BECKVILLE — In order to move the Beckville Ladycats volleyball team into the future, they went to the past.

The past was rehiring former Coach Casey Falgout who previously coached at Beckville from 2003-12, the last seven being as head coach.

Falgout returns after 13 years as she was named the new Beckville Ladycats coach last week.

“I knew it was late in the summer and it’s hard to find anybody,” Falgout said. “Not that I’m the end all be all of Beckville volleyball but I know volleyball. I want to do the girls justice. They deserve that. I just want to see it continue to grow and not waver here and there.”

Falgout takes over for former Coach Andee Poteet who resigned in late June after leading the Ladycats for three seasons.

After stepping away from coaching at Beckville in 2012 Falgout got married and stayed home raising two daughters who are now 10 and 8 years old respectively.

This past year Falgout got back into teaching by teaching second grade at Beckville’s Sunset Elementary.

Falgout says her knowledge of the game hasn’t wavered at all but the means of which the game is studied has changed a lot since she was last patrolling the sidelines as head volleyball coach at Beckville.

“There’s a lot of technology involved that’s going to be a learning curve for me,” Falgout said. “The expectation of the girls working hard hasn’t changed and my expectations haven’t changed.”

Falgout inherits one of the more solid programs in all of East Texas regardless of school sizes.

Beckville has won 12-straight district titles, all of them coming in undefeated fashion, and have been a deep postseason threat the last decade and a half.

Among Beckville’s top returners is 2A all-state middle blocker and senior Kellen Weaver who is one of the top players in East Texas.

“It’s exciting because this is a good group of girls,” Falgout said. “That’s why I was begrudgingly willing to come back. I know that we have a good program and I would like it to continue in that direction.”

Beckville is coming off a 38-9 season who along with Weaver returns the likes of incoming juniors Carli Tuttle (setter, outside hitter) and Adyson Davis (middle, outside hitter) along with incoming senior defensive players like Emily Grandgeorge and Kaitlyn Mauritzen.

Since Falgout has taken over, the team has noticed a change from Poteet who is now an assistant coach at Longview High.

Beckville has won two state titles (2018 and 2021) and become one of the premiere programs in East Texas since Falgout last coached.

Falgout didn’t want to make any promises in regards to winning a state title this year or how deep of a playoff run is to be expected. But what Falgout did say is her team will consistently show improvement and play their best volleyball in November.