CENTRE – One might think after graduating eight seniors the cupboard would be bare for a volleyball team.
But that’s not the case for the Cherokee County Lady Warriors.
Several of head coach Tiffany Rieger’s younger players got valuable varsity playing experience last season, including seniors Madeline Ware, AnaKarina (AK) Reyes and Sarai Ray, juniors Madison Leonard and Kenzie Hunter, and sophomore Ella Garmany.
Despite being limited with what they could do the early part of summer because of the current coronavirus pandemic, Rieger believes the Lady Warriors have improved.
“We’ve actually seen a lot of improvement over the last couple of months,” Rieger said. “I think (the COVID-19 situation) also made the girls more eager to get back in the gym because they have been stuck at home, not seeing their friends and not being able to play.”
When they were finally green-lighted to return to the court for team practices, Rieger invited a special guest to help them with their skills in Munciana Volleyball Club coach Mike Lingenfelter.
“He’s the one all coaches watch on YouTube to look up drills,” Rieger said. “Him and Coach (Jon) Moseley (former Cherokee County High coach) are friends. He came here and ran camp for us when I was in school, and he’s really, really good. We were blessed to be able to call him to come down here and run camp for us. That was great.”
While Ligenfelter was a special coaching guest, Rieger bolstered her coaching staff by adding Dusty Cothran to her staff. Cothran coached with Rieger at Cedar Bluff is a locally well-known club volleyball coach. He joins a staff that also features former Lady Warrior and Snead State volleyball player Magen Dupree, and a pair of Rieger’s former players at Cedar Bluff in Abby Bannister and Jessica Hincy.
“We’ve been able to give more one-on-one attention and have more eyes on the court to see more things wrong and things that we are doing well,” Rieger said.
Speaking of doing things well, Garmany, a middle hitter last season, collected 102 kills, 78 blocks, 26 digs, eight assists and seven aces as a freshman to earn a spot on the All-Cherokee County volleyball team.
Rieger said Garmany was brought up last season to be primarily a blocker, and she performed well by leading the team in blocks. But it was Garmany’s high hitting percentage that really caught Rieger’s attention. After consulting with Cothran about moving Garmany to the outside, both coaches concurred that was where she was needed this season.
“As our strongest hitter, we want her out there,” Rieger said. “She’s versatile. The way we’ve got our serve-receive set up, we can kind of move her back to the middle some if we need to, if we need a stronger block in the middle.”
Ware will once again anchor the middle for the Lady Warriors, who Rieger said has stepped up her game at practice this summer. She’ll be joined by freshman Emilie Paul, who Rieger said is “very coachable.”
“You tell her something one time and she’s either got it corrected or well on her way to getting it corrected,” Rieger said. “A lot of the stuff she does incorrectly is because she’s young and doesn’t know, but once we tell her, she’s good to go.”
Joining Garmany as an outside hitter is sophomore Raegan Tierce. Tierce played the outside position for the Lady Warrior junior varsity team last season.
Reyes is expected to play libero, along with Leonard, who is the team’s defensive specialist. Rieger noted both players are quick to the ball, with Reyes one of the team’s vocal leaders on the court.
“I don’t think we can go wrong either way with them,” Rieger said.
Ray is the team’s primary setter. She was injured much of last season, but did see some playing time in some matches. Rieger said Ray is “hands down the vocal leader on the team.”
“She’s not afraid to step up and say things when they need to be said, but she does it in the right way,” Rieger said. “That’s really helpful to us. Sometimes things mean more coming from a teammate than a coach.”
Hunter will join Ray as a Lady Warrior setter.
“Our original plan was to run a 6-2 (court formation) with Sarai and Kenzie both setting, whichever one was in the back row, but Kenzie has a hurt shoulder, so at the moment she’s not allowed to do anything above her head,” Rieger said. “We’ve been playing her in the back row. Hopefully she’ll be back full force soon and we can kind of evaluate whether we need to keep running a 5-1 or switch back to a 6-2.”
To help offset Hunter’s absence, Rieger has pulled up eighth grader Vivian Connell to provide the Lady Warriors with some depth.
“There were several people we considered to pull up permanently for varsity. They all brought something different to the team. We finally chose Vivian because she’s very coachable. She always seems to be in the right spot,” Rieger said. “It’s kind of like I said with Emilie. You tell her something one time and she’s going to do it. She doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. She’s definitely not going to hurt us out there. She’s a little timid, but she’ll get there. I’m excited about her.”
The Lady Warriors compete in Class 4A, Area 9 along with Anniston, Jacksonville and White Plains. Rieger once again expects the area to be challenging.
“Any time you’re in an area with Jacksonville, you always know that’s going to be a big challenge. We kind of use that to motivate our girls,” Rieger said. “White Plains was very competitive last year and I expect that again. I actually coached a couple of their players in travel ball. We had one of their setters and one of their middles on our travel ball team. I know those two have gotten better. They’ll be good competition. I am not familiar with Anniston. I haven’t seen them play volleyball in several years, but I know traditionally they’re athletic kids. I’m expecting competition all the way around.”
