Holly is originally from Bristol, CT, where she attended Bristol Central High School as a three-sport varsity athlete. Holly played basketball, volleyball, and track & field and received the following accolades — 12 varsity letters, All-Academic Team Honors for four years, named to the All-State Team, Senior All-Star team in volleyball (‘99) and track & field (‘99) and All-Conference honors in all three sports (‘97, ’98 & ‘99).
She went on to play at the University of New Haven, CT, as a setter, where she was named New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Rookie of the week and was twice named NECC Player of the week. She went to the Elite Eight of the 1999 NCAA Division II Women’s Volleyball Championships. In 2000 she transferred to play Division I at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, CT, as a setter/ right side where she helped her team go to the 2001 Northeast Conference (NEC) Conference finals and received NEC All-Academic honors (01, 02).
Holly Started her coaching career an assistant coach for various volleyball club teams throughout Connecticut until 2007 when she took a short break to start her family. She started back up as a coach in 2012 at the Northwest Volleyball Club and St. Paul Catholic High School (2014-15 seasons). She then moved on to coach at her alma mater Bristol Central High School (for the 2016-18 seasons). She broke the school’s best-ever regular-season record (19-5) and overall record (23-6), and led the team to the quarterfinals of the Connecticut State tournament (‘18 season).
In 2014, she also became the Assistant Director of the Bristol Crush Volleyball Club, where she started developmental programs for ages 4-15, as well as a high-performance program. In 2018, her 17U High Performance Travel team earned a bid to nationals by winning the NERVA Open Championships in 2018. The team finished 6th at the Mizuno Boston USA level.
Holly has trained many players who have gone on to play at the collegiate level. She is very dedicated to, and passionate about, growing the game of volleyball through the art and science of teaching the fundamentals and biomechanics of the game and to building player and team skills in a fun and competitive environment. Her goal as co-director of RADDSports Volleyball is to build self-confidence in young athletes to not only help them grow into great volleyball players, but also well-rounded individuals, all while developing a love for the game.
Holly and her husband Zach Willette were married in 2010 and have 2 sons — Quinn (10) and Evan (8), They reside in St. Petersburg Florida, where she homeschools her two boys, loves spending time with friends and exploring all that the beautiful state of Florida has to offer.