Photo by Sarah Finnegan.
Libby Grace Gann served as Mountain Brook’s setter for two years and was part of three state championships in her time with the Spartans.
Libby Grace Gann didn’t hesitate.
After the Mountain Brook High School volleyball team held tryouts over three years ago, head coach Haven O’Quinn was faced with a dilemma. Gann, just a freshman, was good enough to play on the varsity team, but the Spartans already had a capable setter in Sara Chandler Mitchell manning the position.
O’Quinn presented Gann with two options: play on the varsity team in a different role or start on the junior varsity team as the setter.
“She immediately said without even thinking, ‘I want to play at the highest level possible, whatever that is,’” O’Quinn recalled while speaking at Gann’s signing ceremony on Nov. 15. Gann signed with the University of Alabama in Huntsville to continue her volleyball career.
That decision proved profitable for Gann. She wound up starting as a defensive specialist for the Spartans during her freshman and sophomore seasons, before transitioning to setter her final two seasons. In her first three varsity seasons, the Spartans won consecutive Class 7A state championships.
It wasn’t until after the third one that Gann decided volleyball was something she wanted to pursue after high school.
“I had been off and on for a really long time,” Gann said regarding her desire to play collegiately.
But after her junior season, she decided she wanted to give it a shot, and O’Quinn urged her to begin emailing college coaches expressing that desire. UAH responded with a great deal of interest. It didn’t take long for Gann to decide on the Chargers.
“I went up there to tour twice, and they offered, and I verbally committed in [the spring],” she said.
Gann said she is “really, really excited” to play in college, but the fact that she will soon be leaving behind a Mountain Brook program that is all she’s ever known will be tough.
“I’m a really sentimental person,” Gann said. “It’s really sad, because it hasn’t really hit me that I’m going to play in college.”
If anything, Gann’s four seasons at Mountain Brook went by much quicker than she anticipated, despite the forewarning from past teammates.
“They would always tell me it’s going to go by fast ,and I’d always be like, ‘No it’s not,’” Gann said. “But it’s flown by.”
After the three straight championships, O’Quinn took the head coaching job at Birmingham-Southern College, setting into motion a great deal of change for the Spartans volleyball program.
Vickie Nichols stepped in as coach, and Gann was left as the team’s only senior, thrusting her into a critical role.
“A lot of the girls who had been on the team stepped up, so I wasn’t completely alone,” Gann said. “I’m glad I got the opportunity because that’s helped me so much, not just physically with my ability, but leadership and confidence and helping other people.”
Mountain Brook wasn’t picked by many to even return to the state tournament in 2017, but the Spartans did so, thanks in large part to Gann’s leadership.
“What a privilege it was to get to coach her, only for one year,” Nichols said. “Great leader, great player. She’s going to be in great in college, and I can’t wait to see her. She led our team.”
In Huntsville, Gann will join Oak Mountain’s Kendall Scharbert, who also signed with UAH in November, and a pair of Hoover natives, Caroline Sanford and Ali Lowe.
“They’re getting the best setter possible, and I don’t know if they even know how lucky they are yet, but they’re very lucky,” O’Quinn said.
