GRAND FORKS — Maddie Hart learned this fall that former Larimore head volleyball coach Carly Trosen does not intend to continue coaching volleyball after the 2023 season.
Trosen wanted Hart to be the next head coach.
Hart's first phone call was to her mother, Jane, who coached volleyball at Langdon for nearly 40 years and helped the sport grow into a state power. She wanted to know if her mother would come out of her one-year retirement as a volleyball coach and join Larimore.
“That day I thought, 'Mom, what do you think about this plan?'” said Hart, who played volleyball at UND from 2018 to 2021. “At first it was a joke, but the more I thought about it,[she]wasn't ready to finish coaching. So I said, 'What do you think about this wild idea?' Immediately laughed at me.
“A week later, she called me out of the blue and said, 'Are you sure you're thinking about this?' I said, 'I've been thinking about it every day, and you're talking to me. It would be great if you could come and coach with me.''
Maddie and Jane Hart accepted head and assistant volleyball coaching positions at Larimore two weeks ago, respectively, and will coach together in the fall.
“It's common for everyone to say that their mother is their best friend,” Maddie Hart said. “But I really mean it. We work together and have a great relationship.”
Hurts will be inheriting a program that has never made the state tournament. Larimore had one win last season, a 3-2 win over Four Winds/Minnewakan.
Those were the only three sets Larimore won in 2023.
The Hurts, which include Maddie's sisters Taylor and Mackenzie, helped Langdon win 22 Class B state tournament championships between 1993 and 2021. Langdon won four state titles during this span in 2003, 2008, 2010 and 2019.
A big reason Langdon did so well at State University was the camp that introduced kids to the sport of volleyball. Hart hopes the same plan will work at Larimore.
Larimore began holding camps for second, third and fourth graders last fall, and created a program for fifth and sixth graders in April.
Thirty-four children are participating in the first program.
“There are kids who get to the high school level and still don't know what passing, setting and hitting are,” Hart said. “To be successful, you have to start young. This is what the girls at Larimore needed.”
Hart knows the turnaround for Larimore's volleyball program won't happen overnight, but she said her family and community are excited about the potential for improvement in the program.
“We are already gearing up for the challenge,” Hart said. “Coming from a program like Langdon…it taught me how to win, the passion it takes, the energy and effort you put into playing a sport and coaching a sport. We want to learn something new and teach our kids. We like to be challenged. That's just our situation. ”