This year, the Lady Colts Volleyball team will have to work through the struggle of losing 10 varsity players. This team season is almost a clean slate for the Varsity team; the season before consisted of ten seniors, leaving only three junior players behind.
The team is taking on this challenge in a positive light. Tashieka Tatum John, the Lady Colt’s Volleyball coach, stated that “(the team) have been adjusting to the changes, and it is a big adjustment because we have players that need to learn new positions.”
John continued by saying how everyone on the team is working hard and doing their part to have a good season. There are 12 players in the varsity ranging from sophomores to seniors.
Since the varsity team was left so empty after all the seniors had graduated, it was a turning point in the team where they now had to move people from last season’s junior varsity to the now varsity team, leaving the junior varsity almost empty and having to fill these spots with new people.
“I think (the Junior Varsity team) has a really bright future, especially in the team this year. Especially once they get more acquainted with volleyball,” says Kaylah Pinkley, the new varsity team captain, in response to how the new junior team is looking. There’s an observation that the team is composed of people with little experience.
When asked the same question Coach Tatum stated, “We have a lot of players that have not played volleyball at all.” then explained, that the new JV players have the strength and commitment to play volleyball for the Lady Colts team.
This season the players are looking forward to all their games, but the ones in particular are our Lady Colts Volleyball’s rivals.
When asked about games being looked forward to, coach Tatum responded by saying that our rival teams such as Monarch or Glades are ones that the girls are excited for, but mostly teams in the surrounding area. This year there is no Glades game or Monarch game scheduled for the season.
This season carries the theme of change in the structure of the girls’ team compared to the past seasons so far. Especially in the connection of the girls.
“(the team is) really good at communication compared to last year… we tend to talk more, it’s a little bit closer than we were last year.” Pinkney continues from a more analytical perspective, stating “We’re also very smart when it comes to playing on the court, we don’t like automatically just jump into hitting. We calculate our defense and our offense.”
For the people who are still trying to see if they can still join the team, you are in luck! During the interview with coach Tatum, she explained “Of course we would love for you to have some type of experience with volleyball… But you know if you don’t have any experience come with an open mind. Be willing to learn, be willing to push yourself, to do things that you have never done before.”
Pinkney stated “I think you need endurance, an open mind. I think they need a good heart to play on the team in order to actually prosper on the team because if you don’t have those things you end up in a dark place by yourself, and nobody wants that on a team because it’s a team-oriented sport.”
If interested in reaching out to Coach Tatum to find out how to join, she says to contact her through Outlook ([email protected]). Also, for those who wonder, practices are every week day (depending on which days are scheduled for games) except Fridays in the school gymnasium.
