Cleveland State volleyball coach, an Air Force Reserve officer, returns from Iraq deployment in time for TCCAA tournament play
Cleveland State Community College Volleyball Head Coach Peyton McDaniel surprised her team Thursday night (Oct. 30, 2025) in Morristown. McDaniel just returned from her seven-month-long military deployment in Iraq and is coaching the team in person for the first time during the 2025 season -- just as the Cougars begin postseason play in the Tennessee Community College Athletic Association (TCCAA) Championship Tournament, hosted by Walters State Community College in Morristown.
A staff sergeant in the United States Air Force Reserve, Peyton was deployed to Iraq in April. Her brother, Nolan McDaniel, is the assistant coach and has been leading the team during practice and games through the season.
Despite the distance, Peyton remained active with the team. She watched the games on live stream, staying up until the early morning hours in Iraq to celebrate each win with a FaceTime call. She worked out all the team's logistics and travel, and she met with the team virtually to review film and prepare for games.
The Cougars ended the regular season undefeated in conference play (12-0) and 22-2 overall. Entering as the No. 1 seed, the team won its first game in the tournament semifinals Friday to advance to the championship game Saturday.
Peyton is an inspiration to the team. They warm up in camo gear and shape their hands in hearts when Peyton is announced as their coach. “The girls find a lot of motivation in where Peyton is,” Nolan said earlier in the season, during his sister's deployment. “It is challenging for them, but it has really become part of their identity. There is a lot of emotion on the team every time the national anthem plays; you can feel a shift in their energy. As much as it is possible, Peyton is here without being here.”
Peyton joined the reserves four years ago after playing professional volleyball overseas. She said, “I chose the reserves because I liked that it had both structure and flexibility; it allows me to have the discipline and benefits of the active military while still pursuing all the things I want to achieve as a civilian. It really is the best of both worlds, and it has given me so many unique opportunities to see the world.”
She continues, “I think the bigger picture ‘why’ is the pressing need to do something bigger than myself. Growing up playing sports and then my college and professional volleyball career, I had always been on a team and working towards a bigger, common goal. When I was done playing, I felt like that call to comradery was louder than ever.”
In her second year of coaching at Cleveland State, Peyton was able to recruit almost all of her players before she deployed in April. Nolan said, “Peyton recruited a really great team. Not that they are just great volleyball players, which they are, they are really good people, which is important to Peyton. She could run a master class on culture. When she recruits, she has an eye for it. She is thinking, ‘are they going to be culturally positive and can they fit into what we are trying to do here.’ She definitely put together a group that is fun to work with. At the end of the day, they play for me, but they compete for Peyton.”
Sophomore starter Isabella Messer, played for Peyton at Boyd Buchanan High School in Chattanooga and was Peyton’s first recruit at Cleveland State. Messer said, “Peyton is the coolest person that I know. She is definitely the person that I look up to most because she is somehow coaching us and putting us first when she is several thousand miles away fighting for our country. It means the world to me to have a coach who cares so much for her players. We are playing for us, but we are also playing for her.”
The brother and sister team have coached together before. Last year, Nolan started working for the team. They didn’t realize it at the time, but that was preparation for this year. The team has become a family effort. Their mother, Carolyn McDaniel, takes care of the team and acts as the team mom while they are away from home. She handles the laundry, the food and all the gear.
“None of this would have been possible without the support of my brother and mom and the buy-in from our girls” Peyton said just prior to her return from the Middle East. “If our program wasn't in the hands of someone that I trust more than anyone and someone who allows me to be so involved and values my opinion, this situation would have been so much harder. Nolan often passes the credit to me about all of the recruiting I did, but none of the wins happen without his daily hard work in the gym with the girls.”
She continued, “I often think that this is the hardest thing I've ever done, and I know part of that is missing out on this special season with my brother and with our girls. I am so fortunate that we have the technology to keep me involved, between FaceTimes, virtual meetings and livestreams, I get to feel like I am with them. Our girls never quite understand how much of a role they've played in helping me get through the days here, too. Getting to hear about their days when they FaceTime me and watching them succeed and have fun makes my days go faster.
“We always say the foundation of our program is women building each other up. Getting to be part of their lives makes me not just a better coach, but a better woman! There's nowhere I'd rather be than in the gym with all of them, but hopefully soon!”
On Friday during the tournament, the TCCAA announced its All-TCCAA volleyball teams and special award winners. Peyton and Nolan McDaniel were named TCCAA Coaches of the Year after the extraordinary season at Cleveland State. The TCCAA press release said, "The Cougars finished the regular season with a perfect 12-0 record in TCCAA play ... and won the TCCAA Regular Season Title for the first time in program history. Cleveland State did all of this with head coach Peyton McDaniel serving in the U.S. Air Force Reserve in Iraq. Nolan McDaniel took over the in-person coaching duties, while Peyton still met with her team during the season through FaceTime and Google Meet."