WKU Volleyball Head Coach Travis Hudson made quite the entrance to his Monday press conference.
With a boot around his left foot, Hudson rolled into the Paul Just Media Center along with Assistant Coach Jena Otec, instructing himself to “put it in reverse Terry” once he realized a cord was in the way of his usual entrance to the table.
Once he made it to the other side of the table and completed the short hobble to his seat, Hudson told the media that volleyball-related injuries are what kept him and Assistant Head Coach Craig Bere from traveling with the team to UTEP this past weekend.
In their Wednesday game last week, Hudson suffered a lisfranc fracture in his left foot while Bere tore his achilles – all within 15 minutes Hudson said.
“Which is just a remarkably ugly, bad coincidence, ” Hudson said. “Two catastrophic injuries in a 15 minute period. Incredibly we both are in a similar place.”
Hudson said that both he and Bere are having surgery on Wednesday and said both will be six-to-eight weeks non-weight bearing after the procedure.
He said that he is unsure if he will be on the sidelines for this weekend’s series against New Mexico State, but said he would not be filling his usual head coaching duties even if he was present.
“I won’t be able to be up and active and do all those kinds of things, but there is a chance I could be another set of eyes on the bench in some capacity,” Hudson said. “In my mind, competitively, I’m like ‘Yea, I’ll be there,’ but I think that I may be in for a little bit more than I think I’m in for.”
The Hudson-less Hilltoppers survived at UTEP last weekend, defeating the Miners in both games. Otec, who was one of three coaches that filled in for Hudson along with Kristi Griffin and Kyle Cohan, said that she was “super proud” of the team.
“We came out in both games and really competed hard,” Otec said. “We talked about being a player-led team this weekend, since we were a little understaffed, so our girls stepped up in a big way.”
Hudson said that he “was never shocked” that Otec, Griffin and Cohan filled into his role on short notice and got both wins.
“I know the quality of coaches they are and I know what dynamic is in our office every day and in our gym every day… it’s not the head coach and his assistants it’s five coaches in there just figuring out what we need to do next,” Hudson said.
After starting 4-6, WKU is on a 15-game win streak and is 12-0 in conference play. The Hilltoppers are two games up in the Conference USA standings with six games to go before the C-USA tournament. They will look to continue their run at home this weekend against New Mexico State.
Sports Editor Jake McMahon can be reached at [email protected]
