New coach plans to bring positivity to North Hills girls volleyball

By: Giustino Racchini
Wednesday, June 18, 2025 | 7:22 PM

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New North Hills girls volleyball coach AnnaLise Shank has been down this road before.

North Hills finished without a win last season in section play (0-10) and did not have much sense of positivity in the locker room.

Now in comes Shank, who previously took over the volleyball program at River Valley, which also had no wins before she took over. They improved by eight wins in her lone season as coach.

“My goal is to definitely build culture,” Shank said. “If you’re having fun and doing your best, we can learn from that, and we need to take the small victories even if we win two sets.”

One of the main things that she brings to the table is making sure that her players understand how to respect the game of volleyball in all of its facets.

“My No. 1 rule is respect,” Shank said. “I want them to respect their parents, their coaches and also the property that we visit.”

Shank played volleyball from a young age starting in middle school at Evangel Heights Christian Academy, eventually taking her talents to Geneva College, though only for two years due to injury.

She suffered multiple concussions while playing volleyball at Geneva, ultimately cutting her career short.

After taking a gap year around the time of the covid pandemic, Shank finished her teaching degree at Indiana University of Pennsylvania while beginning her coaching journey at River Valley.

Now a substitute teacher, Shank knows that the goal of teaching, whether in sport or the classroom, is bigger than X’s and O’s.

“My focus is trying to build up great young women that will be great in the world,” Shank said. “I want them to gain more from me than just the sport of volleyball.”

Shank said she was able to host a youth volleyball camp a few weeks ago and met the girls on the high school team.

“To have our summer leagues going on is exciting,” Shank said. “I want to help bring back a love of the sport to the girls along with sticking to the fundamentals.”

North Hills will be returning 23 players from last year’s team, with tryouts also having to take place with a new coach and system being installed.

As a club coach, Shank runs the Sky Elite volleyball U-17 team, working with high school-age players during the offseason.

That added layer helps to bolster Shank’s resume, having not only been a coach before but also coaching the high school-age group.

“She was impressive to our committee,” North Hills athletic director Pat Weber said. “The way she was going to bring in a sense of positivity and work on skill and developing the complete athlete.”

North Hills faces one of the tougher sections in Class 4A, matching up against back-to-back WPIAL champions North Allegheny along with 2022 WPIAL champions Pine-Richland and runner-up from this past season, North Catholic.

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