Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – For more than a decade volleyball has given an awful lot to Trystin Shawver.

The sport has provided the former West Branch and Grandview College standout with enough experiences memories and friendships to last a lifetime.

When Shawver graduated from college last spring she decided it was time for her to start giving back to the sport of volleyball.

“This spring I said what do I want my life to look like?” Shawver explained. “When I looked at it, for the most part it was how can I build relationships with people and how can I give back a little bit to all the awesome people who helped me become a little better of a person.”

The first stop for Shawver in her attempt to give back to the sport brought her back to where it all started.

Shawver took over the head coaching duties at West Branch this summer and has hit the ground running in her first year as a head coach at any level.

“I’m extremely fortunate that in my first coaching job I can just walk in and feels like home,” Shawver said. “At the end of the day that is a good thing but it’s definitely awkward sometimes.”

As a standout setter at West Branch Shawver (Luneckas) directed the Bears to a 70-12 record and back-to-back Class 2A state tournament appearances in her final two prep seasons.

Shawver went on to a stellar collegiate career at Grandview where she helped the Vikings to four consecutive NAIA national tournament berths and was named conference player of the year and a second-team all-American.

When her time as an intern with the Grandview men’s program ended this spring, Shawver had no intention to have volleyball remain a large part of her life.

“Absolutely not,” Shawver said when asked if she planned to pursue coaching after graduation. “It just sort of happened.”

Shawver was busy planning her wedding and looking for a job when she learned West Branch was looking for a coach.

West Branch athletic director Jake Stenberg floated the idea to her father Tony Luneckas who relayed the message to Shawver.

The thought of returning to West Branch where Shawver and her husband Matt both grew up was never the plan, however it has worked out.

An elementary education major, Shawver is a third-grade teacher at Faith Academy in Iowa City.

“It’s just how it rolled,” Shawver said with a laugh. “We are very thankful for how it all turned out but we never thought it would be this way.”

The volleyball has worked out much the way Shawver had hoped.

West Branch is off to a 12-4 start and a No. 13 ranking in Class 2A entering Tuesday’s showdown at home with second-ranked Wilton (22-0) at 7:15.

The Bears are 4-1 in River Valley Conference play and have won 12 of 14 matches since an 0-2 start with the losses coming to Anamosa and 3A sixth-ranked West Liberty.

“West Branch has a tradition of winning so I didn’t try to change up too much,” Luneckas said. “I definitely tried to adapt it to my own philosophy because it’s a little different but I didn’t try to change too much.”

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