When Terrapins volleyball assistant coach Adam Hughes is sitting in his office on the bottom floor of Xfinity Center, his eyes sometimes wander to the little box just to the left of his desk. Nestled in the case are Hughes’ Penn State national championship rings, glinting with tiny gems in the blue and white of his alma mater.

One from 2007. One from 2010. One from 2013.

With those rings in mind, Hughes left the Nittany Lions in 2014 to try to build a powerhouse program in College Park.

But they still keep him thinking about his journey from State College, Pennsylvania.

“It’s a nice reminder,” Hughes said. “No matter where I end up, no matter if I’m head coach or an assistant, that’ll be home. It was a great place to grow up.”

GETTING A CHANCE

Hughes, a self-described average high school volleyball player, hoped he could walk onto the Penn State squad. But after talking to coach Mark Pavlik, it seemed he’d be buried on the depth chart, something Hughes had no interest in.

Instead, he turned to Sarah Schall, the women’s varsity volleyball coach at his high school. Schall knew someone on the Penn State women’s coaching staff, who were in need of practice players. So Hughes met with head coach Russ Rose and started coming to practice as an extra helper.

As a freshman, he only came to practice a couple times a week. By senior year, Hughes, who grew up two miles from the campus and whose family all graduated from Penn State, had risen through the ranks from practice player to a student manager traveling with the team.

Hughes, who studied economics, hadn’t completed any internships, so he wasn’t sure what he would do after college. So he went into Rose’s office in Rec Hall one day to ask for life advice.

Rose asked him what his favorite part of the day was, and Hughes told him volleyball practice.

The senior didn’t expect what Rose, who was named one of USA Volleyball’s All-Time Great Coaches in 2005, said next.

If Hughes worked as a volunteer assistant for this coming year, Rose offered, he’d hire him as a full-time assistant afterward.

“That had me hooked,” Hughes said. “I loved it.”

MEETING AIRD

The relationship between Hughes and Terps head coach Steve Aird started as an unlikely friendship. Aird, a former outside hitter for the Penn State men’s team, joined the Nittany Lions women’s team in 2007 as director of volleyball operations, the same year Hughes became full-time on the staff.

“It was crazy timing, looking back it,” Hughes said. “He always has a really good way of when things are down, reminding you of how it can better.”

Rose advised Hughes to learn under Aird. After the 2007 season, the two moved across the country to Southern California, where they worked together coaching for the TCA Volleyball Club.

While Hughes helped Aird with coaching the team of 17- and 18-year-olds, he also took control of the 16-and-under squad. The two ran clinics throughout California in addition to their coaching duties, looking to recruit coaches and players to the clubs. “In college sports, so much of it is dictated by what you can and can’t do according to NCAA rules, but when you get out of that, it opens the door to think outside the box a little bit,” Hughes said.

The duo first met Stephen Yates, now the Terps’ director of volleyball operations, in California. Yates began volunteering for TCA, and after a few weeks, Aird took Yates out for dinner and drinks with Hughes.

“We all kind of gravitated towards each other,” Yates said. “We’re all East Coast guys. We became really, really, really good friends.”

What stuck out to Yates was how smart and thoughtful Hughes was; he called him the most hardworking person he knows.

Hughes and Aird returned to State College in 2010, with Hughes taking over as director of volleyball operations while Aird served as one of Rose’s main assistants.

The coaches remained on staff through 2013, when Penn State won its sixth championship and provided Hughes with his third ring.

Rings

“It was unbelievable,” Hughes said. “You put so much time, effort and work into it that it’s almost disbelief when it happens. And then it was when I got home for the holidays to decompress that I kind of realized how cool it was.”

Hughes’ move to College Park didn’t begin in Pennsylvania as most of his volleyball career did, but instead on Aird’s back deck in Newport Coast, California. Hughes and Aird often would find themselves sitting and talking on the deck about how they would run their own program.

Thousands of miles from College Park, the idea to mold the Terps volleyball program began to crystallize.

“I don’t think we ever imagine we’d be where we are in this situation, doing it in the Big Ten,” Hughes said. “But it’s always been on our minds.”

COLLEGE PARK LIFE

Aird was hired as the Terps coach Jan. 29, 2014, and he brought Hughes in less than a month later.

Hughes has taken on a larger role with the Terps than he had with the Nittany Lions. While practice normally starts at 3:30 p.m., Hughes is routinely in the gym an hour before, individually running drills with players.

“It’s important that he’s around,” libero Samantha Higginbothem said. “If you’re working on individual stuff, it’s very hard to coach myself and know what I’m doing wrong. So it’s nice to have a presence to keep you in it.”

Besides training, Hughes mainly builds the scouting reports and helps create game plans for the Terps. His energy and dedication around the clock are among the reasons Aird trusts him so much.

“He’s got a really good feel for how to coach at this level,” Aird said. “The best part about it is that he balances me very well. We’re awfully different in a lot of ways, and in a lot of ways, we’re similar in our approach to the game.”

Steve Aird & Adam Hughes

They’ve been working together to try to elevate the Terps to the national level, where Penn State is. While Penn State has seven national championships to its name, the Terps program has no NCAA championships, and the last time it made the tournament was 2005.

“It’s weird because where we came from, the target was on our backs, and now we’re the one gunning for other people,” Hughes said. “It’s almost defending versus trying to tear everyone else down.”

Twenty-two months after Aird came to College Park, the team has gone 23-39. Still, the coaches are pleased with the progression.

“Development has been really good,” Hughes said, “especially for the youngsters who are getting the chance to play against some of the best teams in the country and to learn on the fly.”

One of Hughes’ favorite parts of the job has been his opportunity to once again help with training and work directly with the players, unlike when he was mostly dealing with logistics at Penn State. The moments Hughes enjoys most are when he’s trying to teach a concept or explain something to a player, and suddenly everything clicks.

“I love Adam,” outside hitter Liz Twilley said. “He’s very good at staying positive, but he’s also very good at saying things and making them very easy to understand.”

Hughes might already have a few championship rings, but to add one with a turtle on the front would be an added bonus.

“That’s the dream, to have one of those,” Twilley said. “And to be able to add to our coaches’ collection and have it be from Maryland, that’s the dream.”

This spring, Hughes was named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s Thirty Under 30 list celebrating the best young coaches in the country.

Hughes brushes off the honor, crediting Rose and Aird for being great mentors.

While the recognition seems to imply he might be headed for a head coaching position himself, Hughes isn’t ready for that step yet.

“Everyone has aspirations of coaching,” Hughes said. “I don’t know what that timeline is, but I’m very happy where we are right now.”

His mind is solely focused on helping rebuild the Terps program as it adjusts to the Big Ten. For years, the Terps muddled in the ACC, and now that they’ve moved to the premier volleyball conference in the nation, things haven’t always been easy.

Eleven- and 12-game losing streaks the past two years have made the past 22 months a struggle at times, but Hughes can always turn to the jewelry by his desk for a pick-me-up.

“The rings are a nice little reminder every now and then when you’re feeling down that you can get there,” Hughes said. “So much of it is the journey of the season.”

CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, a previous version of this story incorrectly identified the women’s varsity coach at Hughes’ high school as Sarah Shaw. Her correct name name is Sarah Schall. This article has been updated to reflect the correction.