Volleyball 2012

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2012 Johnson County

VOLLEYBALLAlvarado

Burleson

Centennial

Cleburne

Godley

Grandview

Joshua

Keene

Rio Vista

A sneak peak into the upcoming volleyball season,including schedules, photos and previews.

A special supplement to the Cleburne Times-Review

2012 Johnson County

VOLLEYBALL

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Publisher/Advertising DirectorKay Helms

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Managing EditorDale Gosser

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Graphics DirectorAshley Garey

Business ManagerLynn Coplin

Sports EditorA.J. Crisp

PhotographyDavid Beans

A.J. CrispLaura Zamora

News EditorMonica Faram

Advertising Account ExecutivesEric FaughtSherri Jovet

Tammy Kay

Advertising GraphicsConnie Crannell

Classified Account ExecutivesTeresa SladeLynn Coplin

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2012 Johnson County Volleyball is a product distributed by the Cleburne Times-Review.

Cleburne’s Holly Wood, a junior, will be a versatile player for the Lady Jack-ets in new coach Jim Wood’s first season.

David Beans/Special to the CTR

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By A.J. [email protected]

In the midst of a 10-year postseason drought, Alvarado is looking to change the way the Lady Indians’ volleyball program is regarded.

Jill Barkley is entering her fifth year as the Lady Indians’ head coach, and she said that each year the program has taken a step in the right direction.

“Seeing a team that had previously been a losing program actually succeed and win games is great,” Barkley said. “Hopefully we’ll do something in district more than just what is usually expected of Alvarado. I think we’re going to squash that old vision that peo-ple have of Alvarado. I’m already so excited that the girls are excited.”

The Lady Indians finished in fourth place in District 8-3A last season (and won only one district game two years ago), but despite the struggles, Alvarado’s expectations this season don’t end at just making the playoffs.

“We started out just saying we wanted to go to playoffs, but we have to strive for more than that,” Barkley said. “Our goal is to be first place in district. The girls have never had that type of confidence before, so that’s awe-some to hear that they are that confident.

“Last year, there were some games we lost that we shouldn’t have. This year, we’re re-turning all but one starter. We have five start-ers returning, so it should be really good. We don’t have the experience of winning. But I think this year will be different.”

Barkley will rely on four seniors to be the leaders on the floor: Amber Chatham, Maitlan Ledbetter, Brianna Penner and Jamie Gibson.

Shelby Frazier, the fifth returning starter, earned first-team all district recognition last year as a sophomore and will also be a key player in what the Lady Indians hope is a playoff season.

With the majority of last year’s team re-turning, the familiarity and chemistry should be a strength of the team this year.

“There won’t be a whole lot of difference this year, but we will be a lot quicker,” Barkley said. “Three of my girls played club ball this summer. We just want to make sure that fourth place doesn’t happen again.

“I think the girls are re-

ally looking forward to playing some of the schools last year that we couldn’t beat, and beating them this year because we will be able to. They’re really excited to play some of the bigger 4A and 5A schools that we’ve played in the past and struggled with to see how we can compete against them. They’re really excited for this season, which is really neat to see.”

Since Barkley has been at Alvarado, the Lady Indians have had a team motto of “One team, one tribe, one goal,” but she received a text message from one of her seniors with a suggestion for this season.

“I got a text message from Amber, who was a captain last year, a couple of weeks ago,” Barkley said. “She wanted to make sure that every time we broke out [of a huddle], we said ‘family.’ I thought that was great that she was thinking about it two weeks before practice start-

ed and that it was something she wanted to incorporate.”

The first week of practice for Alvarado was a spirited and intense one, Barkley said.

“It’s fun to see them practice so hard. On game day, we want to be all fired up, but now we’re even fired up in practice. And that’s team-led, that’s something they’re instilling in themselves. They can’t wait to get to it. I think every day this year is going to be excit-ing.”

Regarding changing the general consensus of the Lady Indians’ program, Barkley said that she expects the Alvarado community to be out in full support this year.

“The bleachers have been more full with each year I’ve been here, so I really think that the community is starting to notice what we have here now,” she said.

Alvarado’s first game is Tuesday, when it hosts Northside.

A.J. CrispCourtesy photoAlvarado’s Brianna Penner will be one of four seniors and five returning starters that Coach Jill Barkley expects to help lead the Lady Indians to the playoffs for the first time in 10 years.

District 7-3A1. Alvarado2. Glen Rose3. Hillsboro4. Stephenville5. Venus

Lady Indians look to end decade-long postseason drought

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Burleson made it to the regional quarterfinals last season, and the Lady Elks’ goal this year is to at least go a step farther, said coach D’Anna Newton.

“We made it to the regional quarterfinals and lost to Aledo,” Newton said. “It’s been a long time since Burleson’s made it that far, so there’s high expecta-tions this year. Our own expecta-tions are definitely playoffs, and our goal is to make if further than we did last year.”

Despite losing six seniors from last year’s team, Newton, entering her second year as the Lady Elks’ head coach, has four starters returning and two more players with varsity experience.

“We lost our libero from last year and that’s a tough position to fill, so we’re going to need somebody to step up and fill that position,” Newton said. “A lot of my core is going to be back. They know what is expected and what they can do, and I think we’ll be fine.”

