Lake Catholic hires alum as volleyball coach

Kara Oster, a Lake Catholic graduate who won a state championship with the Cougars in 2010, has been hired as the school’s new volleyball coach.

Kara Oster knows what it’s like to storm the court with teammates when winning a state championship in volleyball.

The 2013 graduate of Lake Catholic now wants members of her alma mater to experience the same thing.

Oster has been announced as Lake Catholic’s new head volleyball coach. The 26-year-old is only a decade removed from helping the Cougars win a state volleyball championship during her sophomore season, but she’s ready to help the Cougars back to that level. Oster replaces former coach Rob Cline, who was non-renewed after this past season.

“I tell you what, this really is a dream come true,” Oster said. “To come back and coach the place where you played, it doesn’t get much better than that.”

Oster is a first-grade teacher at Arbor Elementary in the Euclid school system.

While she doesn’t have any coaching experience at the high school level, she has a plethora of experience coaching on the Junior Olympic level at both Eastside Volleyball Club and currently at the AVC Volleyball Center in Cleveland.

She has led teams to state championships and to the national tournament on the JO level. Now she wants to do it at her alma mater.

“I want a program that has the total package,” she said.

That includes “bringing back the tradition of the program,” she said. But it’s more than that.

“What’s really important is creating a program filled with a bunch of total athletes,” Oster said, “where volleyball is a lifestyle. Where you’re committed, you have leadership, camaraderie, communication and work ethic.

“The total package.” Longtime Lake Catholic coach Rich Severino, who was Oster’s coach when she played, gave an emphatic thumbs-up to Oster’s hire. He said Oster was an inquisitive player during her playing days who not only took instruction, but also wanted to know the “why.”

Severino said he asked Oster to change positions her senior year, which was a difficult task, but she understood the importance of team-first.

“I was in the meeting when we interviewed her for this job and she’s definitely ready,” Severino said. “She’s young, but she’s got all the skills. She’ll do a good job.

“I told her back when she was playing, ‘You’re going to be a great coach.’”

Now the challenge for Oster is building a program in what everyone hopes is the downside of a national pandemic. Open gyms are slated to start in April, then there’s summer leagues, camps and workouts that will lead into fall camp at Lake.

Oster said she’s experienced the challenge and fun of all those steps as a player for the Cougars.

Now she can do it as the program’s leader.

“I’m excited to get the ball rolling,” she said.

Oster