Back in January 2011, the volleyball team at Weber State made the decision to hire Tom Peterson as the new head coach.

Before calling Weber State his new home, Peterson served for two years as an associate head coach for the women’s volleyball team at Utah State.

“Tom is a really good coach, he has gone through a ton of systems and knows what works,” said Audrey Biggs. “He has taken what he thinks is the best and I respect him for that.”

Last season the Weber State volleyball team finished the season 7-27 overall and 3-17 in the Big Sky Conference.

“The key thing at this point is to get everyone healthy,” Peterson said on the outlook for this upcoming season. “We’ve got to be able to run our systems, we need to get everyone involved with our offense, but I think our passing is already better and will probably be the best since I have been here.”

When asked if he thinks this is a make-or-break year for him and his team, Peterson said, “I’m not thinking about it too much. Every year you’re thinking about it in your own mind if you don’t anyway you probably shouldn’t be in coaching.”

With the Wildcats starting the season off with four tournaments that will begin on Aug. 29 in the The Hawk’s Holiday Hullabaloo, coach Peterson is looking for a few key things from his team.

“It’s nice to be home, so the bad side is being away from home for that extended period of time,” Peterson said. “We hosted a tournament last year, so we decided to get into tournaments that will help us out. The tournaments are going to be challenging, the first tournament is going to be unexpected for these teams, who’s good, who’s not good . . . you want to give a good experience for the kids and hopefully our play will follow.”