After a successful season in 2006, which included a 26-6 record, a Southeastern Conference Western Division crown and a trip to the NCAA Tournament, LSU volleyball coach Fran Flory had a blow dealt to her program when both her assistant coaches — John Blackwell and Craig Bere — left the team for family reasons and another coaching job, respectively.”It was tough because that was probably one of the best staffs I had had here ever with those two,” Flory said. “My husband told me, ‘I don’t think you can replace this. This is the best staff you’ve ever had, and I don’t think you can do this again.'”But Flory said she didn’t equal her former staff when she hired Jill Lytle Wilson and Steve Loeswick.She did it better.”Jill adds a different dynamic in terms of her loyalty to LSU and her passion for the purple and gold,” Flory said. “With Steve, there was just something about him. He’s a loyal person. Kids are going to look at him and want to play for him.”But it wasn’t easy.Lytle Wilson was the more stubborn of the two to get to LSU, as it took Flory four tries to get her back to her alma mater.A four-year starter at outside hitter from 1997-2000 for the purple and gold, Lytle Wilson, who even spent a season on the women’s tennis team in 2001, was one of Flory’s “fiercest competitors.””This last time that I had an opening, I said, ‘This is it, I’ll never call you again if you don’t take it now,’ Flory said. “When she interviewed, I asked her, ‘Why now and not before?’ She said, ‘I wasn’t ready. But I want to win a national championship. I want to help you get better.'”Lytle Wilson said Flory had much to do with her decision not only to get back to LSU but to get into coaching, as the former LSU outside hitter was debating between going to law school and entering coaching.”I considered following my father into law, but I had a lot of discussions with Fran,” Lytle Wilson said. “I was appreciative of how she coached me and how she ran a program.”While the relationship between Lytle Wilson and Flory had already been in place, Flory had never met Loeswick. She had only heard of him through the grapevine.Loeswick’s path to Baton Rouge was a loopy one — a route that included growing up in the small town of North Tonawandain near Buffalo, N.Y., called  to becoming starting setter for USC for four seasons to playing for a German Pro League team for a season before coming back to the states.He eventually ended up as an assistant coach at Cornell, where he met his future wife, Jennifer, a coach for Albany at the time and a former outside hitter at Virginia Tech.Loeswick would then move to be an assistant coach at Oklahoma under Santiago Restrepo from 2004-2006.”After three years, not that I felt that I learned everything I needed to know, but it was time for a little bit of a change to see one more philosophy or a few more philosophies for how to run a program,” Loeswick said.Coincidentally, LSU senior setter Sam Dabbs was recruited by Loeswick to play at Oklahoma during his stint as an assistant coach there.Dabbs, a San Antonio native who chose Louisville but transferred to LSU after her sophomore season, later ran into Loeswick her sophomore season at Louisville when he interviewed for an assistant coaching job before taking the offer at LSU. It also happened that Bere was the assistant coach to get the job at Louisville.”[Steve] was interviewing at Louisville, I left, then he got the job here,” Dabbs said. “That just made my decision that much easier when I found out that Steve was here at LSU.”Loeswick now works closely with Dabbs and fellow setter Brittney Johnson, along with reviewing film of opponents.Lytle Wilson’s job in the gym is to work with the defensive specialists and outside hitters.”Jill is my backbone,” said sophomore libero Lauren Waclawczyk. “She calls us her little munchkins … She will do anything to help you, and she’s stayed after practice numerous times to help me.”Outside the gym, Lytle Wilson is also the recruiting coordinator for the Tigers, a job she said she loves.Flory said Lytle Wilson is among the top five in the nation at her job.”If you went and asked the big coaches who are the best recruiters in the country, Jill would be in the top five on everyone’s list,” Flory said.As for their futures as possible head coaches, Lytle Wilson was a little more hesitant to say anything more than she is happy with her “dream job.” But Loeswick was open to the possibility of one day becoming a head coach, although not anytime soon.Flory and Dabbs both said Loeswick will one day make a great head coach. But Flory wants him to wait for the right opportunity to come up so he won’t end up at a “dead end” job. She also admitted she wants him to stick around at LSU for a while.But Flory is certain of one thing for the time being.”There is not one time I don’t value anything that comes out of Jill’s or Steve’s mouths,” Flory said. “They are here for the right reasons, and I know they only want to get better.”—-Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]