Volleyball: Hereford's Kitten stresses responsibility

A little idle time earlier this year helped light a fire in Brenda Kitten that she hopes to have spread Saturday during the Third Annual Basin's Best Volleyball Clinic.

Kitten has coached Hereford to four championships in seven Class 4A state tournament appearances and is just 29 victories shy of hitting No. 600 for her career.

However, she told her audience in the Odessa High Fieldhouse little about the sport she coaches and instead concentrated on conveying the responsibility each coach has to their athletes and program.

"There's a whole lot of things we coaches are responsible for and we need to be reminded of those things often because we never know when a kid is going to be injured or if we're going to have a safety issue with a kid," Kitten said. "Those things are rare, but they do pop up and we've got to be able to react and respond to them correctly."

Kitten's role as an athletic mentor isn't a surprise since she is Hereford's girl's athletic director and formerly served as the president of the Texas Girls Coaches Association.

After reading a book recommended by a fellow coach at Hereford, Kitten rededicated herself to making a checklist of her responsibilities both as a coach and AD.

Her topic was called 'Common Sense and the Law for Texas Coaches,' and she touched on rules ranging from UIL regulations to morality and safety issues.

One big point of reference was the Texas Education Agency-sponsored Senate Bill 82, which will take effect for the 2008-09 school year. School districts will be requited to provide safety training courses for all coaches and trainers in additions to students in regards to extracurricular activities.

Items covered under its umbrella range from CPR to dealing with neck and head injuries and asthma precautions.

"For me, it was really important to kind of get in touch again with what our (school) districts could be responsible for and what we have to be responsible and liable for and what we need to be reminded of, as well," Kitten said. "Plus you've got UIL and all the safety regulations. There are so many more things required from the UIL and all of those are good things. Sometimes we just need to sit down and make a list and make sure we're covering all our bases."

As for her role as the head coach of one of the state's most respected volleyball programs in any classification, Kitten hopes the future holds more of the success that has been built over the last two decades.

Hereford hasn't been to the state tournament since 2002 and has only reached the regional semifinals once since then, including district championship teams the last two seasons that lost out to third-place district rivals in the regional quarterfinals.

Of course, teams out of Hereford's district have been to the state tournament each of the last three seasons -- Dumas in 2005 and 2006 under veteran head coach Jack Wilson; and then Canyon Randall, which made its first state appearance last season.

Canyon has developed into a volleyball power the last few seasons in Class 3A and moves back into Class 4A in August, making Hereford's road even tougher.

"It's funny because over the years, for years and years, Jack and Dumas and I were just these big rivals," Kitten said. "We're still rivals, but we've kind of formed an alliance because we've seen what Randall can do to us. We've been through so many little battles together that we've really kind of formed a good friendship.

"It's just that there's so many good teams (in the Panhandle). It just continues to get tougher and tougher."