Coupeville Sports

Ashley Menges, flying high here, is returning to the CHS volleyball program, but as a coach this time. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Menges and Emma Smith enjoy their Senior Night during the 2018 season.

Smashley returns.

After a season on the sideline, former Coupeville High School volleyball ace Ashley Menges is rejoining the Wolf volleyball program, but as a coach this time.

Menges, who graduated from CHS in 2019 after a stellar four-year run of sets, digs, and kills, has been tabbed as the school’s JV spiker coach.

Her hire will be official after the School Board approves it.

Menges joins varsity coach Cory Whitmore, who is heading into his fifth season at the helm of the CHS volleyball program.

JV coach Chris Smith and C-Team coach Krimson Rector both stepped down during the offseason with an eye on pursuing other life goals.

For Menges, a volleyball lifer, the chance to coach at her alma mater, and in her favorite sport, is a thrill.

“It’ll be nice to be back in the gym during volleyball season!,” she said. “I’m very excited to work with all the girls.”

When I inducted Menges into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, this was part of what I wrote:

She could smoke service winners, flip end-over-end to save balls which looked like goners, soar into the heavens to smash spikes, and deliver perfect lil’ set-ups for her teammates to get the glory.

Through it all, the transcendent young woman who ended her career as a team captain, as a key player on back-to-back league title teams, as a state meet veteran who helped CHS to three straight 10+ win seasons, was pure class.

Menges is talented, is a firecracker on the floor, and worked as hard as anyone.

But it was her willingness to take on whatever role was necessary for the betterment of the team which made the biggest impression on those in the stands.

PS — If you have any doubt as to where I stand, I’ll close with this — this is a really great hire.