An outstanding season for the Lady Chaps varsity volleyball team resulted in a pillar of Aubrey athletics, head volleyball coach Whitney Stout-Marriott, being named Coach of the Year for Region 3 by the Texas High School Coaches Association.
Stout-Marriott, a first-time recipient of the honor, steered the Lady Chaps to a 33-13 season, the program’s first outright district title in over a decade and an appearance in the state semifinals.
“It always feels good to be recognized for your hard work, but it all goes back to the kids,” she said. “I say all the time, ‘You can be the best coach in the world, but if you don’t have the kids with the right amount of work ethic and talent around you, you’re not going to be successful, so a lot of this success goes back to the kids. They’re amazing.”
Stout-Marriott, who is originally from Bonham, was a multi-sport athlete in high school before joining the volleyball program at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, OK.
She played volleyball for two seasons before joining the Savage Storm’s women’s basketball team as a student-assistant coach under head coach Darren Grover, which provided her with a bird’s eye view of coaching.
“That shaped me and made me decide that I really wanted to go into coaching,” she said. “Getting to work with [Coach Grover] and seeing the connections and the relationships he had with players was a great experience.”
Stout-Marriott said she briefly consid- ered coaching girls’ basketball but knew her heart was in volleyball.
Her love for the game of volleyball and her home state of Texas convinced her to move to Belton, where she began her coaching career as the head girls’ volleyball coach for the middle school.
She eventually moved to the high school where she served as an assistant coach for the volleyball and softball teams.
“It was tremendous, and I learned a ton,” she said. “I worked for different coaches, but the one who shaped me the most was the softball coach, Matt Blackburn. He ran an excellent program, [and] I picked his and some of the other coaches’ brains as much as I could.”
Stout-Marriott worked in Belton for seven years before she decided to join Aubrey ISD.
“I always said when I took the step to be a head coach, I wanted it to be the right job,” she said. “When the Aubrey job came open, one of the assistant softball coaches, who knew Coach [Ron] Gathright, said, ‘I think you need to apply,’ so they helped push me.”
Stout-Marriott said the foundation for the Lady Chaps volleyball program had been laid before she arrived by previous head coaches, Aubrey ISD Superintendent Dr. Shannon Saylor and Educational Administrator Lisa Deaver.
“Dr. Saylor was super successful in the early 2000s, and who knows where the bar would have been if she hadn’t stepped into an administration role,” Stout-Marriott said. “Before I got here, Lisa Deaver did a great job setting things up before she stepped into an administration role as well. So when I got here, I had kids who were ready to take the next step.”
Under Stout-Marriott’s guidance, multiple Lady Chaps have gone on to play volleyball at the next level.
Despite the recognition, Stout-Marriott said she still has more that she wants to accomplish in Aubrey.
“I’m never satisfied, and I think that comes from all the years that I played competitive [sports],” she said. “… My assistant, [Ian McCarthy] and I look at other programs across the state and go, ‘Could we create that kind of success?,’ so we’re always trying to find ways to improve.”
Coaching is all about providing support, and Stout-Marriott said she couldn’t have gotten this far without the help of her coaching staff, Ian Mc-Carthy, Christine Billmeier and Olivia Kamesch. and her husband Brandon Marriott.
“I couldn’t do this by myself,” she said. “My assistant coaches push me, and I’ve so learned from them. … I also want to thank my husband and my family because I’m gone [regularly], so my kids have sacrificed a lot, and my husband is always like, ‘Whatever you need, we’ll make it happen.’” Stout-Marriott also made sure to thank her parents Ronnie and Robbie Landers and the community of Aubrey.
“My parents have also been super supportive and still come to games all the time,” she said. “… There are also so many parents in the community here that have helped. Aubrey is really a special place to be.”
