Words by Jenny Lynn Davis | Images by Justin Hunter
Curry High School recently announced the hiring of Anna Claire Harris as their new head volleyball coach. With a wealth of experience and a passion for the sport, Harris brings a fresh perspective and a commitment to developing the team’s potential.
Harris’s impressive background in volleyball makes her an ideal candidate for the role. She is a 2016 graduate of Walker High School, where she played varsity all four years and helped lead the team to four appearances in the Elite Eight and one in the Final Four, as well as participating in the Alabama High School Athletics Association’s North/South All-Star game in her senior year. From there, she attended the University of Mobile. She played all four years, assisting the team in qualifying for nationals in her first and third years and participating on the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics all-academic team. Following her college graduation, she moved back home to Jasper. She began exploring her career options and was led to the Curry Yellowjacket community.
“I have been teaching elementary P.E. at Curry Elementary School and coaching track for the high school over the last year, and volunteer coached the volleyball team in the past, so this truly feels like home to me,” Harris says. “I’m excited to work with this team and help them improve their skills while also helping them shift their mindsets from a fear of making errors to a thought process of ‘what can I do to get it right?'”

Harris’s coaching philosophy centers on teamwork, discipline, and continuous improvement. She emphasizes the fundamentals of the game while fostering a competitive spirit and a love for the sport. She says that she has been shaped by all the coaches she has had in her career.
“I’m so fortunate to have always been surrounded by solid coaches like Glenda Wright, Karen Atkins, Bobby Daniels, Jon Campbell, and Chuck Runyan, who all had expectations of nothing less than excellence. Those high standards might’ve caused me a lot of stress back when I was playing, but now I see the thought process behind them and what that thought process means not only for athletes but for people in general, and I want to impart that to the next generation,” she says.
Harris notes that her path to this role has been nontraditional, but she knows it is what the Lord had planned for her.
“My biggest thing, especially since I was offered this coaching job, is that the Lord has worked out every piece of my journey. I wanted to be a teacher and a coach going into college, and that didn’t work out, but here I am now. I didn’t think I wanted to be back in Jasper, but now I don’t want to be anywhere else, and that’s all Him. I wanted to lead a program but didn’t know how that would unfold – now here we are. It’s very evident to me that the Lord is faithful even when I am not; that’s my anthem now.”
Congratulations and best wishes to Anna Claire as she embarks on this new journey! WL