Ex-Baylor volleyball coach takes over at Lake City

COEUR d'ALENE - Bret Taylor did much for Lake City High volleyball in his six seasons as coach, so it figures that on his way out, he would do the Timberwolves one final favor.

When he opted to resign recently, he recommended the job to a former Baylor coach, one who had led the Bears to the NCAA tournament twice, and had recently moved to this area.

That coach, Brian Hosfeld, was recently named to replace Taylor as Lake City coach.

"Bret made a call and he was coaching on the club scene in the area," Lake City athletic director Jim Winger said. "Just kind of one thing led to another. He wanted to get back into coaching competitively again. He applied, and with that type of resume, he got the job."

Hosfeld moved to Coeur d'Alene from Scottsdale, Ariz., last fall, for family reasons. He quickly got involved in the local club volleyball scene, coaching a Spokane Catalyst team along with Jessica Janke-Trevena, a Coeur d'Alene product who played as a youth for Hosfeld when he was coaching a club team in Orange County, Calif.

He's been coaching the Catalyst team since last November, a team which includes several Coeur d'Alene High players. He's yet to meet his Lake City players, but said he's heard good things, and "I'm excited that there's a lot of potential," he said.

Hosfeld coached Baylor from 1996-2003, leading the Bears to the NCAA tourney in 1999 and 2001, including a first-round win over Temple in '99. After that, he was an assistant at the University of Texas and University of Utah.

"I just can't get over his resume," Winger said. "To have a chance to hire a coach from Baylor, and also an assistant at Long Beach State - one of the top programs in the country - is pretty great. The common theme of him is everyone talks about how great of a guy he is. We're very, very excited to have gotten him. I think everyone in the program is sky-high right now. We're excited to have him and let him do his thing."

Hosfeld, who played at Long Beach City College and Long Beach State, has more than two decades of club and high school school coaching experience in California, Texas and Arizona.

"With the game being rally score, there's a lot of emphasis on trying to minimize your errors," Hosfeld said. "You can do as much as you want, but you have to minimize your errors."

Taylor went 97-65 at Lake City. The Timberwolves went to state twice, finishing third in 2011.