Baranek: Erika Lange steps into big role at Lockport

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Erika Lange in her playing days at Sandburg. | File photo

Updated: February 28, 2012 8:15AM

Had a good laugh the other day talking with new Lockport girls volleyball coach Erika Lange about how, when she was a star player at Sandburg in the late 1990s, she never came across to me as someone who would become a head coach.

She just was so incredibly quiet.

“You’re not wrong,” Lange said, laughing. “No one probably heard my voice as a player. In college, when I decided to become a teacher, my academic adviser kind of looked at me and said, ‘Really?’ So I guess even in college I was more of the quiet leader.

“The thing that made me want to become a teacher was coaching in camps as a player. I just loved it. From there it just kind of developed.”

And now, Erika Lange is standing in one of the Southland’s biggest volleyball spotlights.

Lange, a math teacher at Lockport, is replacing Julia Hudson, who won 857 matches in 32 seasons, producing a winning record in all but four. Hudson’s teams won 23 regional and 11 sectional titles, went to state eight times, earned five state trophies and won one state title (1993).

Pressure? What pressure? Yeah, pressure.

“I do feel a little extra pressure because of the tradition and what the program has meant to everybody who has been a part of it,” Lange said. “It’s been so much more than just their wins or losses, or how far they’ve gotten in the state tournament.

“It’s been so much more than that to so many people who are still involved in the program, I do feel that extra pressure to maintain that level of intensity and maintain how meaningful it’s been to all the players who have come through.”

Hudson made an impact. Of that there’s no doubt.

Lange said she’s had the good fortune of working under Hudson for the past five seasons as the sophomore coach at Lockport. She also learned a lot of things from her original mentor when she played for Joann Holverson at Sandburg.

“I still use some of the drills that she did,” Lange said of Holverson. “I remember a lot of the team-building things we did, especially with that state group (1998). A lot of what she did with team-building I brought with me and added it to the things that Hudson had been doing.”

She also brings a winning mentality.

As a junior middle blocker, Lange was one of the leaders on Sandburg’s 38-5 1998 Class AA state championship squad. She set school records for career solo blocks (284) and single season (362) and career (901) kills. She twice was All-Area.

At Northwestern, Lange became the school’s first-ever AVCA All-Mideast Region selection and broke school records in blocking and hitting.

And that thing I said earlier about Lange not having a coach’s personality in high school? Holverson begged to differ.

“I saw it in practice every day,” she said. “She had leadership, she was organized, she was vocal. Erika was not one of these girls that would say something just to say something. But when she said something it was meaningful and it mattered.

“She has a lot of personality, especially when she gets comfortable in a situation. I never doubted that she would be a good teacher.”

So how comfortable can she be replacing a legend? For one thing, Hudson has given her a solid endorsement.

“She’s done a really excellent job at the sophomore level for five years,” Hudson said. “She’s ready.”

For another, Hudson will continue to work in the program and mentor Lange until the end of the school year.

Once the 2012 season begins, though, Hudson doesn’t figure to be around much, especially if she moves to her native Evansville, Ind.

Lange probably will need the breathing room.

Still, the inscribed rock that sits in front of the Wellness Center at Lockport’s East Campus always will remind Lange of one woman’s impact on a program — even if the rock herself doesn’t plan to.

“We talked,” Lange said of she and Hudson. “She was just kind of like, ‘Well, you know. It’s yours now.’ It was a little bit of a ‘Take care of my baby’ kind of a thing. This has been her thing, her life, for so long.”

It’s Lange’s baby, now. I’ve got a good feeling it’ll be a healthy one.