Lance McAlister with Josh Hamer -- 11/14/25

Lance talks with UC Clermont's head coach of women's volleyball Josh Hamer about the team's second D2 national championship

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
The following takes place between seven pm and eight pm.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
All right, Yon, we go our number two, seven h
seven on seven hundred WLW back on RNL Carrier Sports
Talk presented by Kelsey Chervale. I'm lancemcalister. Thanks for hanging
out on a Friday night. Stick Around Xavier basketball plays here.
Joe and Byron set it up bottom of the hour.
I like cool stories. This is a really cool story.
This past Sunday, you see Claremont College volleyball won the

(00:46):
USCAA Division two National championship in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. It's the
program's second national championship since twenty twenty one. You see
Clarmont College located in Batavia. I said, I need to
know more about this, so lo and behold.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
We're going to the phones.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Let's welcome in the head coach of the Division two
national champs. That would be Josh Hammer. Coach Lance Bacallister.
How are you?

Speaker 4 (01:10):
I'm doing well? Lance? How are you?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
I'm fantastic? How does it feel what I say? Division
two national champions? Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:19):
Man, you can't say it enough. It's great feeling for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
How second title in five years? I mean that's dynasty stuff.
How did Batavia become the epicenter of Division two volleyball.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
Well, I don't know. I like to think I had
a little something to do with that. I took over
the program back in twenty fifteen, and I guess since
twenty seventeen was the first year we made the tournament,
and we've made the tournament every year since then. Wow,
we won in twenty one. We got a couple third

(01:52):
places in there as well, which I don't like to
talk about those. But and then this year was just,
you know, this year was just it's probably the best
team we've ever had, and it was just a really
great year.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Well that was going to be. That's a good segue
to my next question, because I was going to mention
you entered the bracket as the top seed. I think
you were twenty and two during the season. So the
preseason thought was you had a national champion caliber roster.
Is that true?

Speaker 4 (02:19):
That's true.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yes, You've got a couple of seniors I'd love to
ask you about. One was your the tournament MVP and
now a three time All American. Tell me about Caitlyn Finnegan.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
Caitlyn's a great player. She played middle forest. She like
you said, she's a first team All American Player of
the Year. I refer to her as a unicorn, and
she came into our program. She's got, you know, top
tier talent, top tier attitude. She's a great leader. She's

(02:53):
a big part of what we've done here in the
past couple of years.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Tell me about another local product. She also from Turpin
High School. She was a tournament team performer. Tell me
about Ashley Kaminski.

Speaker 4 (03:04):
Yeah, Ashley, And it's funny, Ashley actually brought Caitlin to
our program after her freshman year. Yeah, Caitlyn had they
played together in high school and Katelyn had gone off
to Akron College and didn't like it. Came back home
and Ashley said, Hey, I got this friend, like to

(03:25):
put her on the team. What do you think, I said, Well,
tell me about her. Oh well, she's six foot one
place middle, she's pretty good. I said, yeah, bring her on.
And yeah, the rest is history.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
I mentioned both are from Turp And you also have
a Milford grat Hanna Daniels, who made the All Tournament team.
I mean, the quality of high school volleyball around the area,
Tell me about it, because it's got to make for
a nice pipeline of talent, doesn't it.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
It really does.

Speaker 4 (03:51):
The Tri State area is really really loaded with volleyball
talent for sure. That doesn't mean I mean it's a
nice pipe line, yes, but it's also very competitive to
get these players.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Sure, tell me on this level, kind of explain to
the average listener right now. May not know the workings
of it in terms of recruiting or scholarships or how
does any of that work in assembling a team.

Speaker 4 (04:17):
Yeah, so we don't have athletic scholarships. You see, Claremont
College is a great value. Our average tuition is six
thousand dollars a year, and then all students, not just athletes,
but they can get merit scholarships their first two years
as well, and pretty much if they get any fasts
at all, they get their their tuition paid for. But

(04:41):
you know that's my that's kind of my recruiting spiels. Hey,
great education, very low cost, you know, great athletic program,
a chance to play for a national championship.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
You mentioned, I believe it was twenty fifteen you arrived
at you see Claremont. Kind of trace the path. How
what's the journey been like for you to get to this.

Speaker 4 (05:01):
Point, Well, in twenty fifteen I took over. They had
a couple players graduating, a couple of players that didn't
want to come back because they would they were attached
to their old coach and you know, they didn't want
to spend their last year with a new coach and
all that kind of thing. I only had eight players
when I walked into the gym, and I did a

(05:23):
lot of recruiting, called some tryouts. Wound up getting like
fifteen players my first year. But you know, the difference
in the player talent then versus now is a lot different, obviously,
So it took about three or four years to kind
of get the word out about, you know, a great program,

(05:43):
a great experience. But you know, after that, it's been
it's been a lot easier obviously.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
Josh Head, have you did you? Are you from the area?
Had you been around here in various coaching capacities to
ultimately get to UC Claremont. What was that like?

Speaker 4 (06:00):
Yeah? Yeah, I grew up in northern Kentucky and you know,
just started coaching a couple of my nieces in a
recreation volleyball and that led to middle school, that led
to high school, that led to college. My first college
job was Cincinnati State, which no longer has athletics, but
I was there for two years, and then I coached

(06:21):
Xavier's men's club team for a season, and then I
got the job in twenty fifteen at U see Claremont.
But I've been coaching for twenty eight years AAU club volleyball,
so I've been in it for a while.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Man, it is so great catching up with you tonight.
You know, I'm thinking two titles in five years. I
think maybe, what do you think? Lifetime contracting your own
parking spot? How does that sound?

Speaker 4 (06:49):
That sounds good? That sounds good.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Hey, congratulations on this. It's so cool. I was able
to track you down and you were willing to come on.
Congrats on the success, not just this year and what
you've built. Best of luck, keeping it rolling and enjoy
all this all right?

Speaker 4 (07:03):
Yeah, I will thank you. Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
You got to take care coach, all right, there you go,
Josh Hammer. Two times, two national championships in five years.
You see. Claremont College volleyball located in Batavia. Every time
I think of Batavia as a kid, my grandma lived
in Batavia, so when we were kids, and we would
visit Grandma.

Speaker 4 (07:27):
One.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
She was the manager of it's no longer around the
Green Valley in Batavia, and it was always a big
deal when we were kids and we visited, spent the
weekend with Grandma. We would go to Moonlight Chili. Oh,
I remember how cool it was. We were living large
going to Moonlight Chili. I haven't been. We were in
Batavia a couple of months ago, because they've got a

(07:49):
really cool coffee shop right on the corner of Bean
and Brew when you come into town, and it is
directly across the street from where the old Green Valley
used to be. That my grandma was the manager years ago.
So congratulations to UC Clermont College Volleyball, the Division two
national champs for the second time since twenty twenty one.

(08:09):
All right, good, that was fun. Let's head down the stretch.
Got some college football to squeeze in, some college basketball
to squeeze in. I gotta do all that before Joe
and Byron. They are warming up and they'll deliver Xavier
pregame before the Musketeers and the Hawkeyes that coming up
at seven point thirty. We continue for now with Rnel
Carrier Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevelet seven hundred ww EAS.

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