CLARKSVILLE – If you came to Austin Peay's team volleyball camp, held this week at the Memorial Health Building and the Foy Center, you may have seen old familiar faces coaching some area high school teams. Three alums with ties to Austin Peay athletics brought their schools to Taylor Mott's team camp.
Dawn Brading (nee' Hunter) is an assistant coach for Springfield High School, where she is entering her ninth season after coaching in the state of Indiana the 30 years prior to that. Brading was a volleyball and basketball player for the Lady Govs from 1970-74, playing on some of Austin Peay's first women's volleyball teams in the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women.
“We had to drag guys out of the lobby to have enough to scrimmage for basketball practice at the Red Barn,” Brading said. “We wore the same uniform for volleyball and basketball. I love this building; the Dunn Center is awesome, but there's just a different feel in the Red Barn.”
Melissa Dean was known as Melissa Heatherly during her Lady Govs basketball career, which spanned 1986-88. Her 1987-88 campaign, during which she shot 40.3 percent (52-for-129) from three-point territory, ranks fourth all-time in school single-season history and is still the best clip posted by an Austin Peay senior. These days, she coaches volleyball for Livingston Central (Ky.) High School.
“There have been so many improvements on campus since my time,” Dean said. “The facilities are so much better than what he had, and there are so many more opportunities for kids and their coaches here.”
Clifton Horn is a 2009 graduate who interned with the Sports Information department during his time at Austin Peay, where he first became interested in volleyball thanks to his work at Lady Govs volleyball games. Now in his fourth season as head coach at East Robertson High School, Horn was amazed by the amount of progress on campus just since his graduation.
“It's great to see all the improvements the campus has made,” Horn said. “You always enjoy coming back home. I'm excited that the athletic department is reaching out to the local teams and putting on camps like this.”
