Kate Wood

Kate Wood is a native of Arlington, Texas, where she attended Lamar High School. She was on the first Lamar volleyball team to reach the state playoffs. She received many awards throughout high school including Newcomer of the Year in 1992, 1st Team All District in 1992, 1993, and 1994, and All Area Team in 1994. She was named to the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram’s Super Team in 1994.  Kate attended Troy University from 1995-1997 on a volleyball scholarship as a middle blocker, where she was named to the 2nd Team All Conference her sophomore year. In 1997, she returned home to play at the University of Texas at Arlington. In 1998, Kate was a starter on the Southland Conference Champion team who went 19-1 in conference. Kate received the Coaches Leadership Award in 1998.

After graduating from UTA, Coach Wood returned to her alma mater Lamar High School as the Junior Varsity coach from 2000-2008. In 2009 she was promoted to the head coach. During 6 seasons as the varsity coach, Lamar reached the playoffs in the highest classification in Texas. In 2010, Lamar claimed a District Championship, and Coach Wood was named the District Coach of the Year. During Coach Wood’s leadership at Lamar, the team reached as far as the Elite 8 in the state of Texas, a school record. 2000-2005- Regional Quarter finalist, 2006 Regional Finalist, 2007- Area Finalist, 2007- Area Finalist, 2008- Area Finalist, 2009- Regional Quarter finalist, 2010- Area Finalist, 2012- Bi-District Finalist, 2013- Bi-District Finalist.  In 2014 Kate and her family moved to Mobile, Alabama to continue coaching at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School.  For the past ten years, the Dirty Dozen continues to be one of the best teams in the state .  7A Finishes- 2014- State Semifinalist, 2015-State Finalist, 2016 State Semifinalist, 2017 State Champion, 2018 State Champion, 2019 State Runner up, 2020 State Semifinalist, 2021 State Runner up, 2022 State Champion.

From 2000-2009 Coach Wood also helped direct North Dallas Juniors and led numerous teams to the USAV Junior National Tournament, finishing as high as 16th in the nation in the 17 Open division in 2006. Starting in 2011 Coach Wood was asked to lead the 12’s division at Texas Advantage Volleyball, the #1 ranked club in Texas. In 2013 and 2014, TAV was also ranked the #1 club in the United States by Triple Crown Sports. In 2013, her 12 Black team finished 2nd in the nation at the USAV Junior National Tournament. In 2014, her 12 Black team finished 3rd in the nation at the USAV Junior National Tournament.

Coach Wood founded Lower Alabama Volleyball in 2014 when she moved to Alabama.  This will be the 10th season for Lower Alabama Volleyball.  In 2022, LAV moved into their own 6 court facility to help facilitate the growth of the game. 2023 was another outstanding season for the club.   From local to regional to national teams, all players showed improvement.  We continued our growth through youth programming in Grassroots, Fall League, Beach Volleyball and Volley-Tots! We had the most teams in the Gulf Coast Region compete at End of Season National Events- LAV qualified 4 teams to the GJNC held in Indianapolis- 12 National Black, 13 National Black, 15 National Black, and 17 National Black.  We also sent 3 more teams to the AAU Championships in Orlando- 14 National Black, 15 National White, and 16 National Black! We are looking forward to a great 2024 season!