New Nauset Volleyball Coach Wants To Pass Down Love For The Game

NORTH EASTHAM – First-year Nauset volleyball head coach Thor Yingling wants his players to not only play the sport, but love it.

He’s got just the background to illustrate precisely what that — a love for volleyball — really looks like.

Such as, quitting football after freshman year of high school to join the girls volleyball team (with no boys team offered, his only chance to play) — which Yingling did at Nauset. Or putting up with the ensuing meanness and unkindness from kids at other schools, and even his own, about that decision. And despite the difficulties and social dynamics brought about by playing on the girls volleyball team, having a great time during those years regardless. 

“It kind of just taught me to not really care what other people thought about what you were doing,” Yingling said. “I was just doing what I wanted.”

That’s what loving volleyball looks like.

“Always been super committed to the sport,” Yingling said.

Now as Nauset’s new coach, Yingling wants to pass the passion down to the players. After playing at Emmanuel College, where he graduated from in 2025, Yingling spent a season as an assistant on former head Sunny Tyndall’s staff last year.

“Playing a sport is really good for these young girls — just to improve on their communication skills, determination skills, all that — but I think that I want to show them to specifically love volleyball,” he said.

Yingling, a Truro native, grew up playing beach volleyball. At Nauset, he received Cape and Islands League honors three times and was named Most Valuable Player for the Warriors.

He comes from a “big volleyball family,” he said. On the team are two of his nieces, senior Violet and sophomore Hazel Yingling. And many members of the Yingling clan sat in the bleachers for the season opener against Nantucket on Sept. 9.

It all ties back to Yingling’s wish to instill a love for volleyball in the team. He’s seen family and close friends grow old with the game, still showing up to the beach every day to play at ages that wouldn’t be possible in other sports.

“A lot of these technical sports, you can just take with you your whole life, and I think that's what I really want to show,” Yingling said.

Even as an assistant last season, Yingling’s enthusiasm seeped through. It didn’t matter if it was a big match or just a scrimmage, he expressed a visible level of spirit on the Warriors’ sideline, perhaps to the chagrin of opposing coaches.

He said volleyball is a sport that relies on energy. Last year, he immediately noticed the group was lacking in it.

“I thought I could just bring that into practice, bring it into the gym, show people that I loved the sport and that I had this energy for it,” Yingling said. “And it really brought out a lot of fire in the team, and it was really beneficial. So I'm planning on continuing that this year, and it definitely doesn't make everybody happy, but it brings the best out of my team.”

Yingling enters the head coach role with the team coming off their first appearance in the state tournament since 2012 and second in program history. 

Though they graduated several seniors and are an underclass-heavy group, making the playoffs again is certainly a goal.

“We're excited to bring up our younger players and watch them hopefully make that same run that our seniors made last year,” Yingling said.

The route potentially back to the playoffs began last week at home against Nantucket, in which the Warriors fell 3-2 (25-17, 21-25, 23-25, 25-22, 13-15). But Nauset followed that up with a 3-2 win Friday at Sturgis East.

“Our first game, we came in a little bit shaky and had some moments just of lacking communication and some easy fixes like playing balls that were out of bounds,” Yingling said. “And I felt like the next practice we really focused on those things and brought some intentionality into our practice plan, and then brought those things into the next game and won, which was huge.”

The Warriors this season lean on a core of sophomore libero AJ Davis, senior outside hitter Sophia Quinton and Violet Yingling, a right-side hitter. The group has a new setter in Hazel Yingling.

Junior Katie Connolly, an outside hitter, has also shined early. And in addition to the Yingling sisters, the roster includes another sibling pair in senior Aurelia and sophomore Avonlea Stamp.

Yingling has already seen much improvement in Aurelia, a middle, and predicted Avonlea, an outside hitter, would “be an absolute menace in two years.”

“Everyone really has their skills that are going to make us really strong,” he said.