Homecoming weekend is nearly upon us. The flurry and frenzy of Fighting Scots activities will fill the air as alumni from around the globe return, once more, to their red brick home.

For one member of the Fighting Scots family, homecoming and home-building are intertwined, synonymously.  

"I'm blessed to have a lot of help. My parents and Hank's parents are only minutes away otherwise it would make life very tough doing what we do," explained Volleyball Head Coach Kari Shimmin.

Let's take a look at what "doing what we do" looks like for Coach Shimmin: Four time letter winner, two-time All-Midwest Conference outside hitter, 2010 Midwest Conference Champion and Coach of the Year, most wins in a single season and career by any Monmouth College volleyball coach, "M Club Hall of Fame" 2011 inductee, four daughters, and one very supportive husband.

For the Shimmin's, "supportive husband" takes on a different role. Hank Shimmin served as Kari's assistant on the sidelines for seven years. The Shimmin family had grown to five and things were changing.

 "We began coaching together in 2003," explains Coach Shimmin, "and it was amazing, but by the time we had three daughters and our fourth on the way we decided that it was best for our family if only one of us coached on the sidelines."

Just because Hank is no longer on the bench, doesn't mean he relinquished his coaching duties, pointed out Coach Shimmin.

"Hank likes to talk and socialize with the parents," she explained. "He's great at it and it definitely helps make this program a family, but sometimes he gets so caught up in the game that he may forget that he's also supposed to be watching our girls."

"We were playing a match against Grinnell. I was coaching up our team as the ball was being served and I look right under the net and there's Kora (the youngest of the Shimmin girls). Bailey and Jenn, our two oldest girls, were shagging balls for the team and Sara was on her grandmother's lap reading a book. All of a sudden I'm shouting "Whose kid is this on the court?" and Hank has to run out and get her."

"Still the most upsetting thing about the whole ordeal, we lost the point," jests Coach Shimmin.

Four girls later, and the Shimmin household has grown enough to sport a starting six.
"My girls have grown up in this gym. If they're not at their own practice they are here shagging balls and running around with the team."

And then the Shimmin family reached a turning point.

 "We sat the girls down and talked about what it meant that mom was coaching. I had to explain to them that I was going to miss almost all of their games in the fall. That maybe, I might make one or two. So we asked ourselves: is this going to be good for us?"



The answer was unanimous.

"My girls absolutely love being part of this, being part of Monmouth. They are so supportive."

Once again, this term "supportive" takes on a non-traditional role for the Shimmin family.

This time, support came in the form of never missing a conference championship.

Flash back to November 2^nd, eight years ago, the first day of the conference championships at Carroll University in Waukesha, Wis.

"At that point, two of our girls were born in the spring. My doctor had told me that Sara was due the weekend of the conference tournament. In my mind, my oldest two girls were two weeks late, so I had time. There was no way I wasn't going with my team," presumed Coach Shimmin.

"Most people didn't approve of me going that far away being so close to the due date, but we drove up and stayed in Beloit the night before. Our plan was to head up to Waukesha the next morning. We got to the hotel room and I start going into labor."

Sara was bound and determined she was going to make the conference tournament as well.

"Hank and I hopped in the car and headed back to Galesburg. He was driving way too fast, that much I remember," posits Coach Shimmin.

After giving birth to their third child, Sara, the Shimmins were visited by a Fighting Scots team the next day, after the Scots finished second in conference.

"The girls had made signs up at the conference match and brought them back home. We were coaching before we had the girls, so it was always fun to reveal to our team that they we were adding another member to the Fighting Scots family, but this was different. This was such a special thing to share together."

The Shimmins' two oldest girls, Bailey and Jennifer, are now playing volleyball in junior high and high school. Their two youngest daughters both are heavily involved in dance and Hank works at a local bank in town when he's not watching the girls at games. Life has become wonderfully hectic for the Shimmin family, pulling Coach Shimmin in multiple directions.

Luckily for her, many aspects overlap. "When I go recruiting and one of the girls comes along, they tell me who they think is good and who's not. It's very special to be able to share that with my girls and usually they are right."

Now that Bailey is playing high school volleyball, Coach Shimmin can pull double duty by evaluating the local area talent.

"I think it's the people here at Monmouth College have made this all possible. You walk down our athletic department hallway and across our campus and see multiple working mothers who demonstrate not only what it means to be a great mother but to excel at what they do. I know we couldn't be in a better situation."

Nonetheless, the familial affair that is Fighting Scots volleyball hasn't been easy, but Coach Shimmin and her team at home, treasure their opportunity to share their journeys together.
Follow the 2015 Fighting Scots Volleyball team's progress on Twitter @ScotsVball or on Facebook at Monmouth College Volleyball!