PASSIONATE PLAYER AND COACH

Anna Criss

• Volleyball Program Head

• Middle School PE Teacher

• Asst. 8th Grade Girls' Basketball Coach

For Anna Felice Criss, athletics, coaching, and teaching are in the genes. Her mother was a teacher, a principal, and eventually superintendent of Wake County Schools, while her father taught PE, coached basketball, and became an athletics director. However, Anna didn’t set out to teach when she earned a degree in health and wellness promotion from UNC-Asheville and All-Big South Conference honors for her time as a volleyball standout. She did, however, feel that “coaching was something I’ve always been passionate about and felt called to do.”

In 2016, Anna (then Anna Moore) was hired as the Bucs’ volleyball program head after a two-year stint as an assistant volleyball coach at Lenoir-Rhyne University, where she earned her master’s degree in public health. The coaching job at Country Day coincided with an opening for a Middle School PE teacher, which is how Anna discovered she loves teaching, too. “I’ve been here eight years now, and I’ve realized this is clearly what I’m meant to do,” she says.

As the volleyball program head, Anna says, “Of course we want to be competitive, and we want to win. But we also want our athletes to learn valuable lessons about discipline and commitment, about hard work and responsibility. We stress with our players the importance of coming to practice with a good attitude, putting forth your best effort, and being a good teammate. If you can do those three things every practice, every gameday, then at the end of the season, you’re not only going to be a better volleyball player, but we’re all going to be a better team.”

Anna, who serves as assistant coach for eighth-grade girls’ basketball, jokes that basketball was her first love, but volleyball is her forever love. And she wants her players to have as much fun as she does on the court. Having fun doesn’t mean goofing around or not taking practice seriously. “The fun comes from competing with your friends and fellow coaches, challenging each other, building strong relationships.”

And for Anna, working hard is also part of the fun. One of her favorite quotes is from A League of Their Own when Jimmy Dugan says, “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”

Anna’s coaching philosophy stems from the deep respect and love she has for many coaches she has had throughout her life. Her high school basketball coach “taught me what it looks like to work hard day in and day out. She was tough, but she was great.” Her travel volleyball coach taught Anna what discipline looks like. Her high school volleyball coach helped her realize the impact she could have on the rest of her team, and her UNCA coach “taught me what commitment means to the program and the team, and what it means to be a leader.”

In a full circle moment, Anna’s first coach, her father, served as her volunteer assistant coach this past season. “My dad is a great coach and a lot of the things I have learned about coaching, I’ve learned from him,” says Anna, who recently got married and changed her name to Criss. “He’s used to being called Coach Moore. So, on the first day of practice, when all the girls are saying ‘Coach Moore,’ his head keeps turning, and I had to remind him ‘they’re not talking to you,’” she laughs.