University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Alumni Profile - Cally Geiger
09.03.2010 | Women's Volleyball
Each week www.uncabulldogs.com will do a feature on a former Bulldog student-athlete or coach and find out what they're doing since they left Asheville. This week's feature is on former Bulldog volleyball player Cally Geiger, who is now the head volleyball coach at The Citadel.
Geiger enjoyed a great career for the Asheville volleyball team from 1995-98. She is listed on eight different Top 10 career lists for the Bulldog program and is the school's all-time leader in service aces with 198. Cally earned Big South All-Conference honors in both 1997 and 1998. She graduated in 1999 with a degree in environmental science.
Cally then decided to get into coaching. She began her career as an assistant coach at College of Charleston and helped the Cougar program become the dominant program in the Southern Conference. The 2001 team went 30-3 and 19-1 in the SoCon. The Lady Cougars captured their first ever regular-season championship in school history. Geiger helped coach that squad to a No. 6 national ranking in winning percentage (.909), as well as a No. 6 national ranking in digs per game (18.52) and No. 13 national ranking in hitting percentage (.287).
In 2002, the Geiger-taught Cougars were champions of both the Southern Conference regular season and post-season tournament and earned the school's first bid to the NCAA Tournament in any women's sport. The Cougars posted the nation's third-longest winning streak that season with 22 consecutive victories that shattered the previous school and SoCon records.
Cally got out of coaching for awhile but decided to get back into it when she accepted the head coaching at The Citadel in 2006. She has steadily improved the program each year, and they even almost beat the Bulldogs last season in an early-season tournament as they took Coach Torbett's team to five sets.
Cally was one of Torbett's first ever recruits when she became head coach in the spring of 1994. Coach Torbett remembers her recruiting process very well.
"Cally is from Pennsylvania which is where I'm from," explained Torbett. "She went to a camp and Penn State and my college coach mentioned her to me.
"What I really liked about Cally right off the bat was that she was a tall player (6-2) who played all around," added Torbett. "You just didn't see players like that. We thought she would be a good fit and it worked out."
Geiger remembers the Penn State camp vividly.
"When I started looking for a place to go to college and play volleyball, it was an extensive search," commented Geiger recently before her team was set to leave and go to a tournament at Mercer. "We looked up and down the East Coast, and I went to a lot of camps.
"The Penn State camp is quite memorable for me, because that's where I learned to play defense properly," added Geiger. "I'm glad Coach Torbett noticed because defense was always so important to her."
When Coach Torbett had Geiger and her family visit Asheville she was sold pretty quickly.
"UNC Asheville was one on my last recruiting visits," stated Geiger. "As soon as I got to Asheville, I just fell in love with everything here. I loved the location, the team and Coach Torbett."
Geiger enjoyed an excellent career on the floor for the Bulldogs. However, she is quick to give others credit.
"I had a big learning curve when I got here as a freshman," explained Geiger. "There was so much to learn. If I had some success, it was due to my teammates and Coach Torbett. She made me into a good player."
There was learning off the floor, as well.
"I really felt that I grew so much as a person at UNC Asheville," said Geiger. "And Coach Torbett had a big hand in that, as well. She made me grow as a volleyball player and as a person. I will always be grateful to her for what I learned."
Getting into coaching was not something that Geiger planned on upon graduation as she was planning to use her degree in environmental science. However, an opportunity at College of Charleston came open and things worked out.
"I guess everything happens for a reason," said Geiger. "Coaching was not something I was thinking about but an opportunity opened up at College of Charleston and I decided to go for it. I'm very glad I did."
"Cally was going to be successful in whatever she decided to do," declared Torbett. "I wasn't thinking about her getting into coaching but she's a great person who would do well.
"I was pleasantly surprised when she decided to become a coach but not surprised with the success she's had," added Torbett.
Geiger has used her experience as a player to help her as a coach.
"I want all the girls I coach to have the growth that I did both on and off the floor," stated Geiger. "That's our job as coaches to prepare our team; not just for the next match but for the next challenge they'll face in life, as well."
In 2006, a head coaching position opened up at The Citadel. The Military College of the South had only had a volleyball program for just a couple of seasons as the school has just admitted women a decade earlier. It was not a program that was going to win 20 matches in a row and compete for championships year after year. Geiger was ready for the challenge.
"The Citadel is an incredible challenge to coach volleyball," declared Geiger. "However, the school's mission is to mold new leaders and that's what we do. I hope with our leadership as coaches that we help our girls become better volleyball players and emerging leaders. We want to help the next generation be successful. "
A thrill for Geiger in her head coaching career came last season when pupil met student in an early-season tournament as the Bulldogs of UNC Asheville took on the Bulldogs of The Citadel.
"There was a lot of pride on my part when I looked down and saw Cally as a head coach," commented Torbett. "I watched her team throughout the tournament and could tell they were well-coached, and they responded to her very well."
"I have such respect for Coach Torbett that I was really, really nervous before that match," explained Geiger. "There were some real butterflies in my stomach."
The Citadel stunned Asheville in the first two sets before Torbett's club rallied to win the next three sets and the match. And Geiger had another learning lesson for her team.
"Coach Torbett does a magnificent job getting the most out of all her players. Her teams always play with a lot of guts and never give up," stated Geiger. "We want our program to be like Coach Torbett's program. We learned a lot from that match and hopefully it will help us get better."
