As the only granddaughter among eight grandsons, Debbie Holcombe ‘ruined’ her grandfather’s ball team. Little did Clyde Vaughn know that only the granddaughter would one day play ball in college—and that she would coach on the collegiate and high school levels and win a National Coach of the Year Award from the National Federation of High School Coaches Association.

     "Winning a national coach’s award is something that has not been one of my life’s goals, because it’s something that has seemed so unattainable," the Easley native and Head Softball Coach of the Lady Rebels at James F. Byrnes High School in Duncan told The Christian View. "I was shocked when I first received notice that I was the South Sectional Coach of the Year, but then the national award has been so unbelievable," she said.

     The trophy will be presented to Holcombe by the South Carolina High School League. Her school created a crystal award, in the shape of a softball diamond, which was presented to her at a faculty meeting, with her parents, John and Rema Holcombe of Easley, present.

     Holcombe played both volleyball and softball as a student at Easley High School. Her former coaches, Brenda Ross and Brenda Burdette, are still with the Green Wave.

     She also starred in both softball and volleyball at then Central Wesleyan College (now Southern Wesleyan University).

     Even as an athlete in college, however, Holcombe had not planned on a coaching career. "I didn’t know what I wanted to do in life," she said. "My original major was business administration. I sprained my ankle my first year in volleyball, and didn’t get to play, which gave me an extra year in college to play volleyball. So I had extra time to take additional classes and was able to double major, with a business administration degree and a physical education degree.

     When I graduated from college, I still wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do, and I took a year off where I worked in daycare and kind of figured out what I wanted to do. I had a job offer at a middle school in Anderson, and I didn’t actually coach that first year. The next year, I had an opportunity at T.L. Hanna High School, when they asked me to coach volleyball, and that was the beginning of my coaching career.

     "As an athlete through high school and college, and even after graduating, I really wasn’t sure I wanted to teach and coach. But that first year in college, I sprained my ankle, seconds before my first volleyball game, and I was out the whole year. It was a time in my life when I questioned. I felt God had led me to Southern Wesleyan, to go to school and play sports there, and then I got hurt and couldn’t play, and I couldn’t quite understand why that happened. But He always has a plan and a purpose in life. Had I not sprained my ankle, and gotten hurt the first year, I would not have been able to go the fifth year in college and therefore double major, and I would have never been able to teach and coach. So, we don’t always understand why things happen, but God has a plan."

     That first year at Hanna, in 1989, Holcombe started the junior varsity volleyball program, and led the varsity volleyball team to an 18-4 record. They won the conference championship and advanced to the second round of the state playoffs. Holcombe was named the Region I-AAAA Coach of the Year.

     After two years at T.L. Hanna, Holcombe became the Head Volleyball and Softball Coach at Byrnes High, in 1991, the year she earned her master’s degree in physical education from Furman University. The Byrnes High Lady Rebels Volleyball team finished the season with a 26-6 record and won the regular season and tournament championships. Holcombe was honored as the Region II-AAA Coach of the Year. The Lady Rebels softball team finished with a 22-4 record and second place in Region II-AAA.

     In the fall of 1992, Holcombe became Head Coach of the Lady Warriors volleyball and softball teams at her alma mater, Southern Wesleyan University, where she also taught physical education as an associate professor and served as Sports Information Director. (She currently teaches physical education in SWU’s LEAP program for adult professionals.)

     After four years of highly successful seasons in both sports (the volleyball team having a 79-31 win-loss record, and the softball team a 109-33-1 record), she became the Head Coach in volleyball at Presbyterian College and started the school’s softball program. She also taught physical education as an associate professor for the two years she was at Presbyterian College. Holcombe led the lady Blue Hose volleyball team to a 54-20 record in those two years. During the first full year of play, the softball team in 1998 had a 31-16 record.

     After teaching, and not coaching, in Greenville County for a year, Holcombe returned to Byrnes High, where she taught physical education, in 1999. During that school year, she also served as an Assistant Softball Coach at Anderson College (now Anderson University).

     Holcombe became the Head Coach of the Byrnes High Lady Rebels softball team for the 2001 season, and is now in her sixth year.

     Several reasons, she said, led her back to the high school level after being at the college level. "I was very overwhelmed and exhausted from the recruiting," she said. "I coached two varsity programs, and they were very successful teams. Recruiting for two sports, teaching there, and everything we had to do in the in-season and off-season, was too much. I physically couldn’t do it anymore. I really wanted to do only one sport. It was a very stressful time in my life. I was uncertain as to where I was going to go and what I was going to do.

     "It’s amazing, looking back now. God has a plan for your life. At times, you don’t quite understand why things are going the way they’re going and what is happening in your life, but I have no doubt that where I am today is where God wants me to be. I have been so blessed in the last six years, not just with the success of my program. I have a wonderful group of young ladies I coach. I love going to school to teach. I love going to practice every day. It’s a good feeling to be where you know God wants you to be. And, because of that, I’ve received so many blessings in my life through my team awards and individual awards. It’s just a great place to be, to know that God has a plan, and you’re where He wants you to be."

     The Lady Rebels won the AAAA State Championship title for the 2005 season and were congratulated by the State Senate and State House of Representatives, which presented a resolution honoring Coach Holcombe, Assistant Coach Brandi Aiken, and also the players as ‘true models for all South Carolina student athletes.’

