text: Fate has a funny
  way of working things out.
  Earlier this year,
  Amber McCaw and the Chesterton volleyball team had as much chance of coming
  together as winter jackets and warm weather. McCaw, an Andrean graduate, was
  coaching high school volleyball in California last season, while her husband
  was coaching at Pepperdine University.
  When McCaw and her
  family came back to the area earlier this year, it coincided with Chesterton
  looking for a new volleyball coach after Luke Starkey left the program.
  It didn’t take long
  for the coach without a team and the school without a coach to find one
  wasn’t any connection except for they had an opening and it was a school
  that was close to my house as we’re living in Chesterton now,” McCaw said.
  “It was really sad to leave California. I loved my school, loved my
  environment. I have little kids and if I found a coaching job, it would have
  to be at a school near my house. It just so happened to be Chesterton and
  here we are.”
  McCaw isn’t a
  complete stranger to Chesterton as she played high school volleyball at
  Andrean before continuing her career at Toledo. McCaw, who was Amber Alm
  before getting married, then coached at Andrean and Lake Central before she
  moved to California.
  battling Chesterton as well as the rest of the Duneland Athletic Conference.
  “The DAC is a
  powerhouse conference,” McCaw said. “You don’t have a lot of off nights in
  the DAC. There’s not a lot of gimmie games. The expectations are high and
  the challenges are real. That’s what we’re going to face as we prepare to be
  successful this season.”
  working with the program for open gym workouts during the summer and she
  spent time meeting with each individual returner.
  expected to be led by a quartet of seniors this season in middle hitter
  Ariel Rohe, outside hitter Taylor Bowser and defensive specialists Lorann
  Lombardini and Sammy Devereaux.
  “It takes a while
  to change the culture of a program and to change the expectations,” McCaw
  said. “It doesn’t happen overnight. That started this summer at open gym. It
  began with asking what are the expectations and the goals and how to make
  them a reality. These kids now can draw a line and start something new.”
  The Trojans open
  the season tonight against Hammond Morton before going on the road for
  matches at Munster and Andrean.