Living legend: Advance's Erin Hoffman honored with 2024 Semoball's Lifetime Achievement Award

Advance volleyball coach Erin Hoffman (right) presents her daughter Lexi with her 2022 state championship ring at a ceremony last August at Advance High School.

Semoball file/Tom Davis

ADVANCE, Mo. — Believe it or not, Advance High School volleyball coach Erin Hoffman was surprised to find out she was receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 Semoball Awards.

“This wasn't even on my radar. I wasn't even expecting it,” Hoffman said. “I think when the guy called me to tell me that I'd got it, I asked him if he was sure he had the right number.”

Hoffman has earned the honor. In a coaching career which has spanned more than a quarter of a century, she has racked up more than 700 wins and six state championships — five since 2018. That's in addition to 23 district titles and 11 trips to the state final four.

So how has Hoffman done it?

“I think a big part is I stress team — I don't allow for superstars on the team, because it is a team effort, and they can't do it by themselves,” Hoffman said. “I think that's one of the huge things when they all give in and become one, then it just all comes together. I think another thing is I hold them accountable for their actions — hard work gets you where you need to be. And I also just teach them life, and then volleyball kind of comes along the way.”

Another Hoffman trademark is her ability to stay calm, even at crunch time, in matches.

“You see other coaches that are just going crazy on the sidelines,” said Lexi Hoffman, an all-state middle hitter on last season's team — and the coach's daughter. “And she's very calm, but she has control over everything. I feel like she just gains so much respect whenever you go into her program that she's just in control, and doesn't have to go crazy.”

Lexi Hoffman said her mother also is very determined when it comes to doing what it takes to make her teams great.

“If you have an issue, she'll work with you until you fix it,” Lexi said. “And she's very determined on fixing the issues and finding the holes.”

Mercy is the presenting sponsor of the Semoball Awards, the area’s premier awards show recognizing student-athletes and coaches in Southeast Missouri.

Coach Hoffman also is a great motivator, said Kyndall Hitt, a junior-to-be and Advance's setter.

“She's seen so much potential in us,” Hitt said. “That's probably the main reason that she's really stuck out for me from other people. … From just one look, she's like, 'I can see what you can be as long as you work for it.'”

Said Brogan Hawkins, a junior-to-be who was Advance's libero last fall: “Coach Hoffman has a different outlook on the game, in my opinion. She sees it more as not completely winning or losing, but it's (about) making that player better as a whole.”

Addison Carlton, another all-stater from last season and a senior-to-be, said Coach Hoffman knows how to strike the balance between knowing when to have fun and when to be serious.

“We know how to work hard, but still have fun and enjoy it,” Carlton said. “And that is something Coach Hoffman does very well with in practices. Most of our practicing is scrimmages and games, so that allows us to get better and also have a lot of fun at the same time.”

But those are not the only strengths Carlton sees her coach as having.

“I think she just simply knows the basics of everything and she's very well respected,” Carlton said. “We all come in and work really hard, because we know that it's 'you work hard or you're not going to get what you want.'”

Coach Hoffman's success on the hardwood began as a talented high school player in Grimes, Iowa, which led to her earning a scholarship to play for Southeast Missouri State from 1993-96. At SEMO, she set a school record with seven solo blocks in a match in 1996 and twice had a record-tying 12 total blocks in a match.

For her efforts, Coach Hoffman was named first-team all-Ohio Valley Conference in 1996 and won OVC Player of the Week twice in 1995. And she also helped SEMO earn its first trip to the NCAA Tournament in 1996.

“It was a really neat thing,” Hoffman said. “We flew out to California and we had to play USC. And that was just a whole different level of volleyball playing them out there. But it was a really neat thing to be the first SEMO team to to go to the NCAAs.”

While finishing school at SEMO, Hoffman actually started her coaching career at Advance in 1997 before coaching at Meadow Heights from 1998-2002. She then spent eight years at Bell City — leading the Cubs to a state title in 2003 — a season at Scott City, then won three straight district titles and earned a state finals berth at Bernie 2012-14 before coming back to Advance in 2015.

Coach Hoffman calls coming back to Advance coming full circle.

“After that first year at Advance, I never thought I'd be back — not because I didn't want to be back, but because they didn't have a teaching position open,” Hoffman said.

It goes without saying, but there have been many memorable moments for Coach Hoffman in a 27-year career on the sidelines. One was coaching Lexi to a state championship as a senior last fall.

Another was winning three state titles in a row from 2018 to 2020.

“I don't show emotion — people don't understand how I can stay so calm on the side of the court,” Hoffman said. “But after that win, I just broke down and just bawled, because that group was just so special in the classroom, as people, as just everything. And I knew that they were leaving, they were going to be graduating, and it just hit me.”

And there might be more memorable moments to come, as Coach Hoffman and the Hornets will be going for another three-peat this fall.

Want to see Coach Hoffman be recognized at the 2024 Semoball Awards on July 12? Use the promo code LIFETIME to get $10 off VIP or General Admission tickets. Tickets are on sale now at https://awards.semoball.com.