Maggie Walsh stays home, commits to Texas State

Maggie Walsh is surprised by how fast she became committed to her dream school.

A year ago, she thought she would play libero if she made it to the collegiate level — though she didn’t have much interest from coaches as a sophomore. But after moving to San Marcos, switching to an outside hitter position and taking the Lady Rattlers to new heights this season, the San Marcos junior received an offer from Texas State on Tuesday.

It was an opportunity to stay close to home. Her parents could come and watch her play all the time. It was also an opportunity to join forces with a program that just won its third-straight Sun Belt Conference tournament championship.

Walsh accepted the offer Wednesday evening.

“That's what kind of attracted me to it, was like, it's right here,” Walsh said. “But then getting to know them more and keeping up with their season, just winning the conference and then their coaching styles and how it's very similar to (Lady Rattlers head coach Jared Te'o), it just seemed like somewhere I would really want to go to.”

Maggie transferred to San Marcos from Denton Guyer over the summer after her father, John Walsh, was hired as the Rattlers’ athletic director and football coach in May.

Te’o was hired as head volleyball coach in June and began looking over the roster to see what pieces he had to work with. Some of the players were members of the club team he coaches, Austin Juniors Volleyball. However, he didn’t know much about Maggie, though a mutual acquaintance, Kim Slusser, reached out to give him some background.

Slusser is a friend of the Walsh’s. Her daughter, Brooke, played with Maggie at Guyer and was coached by Te’o at his former club team, Texas Advantage Volleyball.

“But like, she's a mom. Like, she's not a coach,” Te’o said. “She's like, ‘(Maggie) was pretty good for us but I don't know how good she'll be to turn a program around.’”

Te’o found highlights of Maggie online. They were mostly clips of her playing defense. But the Lady Rattlers needed more firepower on offense. When they finally met in person, Te’o told Maggie he wanted to use her as the team’s No. 1 scorer. He wasn’t blown away by her hitting skill early on, but he could tell she had potential.

“She was mediocre at best, and that sounds really mean, as an attacker when she got here,” Te’o said. “Like, she just kind of hit hard. And I was like, ‘OK, that's cute, but like, what else can you do?’”

The head coach worked with Maggie on expanding her hitting range, developing different ways to spike the ball over the net from a variety of angles. It didn’t come naturally to junior but she worked at it until it felt comfortable.

The move paid off for San Marcos. Walsh led the team with 5.1 kills per set as the Lady Rattlers claimed a 10-9 overall record in the regular season and and 8-6 record in district play, securing a spot in the playoffs.

Walsh’s defensive experience gave her a unique edge, especially in serve receive.

“Every coach in our district, their scouting report is how to slow down Maggie,” Te’o said. “So a big thing they do is, and it's like kind of 'Coaching 101,' they try to serve the go-to player. And like, coaches noticed really early on, serving Maggie actually plays to our benefit because she's our best passer. So they had to really just try to take her out offensively.”

Walsh and her teammates took a 3-1 upset victory over Austin Vandegrift on the road on Nov. 20 in the first round of the playoffs, giving San Marcos its first postseason win since 2001. The season concluded in the next round as the Lady Rattlers fell to San Antonio Reagan, 3-0.

Walsh and Te’o discussed what interest Maggie was getting from college teams throughout the season. There was one school in particular Walsh had an eye on.

“At the very beginning when we both moved here, (Te'o) asked me like, ‘What college do you want to go to? And what would be your dream?’” Walsh said. “And I said Texas State. Like Texas State would be my dream school to go to.”

Te’o is good friends with Texas State head coach Sean Huiet and associate head coach Keith Anderson, and has coached Bobcat outside hitter Janell Fitzgerald and libero Kayla Granado at the club level. He knew his relationship with Texas State could be a blessing or a curse when it came to recruiting.

“At the end of the day, college athletics is a business,” Te’o said. “So I have a lot of kids on my club team that I coach and a lot of kids over the years who wanted to play for people who I'm friends with. And it can always be an awkward conversation to be like, ‘Hey, I know you're one of my kids, but you're not what they're looking for.’”

The Bobcats are a championship-winning program. At 5-foot-10, Walsh will be a bit undersized as a college hitter. Te’o told Maggie early on to keep all her options open.

But as the season progressed and Walsh improved to the point that she picked up First Team All-District 26-6A and Most Valuable Hitter honors, Te’o realized the she could actually be a great fit at Texas State. Huiet and Anderson agreed, leading to Walsh's commitment. Te’o called it “one of the easiest sells” he’s ever had to make.

Walsh will play for the top Austin Juniors Volleyball team this club season and work with Te’o during spring training to sharpen her skills so she can thrive with the maroon and gold. She’s ecstatic to already have her recruiting process out of the way.

“Honestly, it kind of feels surreal,” Walsh said. “Like, I really wasn't expecting that to happen so fast. But it did and I'm excited. It kind of feels like a lot of pressure is off of me now.”