall said. "Whoever they put in there is going to do great things, I'm sure. I trust their judgment on who should succeed me. But Brooklyn loves the girls, she loves volleyball. She'd be a great coach – she is a great coach." With underclassmen such as Carly Baxter and Deanna Gill, the future would appear to be bright for the Blue Devils. "And the eighth grade girls coming up are going to be good," Cutshall said. "I don't know if they'll be varsity level right away, but they are good. I think whoever takes over the program is coming in at the right time. I think within the next two years Unicoi could make it to state. Yeah, Carly Baxter's senior year – Layla Peterson and all of them – I think they can make it as long as they have their heads on right and they're determined." The relatively inexperienced Unicoi County squad put up a fight against East during its last hurrah. The Patriots went on to sweep Greeneville and beat Elizabethton in four sets before beating Chuckey-Doak in four sets in the title match. "We definitely played with a lot of heart," Cutshall said. "East is great this year. We knew that going into it. They're hard to play; they can do it all. They play good defense and really good offense. "You have to be on you're A-game to beat 'em, and it seems like Brittany's (Scott-James) girls have really locked in and peaked right here at tournament time. They were going to be a hard team for anybody to beat." Senior Abby Kneisley shined during her swan song. "Abby Kneisley played her heart out in the last couple of sets," Cutshall said. "I took a timeout and told them, 'This is it. If we lose, we're done.' And she definitely, as a senior, wanted to lead by example and left it out there and has no regrets about how she played. "I don't think any of my girls hung their heads and gave up. I just think East was the better team." Cutshall also praised Unicoi County first-year athletic director Andrew Silvers, who is also the middle school head football coach. "Oh my goodness, having Andrew Silvers as the athletic director has been remarkable," she said. "He has been the best AD I've had. He's doing a great job. He's listening to the coaches. I mean, he was a coach – is a coach. "He knows what we want and what we need. He stays on top of things. He's going to do great things as the AD." Cutshall's father Rick has been a longtime administrator at Sullivan East, which is her alma mater. It was fitting that East was where her final match as the Blue Devils head coach took place. "There's always some kind of force that brings it back to East," she said. "The flood happened last year and we had our Senior Night up there. And we had districts this year and ended our season up there." And now, Cutshall says, she feels like she has a home away from home in Erwin. "It's been great," she said. "I definitely would've stayed as long they would've had me."