Grace Academy’s Athletics Department announced a new head volleyball coach for the High School program, Tony Hoekstra.
Coach Hoekstra and his wife, Candy, are originally from Cincinnati, where he served as a construction project manager of Schnippel Construction. They moved to Ringgold four years ago and still reside there. Coach Hoekstra was a collegiate athlete himself. He attended the University of Cincinnati and ran track for their Track and Field program. He has over 25 years of coaching experience in volleyball at the middle, high school and collegiate levels.
Coach Hoekstra began his coaching career from 1994 to 2000 at Walnut Hills High School, where he was the Junior Varsity Girls’ Coach. He also served as the eighth grade boys head coach from 1995 to 2002 at St. Williams School. During the year of 1996, he served as the head coach to the Thunderbirds 16U Junior Olympic Girls’ Team. From 1997 to 2016, he led boys from ages 13 to 18 years old on the Cincinnati Attack, which was a Junior Olympic Team. Starting in 2006 until 2016, he directed the entire Club’s Organization for the Cincinnati Attack for boys, ages 13 through 15. During years 2016 through 2019, Coach Hoekstra served as the head coach for Shepherd University girls during the summer for the University’s summer camps. He began coaching with the club team, Anthem United, in 2019 and he still serves as the head coach for girls, ages 12 and 13.
Coach Hoekstra will begin at Grace Academy right away, with plans to help strengthen the overall volleyball program and implement strong skill development. He has a strong resume and presents himself to be very genuine and more than qualified for this job, officials said.
“We are very excited to have Tony join our team. He brings maturity and experience to the position as a head volleyball coach,” said Athletic Director Bob Ateca. “Tony is very thorough and skilled at what he does. He has worked with several student athletes in strong volleyball programs and we are pleased to bring him aboard.”