     "Four of the championship series games we won in an extra inning," said Holcombe. "In those games, we were behind in the seventh inning with two outs and two strikes, and we were one pitch away from losing, and somebody would get a hit. So, for a couple of weeks, every game was like winning a state championship. The kids had a never-give-up attitude, because they know that it’s not over till it’s over. Those last two weeks, and winning the state championship, are my most memorable experiences."

     Holcombe also recalls memories of interaction with her players, funny moments and touching moments. She has become close with her players.

     "I think that’s part of winning," she said. "I think the secret to coaching is motivating them, and part of motivation is for kids to know that you care. You hear it all of the time that ‘they don’t care what you know unless they know that you care.’ And it’s true.

     "We do a lot of things together, and we have a lot of team bonding. And we work hard at practice. They spend two and a half to three hours every night practicing. They expect to practice and want to practice. I think they would be upset if we gave them time off. They enjoy being around the coaches and their teammates, and they want to work hard.

     "It takes a special type of young lady to be in my program, because we’re very much disciplinarians. We have high expectations. They have to be committed and dedicated to what we’re doing. They know that, if they’ll listen to the coaches and do what we tell them to do, we’re going to have a certain level of success. They’re great. I can’t say enough about them."

     A Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) group recently formed at Byrnes, and Holcombe encourages her players to attend. "We always have the Lord’s Prayer before every game," she added. "And, before every game, a player will give a devotion. They speak from their heart, to motivate the team. The girls will often apply Scripture to our game and to the theme or thought of the day.

     "We instill values in them. The rules that we have are trying to instill the right morals and values in our girls. Because of adversities and trials in their lives, many times I choose to witness to them, and I encourage them to read their Bible and go to church."

     While Holcombe is a role model for the teenage girls she coaches, for her own role models, she looks to her own family, her parents, John and Rema, and her brothers, Wayne and David.

     "My parents have been good Christian role models," she said. "They took us to church and were there every time the church doors were open. We were there for Sunday School and Sunday morning preaching, training union, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and revivals. They encouraged me and supported me to do everything with my youth group. I couldn’t have asked for better parents. They have been wonderful role models, and they have been there for me. They are very devout and strong Christians.

     "My mother instilled in me my work ethic. She is a very hard worker. She would work from sunup to sundown. She never stopped. She is a very good role model for me. In my opinion, she had the most important job on the face of the earth, and that was to be a mother and to take care of us, and she was perfect in that. She did a great job. She was always there. I never remember a time coming home when my mother wasn’t at home. And my mother’s commitment to teaching Sunday School for 43 years is amazing to me. My mother understands children better than anyone with an early childhood degree. She definitely has a gift from God to teach young people. She has a gift with children and with babies.

     "My father has really helped me in my athletic career. I tease my parents all of the time that I take after my father in so many ways. I look like him, and I have his athleticism. He was a baseball player, growing up. I can remember, as a small child, begging him on Sunday afternoons to hit me fly balls in the pasture. And so he would hit fly balls. I begged him to stay out there. He helped me with my athleticism.

     "My brothers helped me with my competitiveness. They were both older, much bigger, physically aggressive with me. They would never let up because I was their little sister. I accuse them all of the time that they were never protective. If anything, I needed to be protected from them most of the time. They taught me how to play, too. Their being older and their friends being older caused me to play harder and to be more aggressive in order to get to stay in the game and play with them. There were many times I would cry, because they wouldn’t pick me to play on their team, and they wouldn’t let me play. I would go in and cry to my mother, telling her it wasn’t fair. She would have to go yell at them and make them let me play."

     Another family member who influenced Holcombe in her life and whom she also loved dearly was her grandmother, Inez Vaughn. "She attended church regularly, until she had a stroke," Holcombe said. "She was very faithful to Rock Springs. My grandmother was a very strong, devout Christian lady. She read her Bible, and I know she prayed for me every day. She had nine grandchildren, and I was her only granddaughter. Like my mother, she was very caring and giving and self-sacrificing for my family. She and my mother were the women who influenced me the most in my life."

     Although Holcombe attends First Baptist Church of North Spartanburg, close to her Reidville home, which she shares with her dog, Rebel, she retains her membership at the church where she grew up, Rock Springs Baptist Church in Easley, where she attends as often as she can come home. "My mother is a great cook," she said. "Sunday lunch is almost like Christmas Day. I come home whenever I can, especially on special occasions. On Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, I make sure I come home. I try to get back to Rock Springs as much as I can."

     Holcombe has many fond memories of growing up at Rock Springs—not in the current sanctuary, which was completed in 2004, or the former sanctuary built in 1990 and connected by a crosswalk to the new building, but the sanctuary built in 1959, which is now used for Sunday School classrooms.

     In her youth, Rock Springs had, not more than 4,000 members, but between 300 and 500 members, she said. "I felt like I knew almost everyone in the church," said Holcombe. "Our Acteens would deliver by hand the Christmas cards. That might be my fondest memory. As a teenager, it helped me to learn names, especially of the older adults in the church.

     "My parents’ best friends were Melton and Olive Reese, Sue Houston’s parents, who have both passed away. They were wonderful people. I have many fond memories of going places and doing things with them and my parents.

     "I have a lot of good friendships. There is a core group of people who are special in my life. We all grew up together, starting with Mission Friends. My mother was my Mission Friends teacher and Sunday School teacher and training union teacher when I was small. My friends and I grew up together, through GA’s and Acteens. When I come back to Rock Springs and see them, there are a lot of fond memories from our growing up. We reflect a lot on our past when I see them at church."