Volleyball will be able to survive without Daynica Brown, but it’s hard to imagine Brown could go on happy and content without her favorite sport.
Brown compiled a 210-73 record over 10 years of coaching at Russell-Tyler-Ruthton. Her departure from RTR last year was well-documented — and some would call unfair — but she has more than picked up the pieces and continues to teach the game through her two-day camps.
“It’s about giving back to the kids,” Brown said last week as some young TMB players were going through a drill. “I love giving back to the next generation, that’s my big thing right now in life.”
Call this a silver lining to what Brown went through at RTR when her time as head coach ended after years of success. She has taken advantage of the opportunity in a way that benefits not only herself, but young volleyball players all around the region.
“I gave my time (at RTR), and now I have the opportunity to give to other communities,” she said. “Over the years when I was coaching, I’ve seen all these other teams, and I’ve just had this passion to want to help … I’ve seen different things where I was like, ‘Oooh, I’d like to work with that athlete.’” Brown, the 2025 Minnesota Volleyball Coaches Association Class A coach of the year, said she can offer a different perspective to athletes and be a fresh voice; what she teaches in her camps, she hopes, will resonate on a different level than what a player’s regular coach instructs.
“It’s just like parenting — sometimes they’ll hear it from a teacher and they’ll listen differently,” she said. “With my knowledge, I feel like I have a lot to give yet in coaching.”
Brown has worked with anywhere from 300-400 kids this summer at Murray County Central, HLOF, Pipestone, New Ulm, TMB and even over in South Dakota.
“It’s been all over,” she said. “It’s been very exciting. I love working with the very young kids; I know how to break it down so they learn it correctly. I only get them for a couple days, so I want to teach them so they can go home and do it correctly.”
Brown, who led the Knights to a Class A title in 2023 and a runner-up finish last year, was the Section 3A Coach of the Year in 2022, area Coach of the Year in 2023 and is a two-time MNVBCA Coach of the Year (2023 and 2025).
While Brown made her name at the varsity level, coaching elementaryaged players is something she also thrives at. Bringing up the next generation of players and teaching them the skills they need to improve is something she knows varsity coaches don’t have the time to do.
“I know when I was coaching I didn’t have time for them as much,” she said. “Otherwise, maybe it’s a parent who hadn’t played stepping in — if I can come in a couple days, help them out and maybe a parent continues on. Maybe it’s just those two days, then the kids go home and practice what they learned.”
