ARGYLE -- In his 13 years of coaching volleyball, Argyle head coach Clark Oberle has logged plenty of gym time as a fill-in player in practice and taken a few direct hits from his players.

He thought he’d seen it all and was comfortable with his ability to get out of the way of his players’ kills -- until he met Bailey O’Brien.

One of his varsity players was at a doctor’s appointment and he had to fill in on the opposite side of the court that his 5-11 junior middle blocker was on, and his nose paid the price.

“I’ve played a lot for a long time and I’ve never been hit square in the face before,” Oberle said. “My reflexes are usually good enough. I’ll turn my head or stick my hand up or something, but that came at me so fast I didn’t have time.”

No blood was shed, but Oberle said he was the laughing stock of the gym that day, and a bit of a trophy for O’Brien.

“I was kind of embarrassed,” he said. “It hurt. It was a shot. I didn’t act like it hurt in front of [the players], but I saw [O’Brien’s] mom later and she said the first thing [O’Brien] said when she got home was, ‘I hit Coach O in the face.’ It was like the highlight of her day.”

There’s no doubt Oberle learned a lesson that day.

“From then on, when I play, I’m always on her side. I don’t ever go opposite of her.”

O’Brien admitted to still holding the incident over her coach’s head on occasion, but with what she’s done this year on the court, it’s safe to assume he’ll live with it.

She leads the Lady Eagles (26-9) with 154 blocks and is second on the team in kills (256) and aces (47), and that’s without serving much during district play.

What makes her year even more impressive is to find out she hadn’t touched a volleyball in two and a half years before moving to Argyle this summer from Southlake, where she was on the varsity basketball and softball teams at Carroll, but hadn’t played volleyball since the eighth grade.

O’Brien’s arrival was serendipitous for the team after the graduation last year of star middle blocker Taylor McKinney, who left a big question mark in the middle.

“This year we didn’t know what we were gonna do losing Taylor McKinney,” said senior JoJo Fletcher. “I know we were all a little concerned about our height. Coming in, I didn’t know much about Bailey. I knew she played basketball, but within the first week of seeing her play I knew she was just an athlete.”

Oberle said he was excited the first day he saw O’Brien just because of her build and that it didn’t take long to see her strength, quickness and competitiveness come to the surface. He knew for sure he had a budding star on his hands, which is why it was so shocking when he heard her story.

“It was [two weeks] before I found out she hadn’t played since the eighth grade and I was amazed,” he said. “I couldn’t hardly believe it. It looked like she was a little rusty, like she hadn’t played since last season, but I had no idea it’d been two years since she’d even picked a ball up.”

O’Brien said the hardest part about getting back into the swing of being a volleyball player was just knowing her way around the court again.

“I can improve on my transitioning -- like getting back to hit the ball whenever I go up to block I need to get back faster,” she said. “I just need to get more used to it.”

One person O’Brien needed to jell quickly with was Argyle’s junior setter Jessica Bonfield.

Any setter and hitter need a good relationship and understanding of each other, and it didn’t take long to establish that between the new teammates.

“I love Jessica setting to me,” she said. “I like how she sets and everything. We can still improve but I think we have it down pretty good.”

Bonfield and Oberle agreed on their favorite thing about O’Brien -- her short memory.

“Some people [if they’re playing badly] are just like, ‘Don’t set me anymore,” Bonfield said. “She always asks [Oberle] what she’s doing wrong and what she can do to fix it. She’s always just like, ‘Set me. Let me fix it. I’m not gonna hit in the net anymore. I’ll get a kill this time.’”

O’Brien said she plans to play basketball and softball at Argyle and will be looking forward to getting back into volleyball for her senior year once spring leagues begin.

One thing’s for certain, Oberle knows he’s gotten lucky with O’Brien’s arrival and is still scratching his head wondering why she didn’t play volleyball at Carroll.

“I’m thinking they’re over there wishing she would have [played] now,” he said. “They have a good program over there but as quick as she’s picked it up and as strong as she’s played I don’t think there’s any doubt she could’ve played over there had she gotten the opportunity.”

ADAM BOEDEKER can be reached at 940-566-6872. His e-mail address is aboedeker@dentonrc.com.