Andee Poteet resigned as the head coach of the Beckville Ladycats volleyball team and will take an assistant coaching position at Longview she announced on Monday.
Poteet, who led Beckville the last three seasons, cited her four-year-old son Beckham and Longview being less than a mile from her home as the reasons for making what she called a very difficult decision to make in leaving Beckville.
“It has to do with Beckham, I need to start spending more time with him,” Poteet said. “I get ‘I miss you mommy all the time’ and it tugs at your heart strings.”
In her three seasons Poteet kept the blue train rolling by compiling a record of 97-41 with three-straight undefeated district titles, three-straight district Coach of the Year titles and making it to the third round of the postseason each season.
Poteet will be teaching Physical Education at Longview.
“I’m not leaving because I knew I we weren’t going to be good this year,” Poteet said. “They are still going to be good this year and can make a complete run in the playoffs this year. That was hard because they are still going to be a stellar program.”
This season Beckville will return the likes of soon-to-be senior and middle blocker Kellen Weaver who as an all-state selection a year ago.
Along with Weaver the Ladycats return Carli Tuttle, Adyson Davis, Emily Grandgeorge and Kaitlyn Mauritzen.
Poteet said she did a lot of crying on Monday because Weaver, Grandgeorge and Mauritzen were all freshmen when she first came to Beckville.
“I told (the team) that I was given an opportunity to be closer to home and to be able to spend more time with Beckham,” Poteet said. “You’re going to have to make hard decisions in your life and this was one that was a hard decision.
“I wish them nothing but the best and told them that they are going to be great this year. That’s how I told them.”
Poteet had topsy-turvy run that started when she inherited a team that previously won the 2A state title back in 2021.
That season was a state title or bust team talent wise but untimely injuries derailed Beckville with a brutal five-set loss to Iola in the regional semifinals that year.
In what was expected to be a rebuild season Poteet led a very youthful and inexperienced Beckville team continuing their unbeaten district streak that dates back to Oct. 12 of 2012 going and a return trip to the regional semifinals.
This past season Beckville looked very much like the teams the over the last decade and a half but with the classes getting split into two divisions, Beckville fell to Iola in the regional quarterfinals.
“It was awesome,” Poteet said of her three years coaching at Beckville. “Each year brought me different stress and each year brought me different joys. My first year everybody wanted us to go back to state and we had the injuries and that next year there’s no way they could keep this up after they lost six seniors and to prove them wrong. That was probably one of my favorite years I’ve had as a coach.”
At Longview Poteet will be able to spend more time with Beckham and being an assistant coach is a completely different approach according to Poteet.
“Big thing is the stress level,” she said. “I feel like a lot of stress has been taken off. Trying to keep that district winning streak alive at Beckville is a lot of stress in itself. The work load has gotten a lot lighter on me, it’s night and day.”
Poteet’s tenure at Beckville was brief and over that span she showed she knew how to coach.
From being able to win over a community and fan base who expected a state title her first year, to overachieving her second year and to showing that Beckville regardless of school size is still one of the premier volleyball teams in all of East Texas in her final season.
Poteet will always be thankful for her time at Beckville.
“You can’t ask for a better community than Beckville,” Poteet said. “In my letter I said that I appreciated the privilege of working alongside such an exceptional team and I’m extremely grateful for the all encouragement I received. Coming into a town like this they swooped me up and showed nothing but courage and lovingness towards me and the whole coaching staff. It was a hard, hard decision.”
