BUTLER TWP — Volleyball careers don’t always end when players leave Butler County Community College.

In some cases they are just beginning.

“I’m trying to find a former player to come back and take over the program,” BC3 volleyball coach Rob Snyder said. “That’d be an ideal situation for me.

“Pass the baton, so to speak. But it hasn’t happened yet.”

The day might be coming.

Five players from the only two Pioneers teams to reach the NJCAA Division III nationals are coaching volleyball now.

Another former BC3 player, Heather Graham, came back to coach the team for two years. She eventually got married and left the area.

Former Pioneers coaching volleyball now include:

• Butler graduate Megan Smith Nimmo just completed her third season as head coach at Union-New Castle.

• Seneca Valley graduate Nicole Sebastian is an assistant coach at La Roche College.

• A-C Valley graduate Kellie Davis is the head eighth and ninth grade Junior Olympic coach at A-C Valley.

• Butler graduates Chelsea Pallone and Danielle Lloyd are seventh grade coaches at Butler Junior High.

Davis, Pallone and Lloyd were teammates at BC3 last season, when Pioneers finished 24-7 and lost the Region XX championship game after placing sixth at the national tournament in 2009.

“Danielle and I played for (Butler High varsity coach) Meghan Lucas and she asked us about running the seventh grade teams,” Pallone said. “We’re a little nervous about coaching, but it’s fun.

“It’s a way to stay around the sport and help develop players for the high school program.”

Davis was the Pioneers’ setter the past two years. She plans to transfer to Clarion University as a nursing major.

“My high school coach (Doug Knox) runs the Junior Olympic program at A-C Valley and I offered to run the eighth- and ninth-grade team.”

While planning a career in nursing, Davis always figured she’d be a volleyball coach in some capacity.

“Really, even when I was a little girl I knew,” she said. “I fell in love with this sport and this is a way to get involved.

“Getting my foot in the door with a JO program is an important step for me. I’d love to get into high school or even college coaching down the road.”

Nimmo and Sebastian were teammates on the 2002 Pioneer team that placed ninth at nationals. Nimmo became the first two-time All-American in the school’s history.

She transferred to Slippery Rock University and played two more years. Now a health and physical education teacher at Laurel High, Nimmo coaches against some of the girls she teaches.

Having given birth to her first child three months ago, Nimmo is uncertain about her immediate coaching future.

She definitely doesn’t plan to leave the sport that’s been part of her life for 20 years. She still plays in an adult coed league.

“I’ve had a volleyball season every year since I was 7 and I’m 27 now,” Nimmo said. “I’m sure I’ll be involved in the game in some capacity for the rest of my life.”