She wasn't happy with anything but an A+

By Shayla Papik –

If she missed just one point and got a 99 out of a 100 in high school Spanish class, Jessica Young cried.

Yep. She sobbed. She was that intense.

Today, Jessica Young – volleyball coach who has led LCA to inconvertible dominance – is still incredibly intense, though she has learned to tone down the corrections she delivers to us volleyball girls.

“You have to be very careful how you do it. I try to have a positive for every negative,” she said. “I’ve also learned humility. A lot of people have advice. Learning how to receive criticism and not get defensive was critical.”

Under Coach’s tutelage, Lighthouse Christian Academy has done the unthinkable. It leap-frogged four divisions in one fell swoop. According to the CIF's incomprehensible algorithm, LCA is going from Div. 8 league into Div. 4 playoffs.

Time to jump to light speed.

Coach Jessy steered us into the top 100 volleyball schools in California (according to the CIF measuring tape).

“I want to help the girls be strong and prepared for life through the sport,” she says.

Raised in Santa Monica, Jessy had a full house with seven siblings and attended Lighthouse Christian Academy. With a former LA Rams football player for a dad, she became very competitive. Among siblings, she strove to be the best.

“I had an internal drive; the more people I was around, the more I wanted to compete with them,” Coach says.

She became a Christian at a very early age. At a mere 5 years old, Jessy was convicted and didn’t want to go to hell and gave her life to Jesus at a concert.

Her heart broke for hurting people. Her childhood dreams were to be a missionary.

But that didn’t work out, so instead she became a registered nurse. Remember her intense drive to get A+ on every Spanish homework assignment? She became the go-to emergency translator for patients in the ER in local hospital.

Ultimately, she left the ER, just like she abandoned the call to world missions.

Instead, she is a mother for four, a support for her husband Pastor Josh Young, and HAPPILY FOR US, coach.

“I find a lot of fulfillment in helping people,” she says. “I did help people in nursing. But my calling shifted to taking care of my family, it was part of my new call of being a mom and a wife. When the school needed a volleyball coach, I had some qualifications.

“Why am I spending so much time and energy for this?” she adds. “There’s people dying in the hospital; that seems like a bigger need. But you can still make a difference. I really do enjoy helping the girls. They ask questions. I find fulfillment in helping them with their life issues.”

She broke into coaching at the middle school, Lighthouse Church School. She nurtured LCA star Allie Scribner all the way up from 6th grade. She was a club volleyball coach for one year. Whatever she learned playing for LCA, she added to by researching and opening herself to insights.

Ultimately, the end goal is NOT to win the championship. The end goal is to make girls into champions – in life.

“There’s a correlation between sports and life,” Jessy says. “Helping them with the struggles they experience in sports with their teammates or feeling defeated or wanting to give up and taking those moments to translate to life.”

Correction: A previous version of this article reported that Lighthouse was placed into Div. 3 playoffs.

Read more about LCA volleyball: the Jill Chills (Game 1). Sharp shooter Shayla (Game 2), No return policy (Game 3) , Abigail is Elsa (Game 4), God Balls (Game 5), Little girl beat up big boy (Game 6), Craziah for Keziah (Game 7) Flower power (Game 8), Xie xie Shay (Game 9), One in a Jillian (Game 10), Napoleon's Cannoneers(Game 11), Ethiopian Queen (Game 12), Make them pay, Shay (Game 13), Champions (Game 14), Muhammad Allie.

About this reporter: Shayla Papik plays volleyball on Coach Jessy's team at the Lighthouse Christian Academy of Santa Monica. She is learning journalism in Mr. Ashcraft's class. Mr. Ashcraft was Jessica's Spanish teacher back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. (Jessy is still young and vibrant; Mr. Ashcraft is a dinosaur.)