Nicole Buck

After a search that lasted just over a month following the departure of Scott Keister, Northwest College has its new head volleyball coach. Former Cody High School coach Nicole Buck (formerly Nicole Gwynn) was named the new Trapper coach last week.

Buck served as the coach of the Fillies during the 2021-23 seasons, leading them to the state tournament all three years in 4A, finishing second in 2022 and third in 2023.

“Coaching at that level, we were blessed with good seasons and really good athletes and good people there. So it’s allowed me to build a lot of relationships and connections, not just in the region but the whole state, which I think will be a really good resource for recruiting,” Buck said. “I got to work with high level athletes over there, and I’m just excited to continue doing that.”

In addition to serving as the head coach at Cody, Buck spent last season helping out as a volunteer assistant coach for the Trappers, getting to know the players and gaining knowledge about the program in the process.

“It was just really fun to know that I was going to get to work with these kids again, because I really enjoyed what little time that I had with them last year,” Buck said, adding, “I think (that experience) was big. I didn’t get to be here as much as I had hoped because I had another job and a family, but even just the little that I was here was huge because it just gave me a foundation to get to know these kids a little better. So I’m not completely starting over with this group. They know who I am, I know who they are, and so we already have a little bit of a foundation there.”

When the position opened up last month Buck said she decided to pursue it. But it was her husband (Sam Buck) who helped fully encourage her regarding the position.

“I kind of decided on my own. I did, of course, reach out to him (Keister) and let him know that I was doing it and he was very kind and supportive. It’s just something that I never considered as an option because I thought he’d be here forever and I thought that was great,” Buck said. “So then when he left, I kind of talked to my husband about it and he was the one that was like, ‘you have to try,’ because he’s been my biggest supporter as a coach. I was able to coach my stepdaughters (at Cody), and he’s been with me as a coach for a long time. He was the one that really encouraged me to just go for it and see where it led.”

Buck has been involved in coaching at every level since she was in college, coaching youth programs in addition to coaching and playing at NCAA Division III Southern Virginia University.

“I’ve been coaching my entire adult life,” Buck said. “When I was still in college I was given a lot of opportunities to help with younger programs. Even while I was still a college athlete myself, I was able to step in and help out a group of men on our campus start a men’s volleyball program and I was able to coach that … I have a lot of recruiting experience, a lot of experience coaching at this next level.”

She had the chance to work with the men’s and women’s programs, was head women’s volleyball coach, assistant men’s volleyball coach, and then worked for two years in athletic administration as an assistant athletic director focusing on compliance, student success and event management.

She said she still maintains contact with coaches on the East Coast, which will allow her to have a broad reach in recruiting as well as some strong resources to potentially even help out the broader Park County community.

“I think we can kind of collaborate on recruiting,” Buck said. “If there’s a kid that maybe isn’t quite ready for the four-year school, but they’re interested in them, I think we have a good relationship to maybe communicate that and help people out. Then it also just adds another resource for me to send kids on to as well when they’re ready to go to that next level.”

She said she used to team up with the men’s volleyball coach at Southern Virginia University, Tom Peterson, to do camps together every summer.

“I’d really like to bring him in and do some stuff for our community, because he’s got unparalleled experience, national championships at the Division I level for a couple different schools,” Buck said.

She said she is hoping to establish a positive relationship with the players and athletes at Northwest as well as create a good relationship with the community.

“I really want to establish a positive culture, which goes without saying, but just my No. 1 goal is to create an atmosphere that kids want to be a part of, and create a competitive, driven atmosphere while still teaching these kids to build relationships with one another while still having the drive to fight for your spot every day and do it in a positive, healthy way,” Buck said. “One of my big goals is to just expand community support and hopefully get more people out to the games. So having those connections with not just friends and family, but businesses and former athletes in the area, I think that will be a huge help.”

Buck is already out on the recruiting trail. She said with the potential Trappers returning mixed with several recruits who agreed to attend Northwest before she was hired as the head coach, the team stands at 10-11 players and she is hopeful to get it to 12-14 for her first year.

“Luckily, Keister already had some really good kids in the pipeline. I just had to go back and make sure that they were OK with me and work through any concerns or questions they had about this new person they didn’t know,” Buck said.

She said that so far everyone in the community and at Northwest has been welcoming, and that she is “just excited to get going.”