The year is 2001.
El Camino volleyball player Liz Hazell has just won fourth place in state championships and was named conference MVP.
Little did she know that just four years later, she would be back at school–this time not as a student, but as coach of the El Camino women’s volleyball team.
Hazell wasn’t always in love with volleyball, however. She started out playing soccer and baseball; then at 14 years old, she decided to try volleyball.
It only took Hazell two years of playing volleyball to discover that it was her main sport and that she had a passion for playing at a higher level.
“In high school, I thought that volleyball was really the thing that I liked a lot, so I was going to continue that,” Hazell said. “With my father being a teacher here, I knew I wanted to go to El Camino and stay local.”
Hazell’s father, Tom Hazell, is a long-time athletics professor at El Camino and former wrestling coach.
When Hazell first started at El Camino as a student, she switched majors from liberal arts to history.
During her second season at El Camino in 2001, Hazell led the Warriors squad to the state championships, taking fourth place. She was also named conference MVP, earned all-state honors and was named Athlete of the Year at El Camino.
After two outstanding seasons, Hazell transferred to Cal State University East Bay where she played two years of volleyball. Her performance continued to impress, as Hazell earned All-Western Region honors for her two years of play at CSUEB.
Hazell dabbled in coaching club volleyball during her time at CSUEB, which opened the opportunity to coach at Bishop Montgomery High School for one season. From there, her coaching career continued at El Camino.
In 2005, the coach of the Warriors women’s volleyball team, LeValley Pattison, asked Hazell to assist her in coaching the team.
“I had known Liz and her family for a long time, and saw her go on to play at Cal State East Bay,” Pattison said. “I had an opening and I thought she’d be great and it worked out very well.”
Hazell served as an assistant coach for women’s volleyball for 12 seasons until Pattison retired in 2016. Following Pattison’s retirement in 2016, Hazell took over as coach of the women’s indoor volleyball team and has kept it since.
After Pattison stepped down from coaching women’s indoor volleyball, she started a beach volleyball team the same year, which Hazell still assists with today.
“[Pattison] plans the practices because she’s head coach of beach volleyball right now, but we talk a lot together about what the players need to work on,” Hazell said. “It’s pretty easy because we’ve been coaching together for 18 years.”
As a long-time player and coach, Hazell knows what it takes to compete at a high level. Her experience allows for lessons and teachings that she can pass on to her players.
“I feel like the whole point of athletics is that you’re learning life lessons, and you’re going to go out into the world and be a successful human,” Hazell said. “It’s very regimented here, and I think it helped them a ton with their prioritization and time management.”
The tenets that Hazell instills in her players help them build their skills and performance throughout the long seasons.
Hazell emphasized player growth and development and said she wants to see her players exceed their expectations on the court.
“Every year, we don’t want to look the same in November that we looked in August,” Hazell said. “Seeing the growth throughout the season is crazy, and it’s so cool to see how much they’ve improved and how much fun they’re having with it.”
Hazell praised freshman middle blocker Aireon Scott for her improvement. Hazell said she’s seen a huge jump in her game from the summer, commending her performance as one of the best middles in the South Coast Conference.
Playing under Hazell for both indoor and beach volleyball has helped Scott learn the ins and outs of volleyball, ultimately earning a spot on the All-SCC First Team.
“[Hazell] is really good at teaching me different things that I didn’t know before I came here, which really helped boost my confidence,” Scott said. “I look forward to playing here because she makes it fun and it’s not always so strict.”
Support from players like Scott and her coaching staff has kept Hazell motivated to continue coaching these young women.
“It’s great to have a job that you enjoy going to,” Hazell said. “It’s tough to send my players off after two years because it seems like you’re sending them off once you get them all on the same page, but it’s great to see the growth in those two years too.”
