Volleyball coaches encouraged by developing depth in preseason
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon volleyball team, men's and women's soccer teams and men's and women's cross country teams began preseason practice on Aug. 17.
An update for each team's preseason will be featured this week, beginning with volleyball.
Volleyball
The volleyball team completed four days of practice before classes began on Monday.
The Hawks are coming off an 11-23 season that ended in the first round of the USA South Athletic Conference Tournament. One senior and two juniors, along with eight sophomores return from 2016. The team has 14 newcomers.
Huntingdon opens the season in Nashville, Tenn., on Sept. 1 against Lakeland.
Head Coach Latonia Brady on developing depth in the preseason: "It's really nice. For the first time since I've been here, we have depth at every position. For instance, we just scrimmaged (on Sunday) and we were able to put three competitive teams on the court.
"Last year, we didn't have a lot of depth. When we had injuries at bad times, it cost us some conference matches that we felt we could have won. Right now, at some positions, I feel like we have as many as four people we could put on the court and get the job done."
Brady on fielding a team with 22 freshmen and sophomores: "On paper, that doesn't always look good. But our talent is better than it's been since I've been here. My concern is not so much that we're young, it's just trying to put everything together."
Brady on the biggest priority of the preseason: "Sunday was the first time we have actually played live during the preseason. Our serve receive is a big concern now and having our setters and hitters connecting is a concern because everyone is new to each other. Our setter are returners, but most of our hitters are new. So working on that connection is a big focus right now."
Brady on the leadership of senior Bria Rochelle and the returning sophomores: "The morale of this team and how hard they work is a testament to Bria and her leadership. Our returning class of sophomores has shown a lot of leadership as well. In a lot of programs, sophomores are not put in a position of leadership. But that's where we are with this team. There is a lot of pressure on these sophomores to be leaders. It's forcing them to be more mentally tough than they probably want to be, but that is good for our program."