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Westminster volleyball coach a Valley success
Swearingen boasts 500 wins in volleyball
By BRIAN DZENIS
Westminster College volleyball coach Tammy Swearingen is a homebody when it comes to her profession and that’s fine with her.
Put the Columbiana graduate’s 32-year coaching career on a map and she’s traveled about 80 miles.
“I like the country, I could never go to a big school in the city. I like where Westminster is and I like living between Columbiana and Wilmington,” Swearingen said. “I still come back and do camps and clinics in Columbiana. I’m always excited to get back to my community and alma mater.”
On the court, she’s gone much further. During the 2015 season, Swearingen surpassed 500 wins in 23 seasons with the Titans. For her career, she’s 507-302, making her the winningest coach in one sport in school history.
“I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of quality athletes that have been very driven for the past few years,” Swearingen said.
Initially, her sports were swimming and softball. She swam for Youngstown State and after graduating in 1983, she served as both the head softball coach at Columbiana and the women’s swimming coach at YSU. Her first volleyball gig came at her alma mater in 1986. She had stints as a volleyball coach in Mineral Ridge and as a swimming coach in Canfield until Westminster came calling in 1992. Since then, she’s stuck with volleyball.
“It’s more fun than swimming and I hate to say that,” Swearingen said. “There’s always something happening. There’s never any down time and there’s still a lot of coaching that has to go into the match.”
Of those 500 wins, certainly her five conference championships across both NAIA and NCAA competition stick out in her mind, but the most memorable win most came in a play-in contest in 2012.
At the time, Westminster was up against Geneva on the road as a play-in for a spot in the President’s Athletic Conference. The Titans had not beaten the Golden Tornadoes in three years. After dropping the first game, the Titans won the next three. The latter two games were won by just two points as Westminster earned a 3-1 victory.
“Just seeing the joy and happiness in your team’s face when they won that game point — I’ll never forget how they came into the middle,” Swearingen said. “Our outside sliding on her knees. Our middle dropping down from blocking and running to the middle court and diving on her knees.
“Everyone was just collapsing and dog-piling out. The enthusiasm, that’s the thing you don’t forget.”
Swearingen is currently running various summer camps locally and beyond and figuring out who she wants recruit this fall. Her team’s recent results have slipped as of late, by her standards. Westminster went 13-24 last year and Swearingen’s last conference title came in 2008. Her teams have been at least a conference semifinalist in all but one of her seasons.
“It’s getting under my skin a little bit,” Swearingen said. “I want to get back there. We’re getting to the semifinals but we just haven’t won — I’m anxious about it.
“Our conference has gotten larger and better. The strength of volleyball has certainly improved in the conference.”
After bouncing around the Mahoning Valley and across different sports early in her career, she’s been a mainstay at Westminster, where she is also an associate athletic director. Seeing her team enjoy each win is just as rewarding as a seeing the number in the win column grow.
“That look on the team’s faces and that look of accomplishment — those are the things I remember the most,” Swearingen said.