BOUNTIFUL — The Bountiful volleyball team has two new coaches.
The investigation into allegations of abuse by the team’s now-suspended head coach Lane Herrick remains on-going, but school administrators have hired two interim coaches to lead the team for the foreseeable future.
Sabrina Hughes, whose coached for 18 years in Utah, including eight as the head coach of Escalante High School, will take over as the Braves interim head coach, said Davis district spokesman Chris Williams.
Sarah Chism, who played at Highland High, Dixie and Utah, was hired as the team’s interim assistant coach. Chism just returned to Utah after living and coaching in Washington State.
Neither woman is part of the faculty, Williams said.
Herrick and assistant coach Joel Burton were both suspended from their coaching duties last Wednesday, about five days after the family of two players filed a civil lawsuit alleging assault and battery against Herrick.
No allegations of abuse were made against Burton, but the complaint said, as an employee of the district and assistant coach, he had a duty to intervene or report the alleged problems. Both coaches still teach at the high school and Burton remains the school's head basketball coach.
Further complicating the situation for school officials is the fact that the suit was filed by the team’s other assistant coach, Jill Asay, and her husband Clair Asay, on behalf of their two daughters who play for the team — senior McCall Asay and junior Sydney Asay.
Asay hadn’t coached since Aug. 31 when the first incident occurred and she resigned the same day Herrick and Burton were placed on leave.
Williams said the district and school are still investigating the allegations against Herrick.
“We’re planning as if they’re not coming back,” he said. If the coaches do return to their positions with the team, the newly hired interim coaches will remain on staff although it’s not sure in what capacity, he said.
“The new coaches practiced with the team yesterday,” Williams said of Monday’s after-school practice.
Over the weekend, former Northridge head coach Shauna Haney, who is now an administrator at North Davis Junior High, coached the team. The Asay girls had been benched according to their father, but in the team’s win over Box Elder, senior outside hitter McCall Asay led the team’s offense with 10 kills.
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