San Marcos — It’s been said that everything happens for a reason.

At least that’s what I was trying to tell myself as I was writhing with an unbearable pain in my right eye. I was in the car with Texas State assistant volleyball coach Sean Huiet, who was doing everything he could to rush me to the emergency room.

I had decided to go Texas State head volleyball coach Karen Chisum’s volleyball camp to take a few quick pictures on the first day back from a four-week vacation. Two hours into my work day, while trying to get an intriguing angle of a kill shot from one of the Bobcat volleyball players, I got a lot more than I bargained for.

One of the players’ shot hit my camera, shattering my eyeglasses and sending shards of glass into my cornea. I immediately fell to the ground, placed my hands over my eye and started screaming from the pain.

Soon after arriving at the emergency room, where I was greeted by an extremely concerned wife, the staff at CTMC went to work getting the glass out of my eye. While still in a state of shock with the doctors poking at my eye, I heard a familiar voice.

It was Coach Chisum speaking with my wife outside the curtain.

Hearing Coach Chisum’s concerned voice outside the curtain gave me a calming sense of solace. Almost as if my mother, rest in peace, had broken away from work to see if I was going to be okay.

This happened back in early July, and I waited to bring it up now for a number of reasons.

For one, I was embarrassed by the whole ordeal. A month earlier I was bragging in a column about how I narrowly missed get hitting by a foul ball at a Bobcat baseball game and there I was chancing my fate close up at the volleyball net. I probably shouldn’t have been that close, something I can safely say now that worker’s comp has bought me a nice, new pair of glasses.

The other reason was an opportunity to share something I’m sure a number of our readers already know, about how Coach Chisum is more than just a great coach, she’s a special person to a lot of people in numerous ways.

Coach Chisum and myself go back to when I was a young journalist attending Texas State. Although I had never covered a volleyball game, I was given a scholarship to work at the University Star, where I became the Bobcat volleyball beat writer.

I wasn’t shy about informing Coach Chisum of this fact, and even told her how I was always jealous of the volleyball players as a football player high school because they got to practice indoors in the air conditioning.

She, in turn, wasn’t shy about teaching me the game of volleyball. I wasn’t, obviously, a player. Nor was I a student of the instructional volleyball class she taught each semester. Her willingness to teach a clueless, football-loving redneck from East Texas, came from a love of the game and a desire to spread that passion to others.

It worked.

I have enjoyed watching Bobcat volleyball ever since, and have been lucky enough to be a part of 17 of her 31 seasons at Texas State. Like she says, I knew her back when she had dark hair, and she knew me when I actually had hair.

Sports writers are taught to remain impartial when covering a game, but it’s difficult for me not to cheer for someone like Coach Chisum.

Which is why you’ll likely see me sitting in the stands tonight when Chisum goes for her 700th career win when her Bobcats host Prairie View A&M in Texas State’s home opener. A victory tonight would make Chisum one of just seven active Division I coaches to reach this mark.

It’s also the reason why I hope the stands are Strahan Coliseum are filled with Texas State fans, students and faculty to witness this remarkable milestone.

I know it would mean a lot to a woman who has meant a lot to Texas State University and this community.



Randy Stevens is Sports Editor for the San Marcos Daily Record. Contact him at rstevens@sanmarcosrecord.com.