Caroline Knop has played volleyball at a level Park City High School’s volleyball team could only dream of.
Knop spent her first two college seasons at the University of Michigan before transferring to the University of Florida. With the Gators, Knop played for a national title and was a two-time American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-America honorable mention as a libero, fighting off attacks from the best hitters in the country for the Gators’ back row.
Over the summer, Knop, now a volunteer assistant coach for the Gators, took time out of her schedule to put on a camp for Park City’s volleyball team. Knop wasn’t just teaching the Miners about how to be a better hitter or libero or showing them skills that would be expected of a Division I college volleyball player.
Instead, Knop was putting the Miners through an intensive, Navy SEAL-esque workout for 20 minutes. Knop called the Navy SEALs “the greatest team in the history of this world” because of how they manage stress and work together. The whole point of the exercise, and the rest of camp, was to bring the Miners closer together as a team.
“We did a workout that was 20 minutes of no stopping, no water,” Knop said. “It wasn’t to kill the girls. It was just to say that you can do things together with someone and go through it together.”
Heading into the state playoffs, Park City has a team that is winning on and off the court. The Miners clinched a co-region title following their sweep of Murray on Tuesday night. Park City ended the regular season with a 15-12 record and the No. 12 seed in the playoffs, setting up a home postseason match against No. 21 Murray on Tuesday.
Outside of the on-court success, Miners coach Matt Carlson said he’s never had a Park City team as close as this one, showing that Knop’s lessons were taken to heart.
“This has been the first year I’ve had zero drama,” Carlson said. “Zero issues with kids being poor teammates, and it’s a big thank you to (Knop) and what she’s done.”
On the court, Knop said she focused on working on the Miners’ passing and serving, but she mostly emphasized creating great teammates and showing them how to motivate others.
As part of the camp, Knop took Park City’s volleyball team on a team hike to Bloods Lake. Along the way, she asked everyone questions, like why they were playing high-school volleyball or what makes a great teammate. That encouraged teammates to be vulnerable with each other and bond.
Those experiences were valuable not just for helping on-court chemistry, but also creating positive memories. When Knop looks back at her college career, it’s not the wins and losses she remembers.
“The memories of that I have from my time here at Florida rarely have to do with wins and losses and almost entirely have to do with moments that were funny, stupid, dumb,” Knop said. “Core memories of mine are, like, my teammates out doing other stuff, like going off-roading and stuff like that. It had nothing to do with the volleyball gym. And so, how can I continue to impress that upon young women who are at that level?”
That trip to Bloods Lake was exactly that for some of the players.
“It was an adventure because we actually went up the path in the snow, so we didn’t really see the path,” senior middle blocker Kennedy Halper said. “We all hiked down together. Not on a path, just through probably four feet of snow, and it was really funny.”
“Experiences that you don’t know are coming are what actually bond people,” Halper added.
Knop’s visit also helped create bonds between all levels of Park City’s volleyball program. Halper noted that some of the people she’s closest to on the team are freshmen. Both Halper and senior libero Kerstin van Oostenbrugge said that Knop’s camp allowed them to get to know freshman Sabine Smith, who finished the regular season with the highest hitting percentage out of the team’s regular hitters.
“That’s when I first met (Smith), and I was like, ‘Hey, this girl’s pretty cool,’” van Oostenbrugge said. “Now, I’m super close with her on the team, and it’s amazing to play with her because all the stuff that we did in camp, like cheering on our teammates, being confident, all the abilities and skills, it’s all carried through to the practices and the games that we play in now.”
It had its on-court benefits as well, like how van Oostenbrugge had the opportunity to learn from a fellow libero who had played for a national title.
“She really helped define what, as a libero, I needed to do,” van Oostenbrugge said. “She was like, ‘You need to be talking to your hitters and telling them what’s open because without you, they can’t really function.’”
Park City’s 15-12 record isn’t a radical improvement from last year’s 13-15 record, but Carlson has noticed how tight-knit this year’s group is. Volleyball is a sport with a ton of moving, specialized parts, and not every team can turn those parts into a well-oiled machine. Before losing to Salem Hills on Wednesday to close the regular season, Park City had won four of its last five matches, and the Miners felt like they were playing their best volleyball of the season.
“This year, collectively we have some talented players, but we also have the best chemistry we’ve ever had,” he said. “It’s been rewarding. It’s finally clicking on the volleyball side. It’s huge.”
Carlson also credited Knop with helping the Miners hit the reset button on the team’s culture heading into the season.
“People understand the tone of what’s trying to be built here,” Carlson said. “Without that, we’re starting from scratch. She just put us on this huge leg up. Just everyone who was a part of it, they came and brought that aspect to the program. It’s a culture shift. It’s a culture change. It affects everybody.”
And when it comes to Knop’s emphasis on motivating and supporting teammates, Park City has embraced it. The Miners’ matches this year are loud from teammates cheering on the sidelines, and the smacks of a multitude of high fives all match long can be heard from across the gym. The enthusiasm is infectious.
“To truly see how close we are as friends and as sisters, and then seeing our ability and skill and seeing how that’s progressed throughout the season, it’s amazing,” van Oostenbrugge said. “It’s knowing that we, as seniors, left an impact on the program that will forever be remembered. And hopefully, that will be carried on throughout the years.”