2023 SVM Volleyball Coach of the Year: Rock Fall’s Sheila Pillars

Sheila Pillars has had a lot of success and a lot of moments to remember during her 26-year tenure as the head coach at Rock Falls.

But after announcing during the offseason that 2023 would be her final year on the sideline, her senior-laden squad sent her out with the best memories of all.

The Rockets finished 35-7 and the final victory in the Class 2A third-place match was the first in program history at the IHSA State Finals in Pillars’ last match. They won 22 of their final 24 matches this season, and only went to three sets seven times all season.

Pillars finishes her stellar career with a 642-283-5 record with eight 30-win seasons (including five of the last six) and 20 20-win seasons (including 13 of the last 14), while suffering just single-digit losses in 10 different seasons (including in each of the last six). In that time, she led Rock Falls to nine regional titles and four sectional crowns (in three different classes: A (before expansion), 2A and 3A).

Many of Pillars’ memories have been shared by longtime assistant coaches Jolene Bickett and Bree (Peugh) Naftzger – who loved every minute of the journey together.

“It’s been an amazing experience. It’s always something you hope you have the chance to do. You never know you’re going to be here this long, you just keep going because Sheila brings a lot of energy,” Bickett said. “Sheila’s intense, and I love her discipline; everyone knows if you’re coming out, you’ve got to work hard, and so she can do all the planning and take the brunt of it – and then I can come in as the ‘good cop,’ even-keeled and ready to smooth the waters and let her coach in her style.”

For leading the Rockets to the state finals for the first time in the final season of her 26-year tenure, Pillars has been voted the 2023 Sauk Valley Media Volleyball Coach of the Year by the sports staff. It’s the sixth time Pillars has won the award; she also claimed the prize in 2003, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2021.

Pillars spoke with sports correspondent Ty Reynolds about her favorite memories from her final season and the ride her team took her on to close out her coaching career.

Did you have an idea early on that this team was capable of a run to state?

“I’ll be very honest with you: in the summer, I was thinking, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen this year.’ We were all kind of discombobulated, and I was trying to fit pieces during summer league, trying different people in different spots. Once we started going, I just had to find two middles, that was the only thing I was missing, and Taylor [Reyna] graciously enough took to that spot after I told her, ‘You’re probably going to have to do this,’ and she moved from my right-side hitter and made that switch. I think once she realized that it was what she had to do to be on the court to help us win, I think that piece was great. And then Ari [Reyna], bringing her up with just her height helped us; I think she has a lot to learn and a lot of potential, and I just really think playing up with us has improved her game tremendously over the three months this season. I’m super proud of them.”

When did you start to think that this team had that run in them?

“I just feel like even as the season went on, we were playing well. We started out the season playing really well, and I thought, ‘OK this is going to be all right.’ And then in the middle we were still winning, but kind of had a little bit of a lull. We sat down and had a team pow wow, and I know some of the girls were probably thinking, ‘We’re winning, what are you doing?’ and I just said, ‘We’re not playing our ball. We’re just getting by, we’re just OK being OK,’ and we kind of re-evaluated what we wanted to do. That was kind of right before we went to the Eastland tournament, and that was our turning point for the postseason. We put everything together and it was so fun to watch the play. It was just everything that you wanted your team to do, and then obviously it carried us into the last two matches and then the postseason. So I think that little sit-down, whether they realized it or not, really kind of got us where we needed to be. We aired some things out, talked about what we needed to do, basically about people taking their role. There’s a star every single game, and not everybody has to be the star. We talked about it being a team effort, that’s why they’re all here; it’s a team, and any given day somebody’s doing a job and that’s what we needed to focus on. I think they kind of re-shifted their thinking, and that’s kind of when it took off.”

Do you think having such a senior-leaden team helped them readjust after that meeting?

