Casey Bauer named ASC volleyball assistant coach

by David Mejia

Former CSU standout Casey Bauer was recently named ASC's assistant volleyball coach.

ALAMOSA, Colo. – Familiarity with a system or program is always an enormous bonus when beginning one’s tenure as an assistant coach. Such is the case for former Colorado State University standout Casey Bauer, who has been named the new assistant coach for the Adams State College women’s volleyball team by head coach Lindy Mortensen.

Bauer, who was an All-State player for Mortensen at Montezuma-Cortez High School, concluded her collegiate career for the Rams last season, earning All-Mountain West Conference honors after averaging 3.18 kills per game in league play.

The Grizzlies began preparation for the upcoming season on Monday.

Mortensen has followed Bauer’s collegiate career and when the assistant position opened Bauer was the obvious choice and the call was made. Bauer is a great fit, having played in her program and can easily implement and confirm Mortensen’s beliefs and system.

“When we were looking for an assistant – just for me – I wanted to find an assistant that I knew shared my philosophy. Of course I thought of Casey,” said Mortensen. “She has good volleyball knowledge. As a player she just bought in the program, was dedicated and was the type of player that never missed an off-season day. I knew she would bring that same work ethic into our program as an assistant coach.”

Bauer, who graduated from CSU with a degree in human development and family studies, was quick to accept the position, knowing the situation she would immediately become familiar and the transition would be smooth.

“When she called me to talk to me about coaching here I knew that I would like it because I know how she is,” Bauer said. “I know the kind of person she is, I know how she coaches, I know her values and the way she does things. We have a lot of the same ideas of how we want to run a program and that make the transition a lot easier for me.

“She’s always come up to my games when I played at CSU and I have a lot of respect for her and I think she respects me as well,” Bauer continued. “We communicate very well. She knows where I stand and I know where she stands, so, I think all the decisions we make from the type of offense we run to who we’re going to play we’ll communicate with each other.

The former Montezuma-Cortez star was named MWC Player of the Week after recording a career-high 26 kills in a pair of road wins against San Diego State and UNLV.

She finished second on the team in both kills and digs, having notched a career-high 17 digs at Wyoming and had a career-high five aces against Air Force. Bauer started all 28 matches and played in all but one game last season. She concluded her career by recording her 700th career kill in the MWC Tournament and finished with 711.

Bauer, who has been coaching at summer volleyball camps and assisting at clinics all over the country, has also worked with coaches who come from all over the world. In this time, she has had an opportunity to see many coaching styles, techniques and ideas of how things can be done on the court. This experience should prove invaluable to Mortensen and the Grizzlies program.

“I think it’s really important a team to know that it’s not one coach and another coach, it is two coaches working together to make the best possible team,” Bauer said. “I feel like not only playing, but being exposed to all the types of coaching is going to help me here because I can put those things into practice when I’m coaching.”

Adams State volleyball fans will get their first glimpse of the 2006 squad on Aug. 21 when the team will hold an intra-squad scrimmage in Plachy Hall at 6 p.m.