Adam Hughes is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Mountain View High School for AZPreps365.com

Brand new coaches to Mountain View blow people away with their approach and success.

Lee Golden is the Toros' girls volleyball coach as well as badminton coach Julie Stone, who are both in their first year. They in their blew away athletic director Joe Goodman and parents this past season.

The Toros girls volleyball team went 9-8 this year overall and 9-3 in the 6A conference East Valley region. After their 3-1 win over Red Mountan in the 6A preliminary state play-in tournament on Tuesday (Nov. 5), they punched their ticket to the state playoffs as a No. 15 seed facing No. 2 Sandra Day O'Connor.

The training and coaching paid off as coach Stone helped her team achieve a 12-2 season going 3-2 in the Division I East Valley section play. They were the No. 13 team in the Division I state tournament.

Both coaches were found in slightly different ways. First, Golden was a well-known club coach from Texas. She was encouraged to apply for the position at Mountain View after the previous coach Clark Flemming retired. She met him at a club event and impressed Goodman.

“She applied, absolutely crushed the interview process," Goodman said ."We have been in lock step in her vision for our girls volleyball program."

Golden came into this position not wanting to change much but to observe.

“I didn’t want to come in and change every single thing about it,” Golden said. “I wanted to understand the culture here at Mountain View and then get the girls perspective and ideas of what they would like out of their senior year.”

The whole team and coach have high expectations for the future and themselves moving forward.

Stone has a unique story as she began her coaching career right before the season started. The previous coach Cameron O'Horo resigned in August about two weeks into the school year and had Goodman scrambling to find a replacement. Luckily, Stone, a biology teacher was a state qualifier who Goodman quickly recruited.

“I have always loved sports, and I knew from the time I started to teach I would want to coach,” Stone said.

Stone had multiple years of playing badminton through junior high and high school.

The girls accepted her from the beginning as they appreciated the change and freshness she brought.

“Her drills are really effective compared to the last ones,” sophomore Ava Francis said. “She actually tries to coach us.”

At state, the Toros badminton team lost to to No. 4 Xavier Prep, 6-0, in the first round. 

“I definitely didn’t expect to be so successful because I’ve had no previous experience with coaching,” Stone said. “I’m so please with the effort the girls put in to be successful.”

Both coaches made impacts on their players and the team culture, and not much should change in the coming years.

“For coaches to come in and crush as they have done, I’m a little surprised by that,” Goodman said. “With those first-year coaches you are kind of holding their hand and guiding them and they’ve have needed very little guidance.”