Burnet volleyball’s Shipley is Coach of the Year

CAPTION: Burnet volleyball head coach Crystal Shipley (center) and assistant coaches Treasure Ellerbe (back row, left) and Brent Kelley. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography

Burnet High School volleyball head coach Crystal Shipley was named the District 24-4A Coach of the Year after guiding the Lady Dawgs to an 8-4 district record and almost 30 victories during the 2025 season.

“This honor reflects not only her outstanding leadership, but also the season she guided our athletes through,” said assistant coach Treasure Ellerbe, who is in her first year on the Burnet staff. “Despite graduating a strong group of seniors last year, coach Shipley led her team to an impressive 26–10 record and a third-place finish in district play. With several athletes stepping into brand-new roles — including three starting freshmen and two sophomores —she inspired confidence, resilience and growth at every step. She was able to adapt when unfortunate injuries occurred and turn several matches around when the first set did not go our way.”

Seniors Journey Denton, who will graduate as the program’s all-time digs leader, and Payton Smith, who will leave as the all-time aces leader, left their marks in the history books. Meanwhile, freshman Landry Schubert, who was named the district’s Blocker of the Year, set a record for the most blocks in a season and sophomore Brooklynn Dawes is the single-season leader in aces.

Ellerbe offered some insight as to why the program continues to be so successful.

“Coach Shipley loves on her athletes as much as she pushes them,” the assistant said. “She has clear and consistent expectations, and it is because of her relationship with her athletes that they want to meet those expectations. Coach Shipley is a very present coach. Even during season, she is at offseason workouts, she runs make-up workouts for absences, and even went down to the middle school multiple times this season because she understands the importance of vertical alignment and building relationships with the entire program.”

The other important element is in how Shipley interacts with her assistant coaches, Ellerbe said.

“She creates a collaborative environment,” she said. “She consistently listens to feedback and is open to incorporating the creative, and sometimes crazy, suggestions that (assistant coach Brent) Kelley and I bring to the table.”

While all of those accomplishments are self-explanatory, Ellerbe believes they don’t happen without an environment that emphasizes several traits.

“Coach Shipley cultivated a culture that demands accountability, encourages bold love and builds a true family within the team,” she said. “As a first-year teacher and coach, I’ve already learned so much simply by watching her lead. She sets the standard. Beyond being an exceptional coach, she is an incredible mom, spouse, mentor and friend.”

Athletic director Grant Freeman, who is in his first year at Burnet Consolidated Independent School District, echoed many of the same sentiments.

“I’ve been around a lot of good coaches in my time of coaching and administrating,” he said. “One of the things that impacts me or one of the things that I glean from coach Shipley is her how she applies that ‘building relationships.’ Because it’s an easy thing to say, ‘Oh well, that coach builds relationships’ or ‘that person builds relationships,’ but it’s in how she does it. People think that means being their friend, and it doesn’t. It means that she works on those relationships, that she’s able to critique them in a way that is constructive. Because of that, she’s able to turn a bad player to a good player and a good player to a great player. It’s those fringe things that really make the difference and molding all of those into pieces of a team. Whether that’s with assistants, coaches or kids, that’s really where you find a coach that’s on a higher level. What’s really unique in the volleyball program is that they grow together. She’s not scared to coach them hard, and they’re receptive to that. To me, that’s what’s most special about what she does and why she’s had success.”