JCA graduate Emily Brown excited to begin as Angels’ volleyball coach

It took her a little while, but Emily Brown has come full circle in her volleyball career.

Brown, who was Emily Soto in high school, played for Joliet Catholic Academy and was a key part of the Angels’ 2003 state championship team, the first of three titles in school history. After graduating from JCA, Brown played at both Joliet Junior College, where she was named the 2006 NCJAA Region 4 MVP, and St. Xavier University, where she also served as a coaches’ assistant.

She went on to get master’s degrees at Lewis and Concordia universities. Since returning to high school sports, she has served as an assistant coach for both girls and boys volleyball teams while teaching at Minooka High School. She also served as Minooka’s athletic director for a year in the 2023-24 school year and was named 2024 New Athletic Director of the Year in Illinois.

This season, Brown returns to JCA, both as its head girls volleyball coach and its academic resource director.

“It’s very exciting,” Brown said about coming back to JCA. “This program has very high expectations. Most of my staff and I are JCA graduates, so we know what is expected out of the program.

“It was nice to have a team camp over the summer so I could start to get to know the players. We are going to be a young team this year, losing 11 seniors from last year’s team.”

Brown wants to get the Angels back to the form that saw them bring home 12 state trophies in 20 years, including championships in 2003, 2008 and 2009.

“It’s great that these girls are committed to something and playing club during the offseason,” Brown said. “But when it comes to things getting serious in August, there may be some broken hearts. Roster sizes are limited, and I am not going to fill spots just to fill them.

“I already know I am going to have some tough choices to make.”

Brown stepped away from sports last season after her one year as an athletic director, and she feels that was a good thing.

“I needed to recharge and just be away from sports,” she said. “I needed to find my confidence again. When I heard that the JCA job was open, at first I thought that job was way too big for me. The IHSA recently ranked the top programs in the 50 years since Title IX, and JCA was fifth. That is scary and exciting at the same time.

“Talking to [JCA athletic director] Jim O’Brien helped me find my confidence again.”

JCA competes in the ultra-competitive East Suburban Catholic Conference, which also features such perennial volleyball powers as Marist, Benet Academy, and Nazareth Academy, as well as St. Viator, St. Patrick, JCA, Niles Notre Dame, Marian Catholic and Carmel Catholic. The Angels will also play a meat-grinder of a nonconference schedule, including matches against Mother McAuley, Minooka and Joliet West.

“Not only do we have some real tough nonconference games right off the bat,” Brown said, “but we play in a top-tier conference as well. There won’t be any nights off, that’s for sure.

“But, that is the competition we want to play, because that’s where we want to be. The other teams will let us know early on what we need to work on. We hope we can continue to get better as the season goes on and be that team that no one wants to play in the postseason.”

While she hasn’t spent a lot of time with her new team, Brown has liked what she has seen so far.

“It was great to see our girls on the court together during our summer league,” she said. “We didn’t have our full team all the time, and that’s fine. I got to see how a lot of different girls work on the floor together. We are starting to see where the oil and water divides.

“The main thing will be developing our skills. All of the girls have a great attitude, but that doesn’t score points. We won’t have the big hitters that the other team has, but I have told our girls that the ball needs to get touched twice before the hitter gets a chance. We need to try to get the other team out of system so they might not be able to get it to their big hitters, then take advantage when we get our chance.”

Brown will be assisted on the varsity level by Paige Kovalcik, a 2013 JCA graduate, and 2019 grad Bella Ray. Mary Lou Catalani returns to the sideline as the head JV coach, assisted by Julia Reyes, a 2018 JCA graduate. On the freshman level, 2018 grad Emily Jones will be the head coach, assisted by 2024 Minooka graduate Sophie Dziuba.