I had always thought Mother McAuley and Notre Dame volleyball standout Charley Niego would be a shoo-in to follow her mother, Therese, into the coaching world.
When I asked her recently about it, Charley threw me for a bit of a loop.
“My mom always asks me to coach for her camps, but I have never found myself being in love with it,” Niego said. “I don’t have that high of a patience level, and when you’re coaching kids, you have to be patient.
“I can’t really see myself going into coaching, but I guess that can change. I didn’t see myself playing a fifth year, either.”
Which brings us to today’s interesting twist.
Niego, a 6-foot outside hitter, is going to play a fifth season — but not at Notre Dame. She’s taking her talents to North Carolina, where she’s going to work on her MBA.
It was a decision based on some pretty sage advice.
“I was kind of ready to just be done after Notre Dame and enter the work force with my degree,” Niego said. “But when you talk to players, especially older alums, they always say to stay in college as long as you can because working is just not fun.
“So I weighed the benefits, and there really weren’t a lot of cons, just pros, of getting another free year and being able to do an MBA program to put on my resume.”
The exclamation point?
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“Being able to compete another year and trying something new and different appealed to me,” Niego said. “I’ve been in the Midwest my whole life, so this will be different.”
Niego’s career so far … well, what can I say?
Starting with her sophomore season at Mother McAuley, when they unretired her Hall of Fame mom’s number so she could wear it, she has been prolific.
Her best high school season was 2016, when she led the Mighty Macs to not only the state championship but the national title.
At Notre Dame, she had a ridiculously successful freshman season in 2018, leading the team in kills and finishing second in digs. In all four seasons, she earned all-conference honors from the ACC.
Niego entered the transfer portal in September, which also was the beginning of her senior season at Notre Dame.
“It’s common for grad transfers to enter it during their season,” Niego said. “It wasn’t really weird because I let my coach know I was doing it to open up my options.”
However, it was kind of weird on Nov. 5 when Notre Dame played North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Notre Dame won the match in three straight games.
“That they were recruiting me while we were playing them was definitely a little nerve-wracking,” Niego said. “But it was good to be able to see how the coaches were and how their players were, even from across the net.”
Niego visited the campus in January. It was pretty much a slam dunk.
“In this day and age, there aren’t a lot of open scholarships with all of the fifth years,” Niego said. “They promised me a scholarship and I wanted to take it before they moved on to someone else. I saw the opportunity and grabbed it.”
It was a slam dunk for North Carolina coach Joe Sagula as well.
“We’ve played against her for four years, and with all due respect, she’s kicked our butts,” Sagula said, laughing. “Even in the matches we won, she always played well against us. We’re glad to have her on our side.
“Charley is a great kid with a great volleyball IQ. We want to capitalize on her talent and make it a win-win, where we can be great on the volleyball court and she can enhance her academic opportunities.”
This will truly be Niego’s last hurrah.
“I don’t really see myself playing professionally, so I will try to tap into the rest of my potential and be a leader,” Niego said. “I think I can vastly improve.
“There is a saying, ‘You’re either getting better or you’re getting worse. You never stay the same.’ I’m really hoping this last season I’ll be able to grow a lot more as a player.”
When North Carolina and Notre Dame meet Nov. 4 at Purcell Pavilion, I hope she gets a standing ovation.