Nicole Stout felt kind of strange spending 30 minutes on the phone gushing about her daughter.
She's usually the one to keep Jalyn Stout grounded and humble. Nicole was an outside hitter in college before getting into coaching and understands the balance of an elite athlete's mentality. When to push, when to pull back. How to foster the drive that led Stout to Tennessee volleyball.
But when asked about Stout's ability to unite a team, Nicole couldn't help rattling off her daughter's best qualities: She's sweet, kind, has a heart for people, and she's just a good person.
"She really cares about people, so people see that and kind of gravitate to it, and then they just fall in place with it," Nicole told Knox News. "Now, she’s not perfect, obviously."
Stout's sister, who's younger by 13 years, felt the need to correct her mother there.
"She is perfect, though," Julia chimed in from the background.
Julia has grown up watching a version of Stout that probably does seem perfect. The last three seasons, Stout starred at Coastal Carolina and set NCAA triple-double records that may never be replicated. Now, she’s playing on the biggest stage yet as the starting opposite hitter for Tennessee, but she’s still the same down-to-earth person who just wants to spend time with her family whenever she goes home to Gainesville, Florida.
Regardless of whether Stout is perfect or not, she is absolutely a one-of-a-kind player. Take it from her coaches, who described her the same way seven years apart.
When Tennessee coach Eve Rackham Watt used the word in her preseason press conference, Nicole chuckled at the memory of Sante Fe High School coach Eric Marshall saying the same thing after Stout's freshman year: "She's just a unicorn."
A shared love for the game
Stout's earliest memory of playing volleyball with her mother is a fuzzy mental picture. She's outside in the yard, about age 5, and a joyful noise fills the air.
"I was laughing, and I was giggling," Stout said. "It’s just a really happy memory for me."
She possesses the same love for volleyball as Nicole, who never went easy on her.
Stout inherited her mother's ultra-competitiveness, which was also fostered by a huge family full of athletes who couldn't play a normal game of spoons if you asked. She has a natural gift for the game, but it took hours and hours of work to develop her cross shot, which was Nicole's bread and butter.
Her drive is innate, but Nicole fanned that healthy flame by being tough on Stout as one of her coaches at Gainesville Juniors and an as assistant at Sante Fe.
"I wanted her to always believe that she wasn't the best, because you had to always work to be the best," Nicole said.
Stout is the opposite of her mother off the court, though, introverted and quiet. But on the court, where Nicole saw her find her confidence, Stout's disposition transforms into something entirely different.
"Jalyn doesn't want to lose a point, much less a set, much less a match," Marshall said. "That would drive her insane ... she’s the most talented, driven, will-not-lose player I've ever coached."
When Rackham Watt was recruiting Stout in the portal, she talked to a couple friends who coached against Stout, and they all said the same thing.
"Man, when it's time to compete, that kid is a different person," Rackham Watt said. "So that obviously is a huge green flag as a coach when you hear that, that a kid just thrives in competition and loves to compete."
Becoming a triple-double machine
Rackham Watt watched Coastal Carolina and Western Kentucky square off in the first round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament from the top of the lower bowl at Food City Center.
She spotted the 5-foot-10 Stout, who was all the buzz as the Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year with an NCAA record 14 triple-doubles that season. She broke her own record the next season with 20.
"She looked so tiny out there, and I was like, 'God, that kid can play,' " Rackham Watt said. "I watched that match going like, 'Wow, she's impressive.' "
Stout wasn't always destined to set the NCAA all-time career record with 46 triple-doubles at Coastal Carolina, though.
Stout is the best defensive setter Marshall has ever seen. After her freshman year, he needed more out of her – he needed another hitter. But Stout had never hit before.
Stout recalled being elated to get in on the action. Marshall remembers the young setter's nerves about the transition to playing in a 6-2 – a rotation that involves playing six hitters and two setters – but she was a natural.
Within a week, Marshall said Stout was as good as their other left-handed hitter, who was a senior going on to play Division I.
"As soon as she sees success, it’s instant confidence for her," Marshall said. "If she can build confidence, she's unstoppable."
Stout's effortless athleticism and Nicole were a combination for success, Marshall said, because Nicole is Gainesville Juniors' best coach, not only from a success standpoint, but her ability to teach skill.
Nicole appealed to Stout's love for winning as they built her hitting repertoire. Stout's arm was like a whip, but she could only hit down the line at first. Nicole taught Stout the way she'd win was a variety of shots to put the ball where the defense wasn't.
"A lot of it came to her naturally," Nicole said. "I could sit here and say that we did all these things, but she really had a natural gift for it."
A new role at Tennessee
Nicole saw something special in Stout's mental game before she even knew what that was.
Stout started playing club in an older age group at 6, so she didn't see the court a lot. But at AAU nationals, she got thrown into one of their toughest matches and didn't flinch.
"She's a baby, so I was like, 'Huh. She's not scared of the moment,' " Nicole said.
That fearlessness only grew. Stout had no problem taking over when the game was on the line as she led Sante Fe to two straight state championships. Stout said it feels like blinders go on – nothing else exists except what's on the court.
She's thriving as an opposite hitter, even though it's hard sometimes to put her first love on the back burner. But her setting gave her "crazy vision" for the court, an ability to change her mind midair about her swing. It's part of why Stout is Tennessee's second-leading point scorer.
Stout's talent is almost secondary to everything else she brings to the Lady Vols.
"I just feel lucky," Rackham Watt said. "I feel lucky that she chose us. I feel lucky she's on the team."
Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: cora.hall@knoxnews.com; X: @corahalll; Bluesky: @corahall.bsky.social. Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks:knoxnews.com/subscribe
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: How Jalyn Stout became 'unicorn' thriving with Tennessee volleyball | Exclusive
