HARROGATE, Tenn. — Life comes at you fast.
The once 22-year-old
John Cash can attest to that.
It was in Maryland when he showed up fully prepared to play baseball with a group of his Dominican Republican buddies, but then warm-ups took a turn.
"Rather warm-up with baseballs, they were warming up with volleyballs and I thought, 'Man, that looks like fun,'" Cash said. "So, I jumped in and that's how I learned to play the game from guys who play baseball. It was a natural fit."
Tossing around volleyballs instead of baseballs that 1992 day took the current second-year Lincoln Memorial University men's volleyball coach's life for a complete-180, changing what he thought was his plan into the real one.
The sport paired him with his wife, Kelly, meeting her at a volleyball tournament and eventually his two daughters, Abby and Samantha, who were both standout LMU players.
"Volleyball has been woven into my life in a very special way and in a way I didn't expect, quite honestly," Cash said, laughing. "You have these plans in your life when you're younger then plans change and you don't really know how things are going to go sometimes, and I never thought volleyball would be that path."
It's a revealed path that Cash has used to touch the lives of young athletes, and help lead them in their right direction much sooner than his 22-year-old self did.
He did it at the high-school level for 24 years, teaching and developing state champion-caliber players and when he received the offer to coach at the collegiate level, it was an opportunity he couldn't pass up.
"It's more than coaching to me," he said." It's making sure that the future understands what they were stepping into and are more prepared than I was. … It's more than volleyball. Volleyball may be the means to get you to that, but none the less, it's the rest of your life."
Cash took the life-first mindset paired with the responsibility to put a first-year program's below-.500 record under his wing on Oct. 21, 2017, in pursuit to put the Railsplitter men's volleyball program on the map.
So far, so good.
In the program's second year of existence under new leadership, the Railsplitters worked through injuries, finishing the season just over .500 and with an Independent Volleyball Association Tournament trophy — the program's first championship of any kind — to build on in the offseason. The men also found themselves on the All-American academic list and just received an American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Award Monday.
"It was a learning experience all the way around for all of us because I think how things were done before were drastically changed," said Cash of his first season. "I think the guys saw what could be in what we were doing and sticking with what we were trying to accomplish. It worked at the end. … They know I made no bones about it. I'm a very brutally honest person when it comes to that and what we are trying to do and where we want to go with everything we are doing; not just what we are doing on the court, but off the court as well, academically, community service.
"They know what they are getting into. It's not a, 'Oh hey, the coach just showed up. What's this guy really about?' The guys returning know and the guys I've recruited know because they've actually heard it and they'll obviously learn more once they are here, but I think they'll enjoy the whole process we are involved in and try to grow this into a major sport here."
It's such an eye-opening transformation under Cash that the longtime volleyball coach made apparent to potential Railsplitters on the recruiting trail.
The standout prep athletes took notice, wanting to buy into what Cash is building in Harrogate and his first recruiting haul speaks to that.
Adding to the already third-year men's volleyball program nine players — losing two to graduation, one to transfer — Cash is bringing in two transfers of his own and five athletes from around the world in which mold what he wants his team to represent.
"It's a reflective piece. I've always said to my team, 'You're a reflection to your teammates,'" Cash said. "That goes to the coaching staff, community. Definitely a group of winners that come in with a lot of diverse experience, and that cannot just be on the court but off the court with community service that they've been involved in. Nationally recognized players, too, and internationally recognized players, too, so we are pretty excited about that."
Jacob Titus, a Station Camp High School graduate, was Cash's first signee out of Hendersonville, Tenn. The 6-foot-4 outside hitter has found himself on the USA A1 Team, which consists of the top 10 athletes in the country, after two consecutive years of being a named to the USA A2 squad and an alternate for the USA A1 the year before. Titus was chosen to represent the USA in Nanjing, Chine at the U19 FIVB world beach championships over this summer with a trip to Argentina next on the list.
Two four-year varsity players from Northmont High School in Englewood, Ohio, Ryan Foy and Dawson Walker, bring their all-state, all-region honors and size to Harrogate. Foy, the 6-foot-5 setter, and Walker, the 6-foot-6 middle and right-side hitter, both led their school to a region title and the state semifinals.
Cash hand-picked two kids from Florida, snagging 5-foot-9 defensive specialist Andres Delgado and 6-foot-2 outside hitter Johansen Negron, who were both named to AVCA watch list. Delgado, from Alonzo Mourning High School in North Miami, led Florida in digs (441) as a senior varsity captain, leading his squad to district titles all four years.
Negron, a Puerto Rico native before moving to Orlando, Fla., to escape the hurricanes last fall, paced his new school, Celebration High School, to the state championship, finishing runner-up as the No. 1-ranked player in Florida. To represent his roots, Negron played on the Puerto Rican Beach U19 National Team this year.
To round out the class — though there could be one or two more additions — are two sophomore transfers in Matt Bridenbaugh and Daniel Hermida, who are from St. Joseph College and Erskine College, respectively.
Like Negron, Hermida, who also resides from Orlando, was a top player behind his 6-foot-4 outside-hitter frame. He led his college squad in kills and was second in the Conference Carolinas in aces per set as a freshman.
Bridenbaugh, a 5-foot-10 libero, finished as the 12th-ranked Division III player, originally comes from his head coach's stomping grounds in Ohio.
"We've actually added a lot of depth everywhere and a lot of diversity to what we have coming in," Cash said. "We are pretty excited about what they bring to the table. It's a lot of different, and it's going to push the guys that are here and that's what we want."
This group gives Cash the players needed to shape out a competitive practice routine to prepare for a jam-packed schedule that has the likes of two-time national champion Ohio State, Hawaii, Southern California and King University, an Elite Eight team last season, among others.
The eye-popping schedule is intact, bringing the best players to LMU and now the next step that Cash is working towards is implementing the Railsplitters into a conference so the yearly ultimate goal is more achievable.
And when that happens, the nation won't blink twice when they see Lincoln Memorial University on their schedule.
"We are coming off some good mojo from the end of the year last year with limitations," Cash said. "This year we feel adding this group of guys it's going to do nothing but build us forward in the right direction. ... We are trying to create our own conference, which would be the eighth AQ (automatic qualifier) for the NCAA Tournament, which is the Division I Tournament we have to play in that; there is no Division II Tournament. We are automatically bumped up into that.
"If we can accomplish that in the next year or two, getting that AQ that's a huge sales point because everybody wants to go to The Dance. That's something we talk about on a regular basis, and we are working with our conference affiliation and the NCAA and Off the Block to try and get those things in place so we can be there. Kids definitely want to play for championships; they don't want to play for nothing."
