VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (WTKR)- Chase Howard and Courtland Scharenborg have vivid memories of being in the gym at Princess Anne during their high school days as volleyball players.
"We would always go to taco bell before practice or before games," Scharenborg smiled.
"[We] played their for four years, which was really cool," added Howard. "Only six years ago when we were actually in this building playing."
Now they're back sporting their high school logo, but not as players for the boys team this time, rather coaches for the girls squad. It all started when their old high school coach alerted Howard of the open varsity job.
"I was like, 'you know what, that sounds really fun,'" Howard recalled. "I decided to go ahead and just apply and really I've been re-finding my love of volleyball with coaching these girls."
Once things went into motion, he started thinking about who might make a good assistant. That process didn't take long, as his former teammate and longtime friend Scharenborg was his first call.
"Honestly there was no doubt," Howard said. "As soon as I got the call from Kinzer, the first person I texted was Courtland."
"He called me up one day," Courtland remembered. "He was like 'hey, I'm applying for the head coach at Princess Anne.' I was like 'awesome! Need an assistant?' He was like 'that's what I was going to ask you."
Now Howard holds the head coaching position with Scharenborg as his assistant, the latest chapter for them. The two started playing volleyball together when they were 11-years old. In addition to being high school teammates, they would also find themselves competing against each other in college, with Howard at Harvard and Scharenborg at Ball State. Now they find themselves reunited as the Cavaliers' coaching dynamic duo.
"We have the same love for the game, but different personalities, so we balance each other really well," noted Howard. "It's been perfect."
"We come in here, we know what we're doing and we see things that are happening on the court that we don't like, we both see it and we're both saying the same thing," Scharenborg added.
For as much fun as playing may have been, coaching side by side has provided it's own type of enjoyment.
"I work all day and then I come here," said the assistant coach. "This isn't work. This is easy. This is what I do. This is volleyball. I've been doing this since I was eight years old and this just comes naturally, so it's so much fun to come here."
"The experience is incredible, to come back and teach the game that I have so much love for back to my old high school that I also really love," Howard said.
It's the love for the game and the school that push them to want to succeed, just as they did during their own high school days. Chase and Courtland helped the Cavaliers to three consecutive state championships from 2013-2015 and now hope to lead the squad they're coaching to that same destiny.
"We want to go to states and we think we have the pieces to do that," Scharenborg pointed out. "We definitely believe that this team can make a run to states and even win it."
"We want to take it back," added Howard. "We think that we have a team that can do it. We have some work to continue to do, but we really do have our sights set on that state championship win."
