The Ooms family is responsible for plenty of volleyball history at Rainier High School.

Carrie Ooms, the current head volleyball coach at RHS, was a member of the 1998 Mountaineers squad that was the first to ever win the district championship and earn a trip to the state tournament. 

Fast forward a quarter century and she has led the Mountaineers, along with her sophomore daughter Allyson, to back-to-back trophies at state, taking fourth in 2023 and fifth in 2024. Allyson has earned Central 2B All-League second team honors in back-to-back years to start her varsity career.

The duo have similar play styles and versatility on the court; each Ooms can rise up for a powerful kill and catch the defense off guard with a commanding serve. Allyson picked up volleyball at an earlier age than her mother, starting in fourth grade learning from high schoolers during camps before taking her first steps into organized volleyball in middle school. 

When Allyson was preparing to take the next step into high school varsity volleyball, Rainier was in need of a new head coach. She encouraged Carrie, who had coached Rainier’s middle school and high school team years ago, to apply.

“She was like, ‘Mom, I really want you to coach.’ I’m like, ‘Oh boy,’” Carrie said. “It’s a big step going from mom to coach, and it’s a big time commitment, too. I told her, ‘If it’s gonna ruin the mom-daughter relationship, it’s a no-go. So I applied for it, and I’m happy I did.”

Not many teenagers would want to see their mom for so many hours out of the day, but not Allyson. She credits her mom for exposing her to the game of volleyball at a young age and helping her fall in love with the sport.

“She was just helping me figure out the basics and what I need to do, and I just fell in love with playing it. I think she’s very knowledgeable, and it’s easier to get information or feedback from someone you’re close to rather than someone who’s just a random person,” Allyson said.

It wasn’t always easier for Allyson to take feedback from her mom, especially in front of her teammates and her coaches. Carrie recalls times during their first season together when her daughter would ask her why she was being so hard on her, but she would always tell her that she was just as hard on the other players.

Allyson and Carrie both acknowledged the difficulty during their first year of differentiating the family versus volleyball relationship. Allyson said if something went wrong her freshman year, she would often take it out on her mom and let her frustration get the best of her. But they agreed that the second year was much easier to transition back and forth.

“It’s definitely a big adjustment because it’s weird seeing her as a coach on the sidelines and not my mom on the sidelines and having to be able to not take feedback to heart,” Allyson said. “You have to make sure to flip that switch and realize that on the court, it’s coach, and off the court, it’s Mom. I learned how to balance it pretty well.”

Carrie said that during Allyson’s freshman year, her husband Edgar, who often works as a line judge during Allyson’s matches, would draw the line of volleyball discussion as soon as they got home from practice or matches. But Allyson’s sophomore year was a significant improvement in their dynamic and the team’s dynamic, Carrie said.

“I think this last year went a lot better. When kids are little, they’re like, ‘What do my parents know? It’s just Mom. How much could she really know?’” Carrie said. “Then as she got older, she started to realize that maybe Mom does know what she’s talking about. This last year was the best coaching and mom-daughter relationship. She could ask those questions, and that helped the other kids see that, ‘If Allyson can ask those questions, we can ask more questions, as well.’”

After her playing days at Rainier, Carrie was a star for Saint Martin’s University. According to the team’s record book, updated in 2019, she ranked eighth in the school’s history in career solo blocks. But the most significant block of her life came in 2013 when she discovered through a self examination that she had breast cancer. Edgar was working in Germany at the time, and their three children at the time were very young; Allyson was just 5 years old.

Carrie dropped off her images at Seattle Breast Center and returned the next day for a biopsy, where she was told by her doctor that she was 95% sure it was cancerous. Carrie called Edgar to come home immediately, and he did. The day after the biopsy, the results confirmed she had cancer, and a surgery was scheduled within a week and a half.

“They put a port in my chest for chemo. I went through the old style that I think they called the red plan of death,” Carrie said. “I did four treatments of that, and then I did an additional 12 weekly treatments of a lighter chemo. I was on a hormone blocker for four years and then had multiple surgeries in between. I also had 33 rounds of radiation. They hit it hard because I was so young and had no family history and was healthy.”

Allyson’s memories of her mother’s battle are fairly limited, but she remembers her strength during and after the fight. Carrie recounted telling their children that she was sick but tried not to say the word “cancer,” which Allyson didn’t specifically hear until her teachers at school mentioned it.

“I just remember her being gone quite a bit for her treatments and then when she had our hairstylist come shave all of her hair off,” Allyson recalls. “She’s very strong because it’s not easy to go through anything like that. It definitely says a lot about who she is.

On Valentine’s Day this year, Carrie celebrated 11 years cancer free. She said her battle, along with an emergency surgery on her back six years ago that developed into a staph infection, made her look at life differently.

“It changes you as a person. There are things that I take to heart more, but there are other things that I let go of a lot easier,” Carrie said. “Life is too short to hang on to the negative. I do what I want, and I used to be a yes person and try to please so many people. Now, I am there for me and my family first, and then whatever’s outside is my extra to give. I do still like to help others out, but again, family and my choices come first.”

Entering Allyson’s junior season in 2025, the Ooms family is ready to continue making Rainier history on the court and growing their bond on and off the court. In 2026, Allyson’s younger sister Isa may join the team as an eighth grader, adding to the family and program record book.

“It’s going to be exciting to see what happens with our program here in the next few years. This has definitely brought our relationship closer, and it helps the relationship on both sides,” Carrie said.