“For sure, absolutely. The seniors were the ones doing the most talking, just taking the lead. They’ve been dominant over the last four years for me and this program. They were 125-16-1 or something in their four-year tenure; not all of them started as freshman, but Claire [Bickett] and Nicolette [Udell] and Denali [Stonitsch] have all started since the minute they walked in as freshmen, then I had Carli [Kobbeman] in a year later and Sophia [Moeller] came in at the end of that year. They had experience, and to watch them grow and mold together as people and athletes, it has been very fruitful and enjoyable for me. It’s been amazing, and it makes me teary-eyed right now.”

Did you feel like it was fate to go to state with this group in your last year?

“I keep saying I could not have written a better ending to my story here at Rock Falls High School. Then I joked around and said to someone, ‘Had I known I would make it to state if I was going to retire, I should’ve done this earlier, just retired and came back, then retired and came back. I would’ve had eight trophies.’ It’s just unbelievable. I tell the girls at the end of every year that it’s a lot of talent and a little bit of luck. You need that right call at the right time, you need that ball to land in, you need to get the right postseason draw, whatever the case may be, and the minute I saw where the pairings were taking us this year, I knew this was our lucky break. They were focused come postseason. I think the seniors knew this was it for them, too, and it wasn’t even about me. I think they were saying, ‘Do or die right now, let’s go,’ and we just were focused and locked in. I’ve never seen them like that for that many games in a row, and they just took it to heart and ran with it. I just rode their coattails.”

What’s going to stand out from this year when you look back at you entire career?

“It’s not even volleyball related. I feel like I have a lot of girls with a lot of stories of their own, and to watch them go on their own personal journeys – whether it was friendship-related, boy-related, volleyball-related – I think they’ve had some ups and downs and to watch them come through better in the end, and then volleyball and the support system that it gave them to get through those tribulations, that was amazing. I have a lot of strong, resilient athletes on this team and you don’t take in the personal effect of it all, and to see them come out standing on top, I think I told them that them maturing as people over the last four years that I’ve really gotten to know them has probably meant more to me than the volleyball side of it all.”

What was the strength of this team on the court to have the season they did?

“It’s always my defense. They pull us through everything. But it was also the camaraderie and the communication and the leadership. I feel like I had a lot of girls who didn’t have a problem voicing their opinion, whether it was to me or to each other. I loved it when I went to go put my lineup into the scorer’s table between games and they were already talking about the game, so when I came back and would start to say something, they’d say, ‘We already talked about that.’ Their volleyball IQ was very high, so it was just those things and the mixture of those kids – a lot of them have been together since kindergarten and they played for me in club in junior high – and they were comfortable with me. I appreciate when people are blunt with me, as I am with them, so a lot of people are afraid of that, but I appreciated them saying, ‘Sheila, this isn’t working, we need to try something else.’ They were very vocal with me, and I loved that because I think I know what they need, and sometimes they’d say, ‘Maybe not.’ But they were very good with each other, and if you watch them constantly coach each other and communicate, they were kind of redirecting each other, and I didn’t have to do so much of that, and I really appreciated that.”

What are you going to remember the most as you look back at 26 years of coaching?

“I’m super proud of the fact that when I came in, this program had not won in a very long time, and I took them from a three-win season and every year we just got better and better and better. So to use that as motivation, and I could not have done anything without my assistant coaches. Bree and Jolene have been with me the whole way. Bree played for me for four years and now this is her 15th season with me. Jolene’s been with me for 20 years coaching. Without their help, it doesn’t happen; it’s not a one-woman deal. I look back at all the friendships. It hasn’t really hit me yet, even standing here now. I think about it and sometimes I get teary-eyed talking about my favorite memories, but it probably won’t hit me until summer comes back around and I don’t have to go to weights or open gym or camp. I just look back at all the fun times, and it’s not even so much volleyball as it is the personal relationships you build with coaches, players, parents, people at the school and in the community. But especially my coaches, Jolene and Bree, I’ll miss seeing them six months out of the year, for sure That will be the hardest thing, I think.”