To be a collegiate head coach in any sport, you must have passion. Passion for the sport. Passion for winning. Passion for helping your student-athletes grow both as competitors and human beings. After two years as the leader of the Waynesburg University women’s volleyball team, Hope Johnston has proven she meets all those criteria.
However, Coach Johnston has another passion that reaches far beyond the court.
“Traveling and learning about different cultures is so valuable for anybody, regardless of age, job or demographic,” Johnston said. “Learning to connect with people that are different than you and making friends, building a network; I encourage the young women on our team to take those kinds of opportunities as well.”
Johnston added to her own travel resume over Thanksgiving break 2025 with a volleyball-filled excursion to Italy, one of the international hotbeds of the sport. Her time in “The Beautiful Country” lasted from Nov. 24 to Dec. 1 and was facilitated by EXACT Sports.
Based in Chicago, EXACT Sports aims to empower young athletes to be the best version of themselves, according to the organization’s website. Their dedication to this mission has allowed them the rarity of receiving funding from both the NCAA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“I started working with EXACT a few years ago,” Johnston said. “They reach out to college coaches and invite them to local camps. I started by attending camps that were just a couple hours away, but the more rapport I built with them, the more opportunities I was given to go further abroad.”
Johnston, who was joined by two fellow EXACT coaches, around 25 athletes and members of the athletes’ families, spent most of her training time in Venice with Fusion Team Volley Club. The club boasts around 800 athletes at various levels and is considered one of the top 10 sectors in Italy.
“It was packed with volleyball, meals and sightseeing every day,” Johnston said. “As soon as we got there, we checked in and immediately went to train with a professional volleyball coach in the Milan area.”
Adding to the experience was a morning of sightseeing in Treviso as well as a memorable visit to H Farm, a 20-year-old educational institution that refers to itself as “Italy’s Most Innovative Campus” and is “committed to spreading the culture of innovation and addressing the challenges and opportunities brought by digital transformation.”
“We played our first match there and it’s similar to a college campus,” Johnston said. “I felt like I was stepping into the future. Everything was super modern.”
While Johnston’s primary responsibility was to ensure her EXACT players got the most out of their time in Italy, she made sure to soak in the wealth of unique experiences and training presented to her.
“For me, it was very educational,” Johnston said. “I wasn’t always on the court coaching, because there were sessions in which our athletes got to work with the pro coaches. I made sure to observe as much of that time as I could. That was incredible, because I was able to watch them train and ask a lot of questions. I saw new drills I haven’t seen before and wrote all those practice plans down. I’m going to be implementing some of those same ideas into our practices.”
Johnston said she had seen nine different gyms by the time the calendar rolled over to December. She also saw her first professional match.
“I’ve never been to a pro volleyball match before,” Johnston said. “Just to see women on a big stage in an arena in front of incredible crowds; I loved it.”
Johnston will continue her relationship with the organization in her home state of Texas. She worked EXACT camps in Plano and Georgetown in late December.
“Working with [EXACT] allows me the resources to travel domestically, whether that’s up to Pittsburgh or across the country,” she said. “It allows me to network and meet athletes. I’ll also be looking for opportunities to connect with clubs, schools and other coaches while traveling.”
