Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney
Oak Mountain head coach Grace Burgess claps after a play as the Eagles face Hoover in a match held at Hoover High School on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021.
The timing was finally right for Grace Burgess to return home.
The 2005 graduate of Homewood High School has been named the new volleyball coach of the Patriots, following four years as the head coach at Oak Mountain High School.
“The timing is right. It just feels right,” Burgess said.
Burgess played at Homewood and at LaGrange College before embarking on a coaching career that had assistant stops at Spain Park and Thompson before her first head job at Oak Mountain.
The Homewood and Oak Mountain jobs were each last open in 2020. For obvious reasons, Burgess had interest in the Homewood job at that time, and she was disappointed that it didn't work out.
“Homewood is my dream job, and anybody that asked me probably knew that already, but I wasn’t ready [in 2020],” Burgess said. “I had to learn how to be a head coach before I came to my dream job, and now I’m ready to do all those things.”
But the experiences accumulated and the relationships formed in her time at Oak Mountain made leaving incredibly difficult. She led the Eagles to consecutive super regional appearances and was named the Starnes Media All-South Metro Coach of the Year following the 2022 campaign.
“The hardest part was I fell in love with my kids at Oak Mountain,” she said. “I miss them every day. I made some really good friends at Oak Mountain, and that was hard as well.”
Burgess thanked the parents involved in her program at Oak Mountain for their unwavering support as she learned to navigate life as a head coach.
“Those parents supported me and were respectful of me even if they disagreed. They allowed me to be successful, and I don’t know if that’s the case everywhere,” she said.
Along those lines, Burgess is also proud of the community aspect her program was able to forge at Oak Mountain. High school players attended middle school matches, and vice versa. Burgess was visible to the middle school players. She hopes to create the same type of environment at Homewood.
Burgess takes over a Homewood program far from broken. Previous head coach Andie Freedman, who was recently announced as the new coach at Hewitt-Trussville High, took the Patriots to the super regional tournament all four years of her tenure, including a final four appearance at the 2021 state tournament.
But as with any coaching change, things will change some, and Burgess has been pleased with the flexibility of everyone within the program as she implements her methods. She also expressed how much she has enjoyed working for the Homewood administration so far.
“The kids here have been very open and excited to learn new things and learn the way that I do things,” she said. “That’s been really cool. There’s not much resistance to it, and they’re having a good time and getting to know me.”
Burgess played for Susan Cook and Melonie McBrayer in her days at Homewood, and she hopes her players have similar positive experiences playing for her at the same place. It means a little more to someone like Burgess, who has sweat equity in that same gym.
“I remember the hard days and how hard our practices were, but I also remember how successful we were because of that,” she said.
She added, “I want them earning plaques and to be so proud of the community they’re playing for.”