Junior Holly Milam will be the Lady Elks’ middle blocker, while junior Alana Hughes is slated to be the Lady Elks’ setter. Senior Abby Seamster will be the team’s leading outside hitter.

“Those are our top three that we’re really looking forward to this year,” Newton said. “Riley Roberts is going to step up and hopefully fill the libero spot. And we have a bunch of up-and-com-

ing kids from JV that are going to help us out a lot. It’s going to be a mixture of experience and youth. We are experienced and those seniors have played to-gether since they were in middle school, so the chemistry is there and that’s a good thing.”

Newton had 46 players show up for try-outs Tuesday morn-ing, and said there are several tough decisions to make as far as varsity cuts and deciding which players to put on the junior var-sity and freshmen teams.

The new teams the Lady Elks

will face in district play after realignment, will play a key role in this year’s District 8-4A stand-ings, Newton said.

“Just the transition of going to a new district, it could benefit us and that’s going to be a differ-ence for us,” she said. “We have Centennial, and that’s going to bring a whole new fire to us. We have the Waco schools now, and we played Waco University last

year in the first round of playoffs so we’ve seen them, and we still have Cleburne, Crowley and Joshua.

“It’s going good right now, so we’re excited and looking forward to the season.”

The Lady Elks open the sea-son hosting Stephenville at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Burleson’s district opener will be Sept. 7 at Waco University.

Laura Zamora/CTRAbove: The Lady Elks work on their blocking technique during the first week of practice. Below: Ju-nior Holly Milam, Burleson’s middle blocker, gets ready to spike the ball.

After successful season, Burleson aims to take the next step

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Playing in only their second season of UIL district play, the Burleson Centennial Spartans look to make a return trip to the playoffs. And they will do so under new head coach Whitney Johansen, after last year’s coach, Melissa Cole, went to Grandview.

This season for the Spartans will be a historic one. It is the first year the school will have a group of seniors. One of the biggest hurdles the majority of Centen-nial teams have faced in its young history is lacking experience ... but not this year for the volleyball team.

“We’re returning just about the whole group,” Johansen said. “That’s the nice thing is that everyone’s still here. We have a good group of girls, all of whom, in their own way, will fill key roles for us this year.”

The Spartans have their sights set on going a step farther than they did last year, when they lost in the bidistrict round of the playoffs, after playing in District 9-3A, which included Castle-berry, Mineral Wells, Decatur, Bridgeport and Lake Worth. Cen-tennial is now in District 8-4A.

“It’s still early in the process

of putting the pieces where they need to go, but it’s coming together, so that’s a good thing,” said Johansen, who was head coach at Arlington Heights the previous two years. “We’re really excited. The girls are working hard. There’s a lot of good talent in this group. We’re pumped up and we can’t wait to play a match.

“Our expectations for this year, of course, we want to do well in district. We would love a district championship and that’s our main goal. We want to make it multiple rounds in the play-offs.”

But Johansen didn’t stop at just what these Spartans’ expecta-tions are for the season. She said her team is looking at the bigger picture.

“I’d say the girls are really wanting to put Centennial on the map as far as volleyball pro-grams,” she said. “They really want to make a name for the school, especially with this being the first year we have seniors. We’re trying to get that reputation to stick that we’re a force to be reckoned with.”

One of the first things Johan-sen did when she became head coach of Centennial was come up with a team word: conquer.

“That word kind of resonated with me when I was thinking about this program and what the goals were,” she said. “We don’t want to just go play against peo-ple, we want to conquer people. And it goes hand-in-hand with our mascot since we’re Spartans. When people see us walk in the gym, we want them to know what they’re in store for and that they better be ready.”

Junior Sydney Cox, who is the team’s outside hitter, will be one of Johansen’s key players this season, along with junior libero Katie Revrovich.

“Sydney’s a great kid and a great leader,” Johansen said.

“She’s one we’re looking forward to. Katie’s coming back this year at libero, and she’s a great player. In the middle, we’ve got Courtney Colomo, who will be a senior. I could name each and ev-ery one of them because they’re all such a vital part.”

Centennial opens the sea-son Tuesday when they host Ranchview and Grandview for a doubleheader dual. The Spartans will participate in the Saginaw Varsity Tournament Aug. 17-18.

The Spartans open district play Sept. 7 when it hosts Ever-man. The first Burleson versus Centennial match-up will be Sept. 21.

Laura Zamora/CTRAbove: New coach Whitney Johansen speaks to the Spartans dur-ing practice. Below: Junior Toni Maxfield practices serving.

Spartans striving to put Centennialvolleyball on the map

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For the second straight season, the Cle-burne Lady Jackets will be under new lead-ership as Jim Wood takes the head coaching reins.

The Lady Jackets will not only face the challenge of adapting to a new coaching sys-tem, but also a big turnover from last year’s squad, as only three players from last year return.

“Of course, with me being new, we’ve been going over lots of new things — the way I want certain things done, going over my of-fensive systems, which is a little bit different than what they’re used to,” Wood said. “My defensive system is pretty much the same. My terminology, I call things a little differ-ently than what they’ve heard in the past, but most of it’s pretty much the same. We’ve been doing lots of conditioning and getting used to a new system this week. We’re looking alright so far.”

With only three players from last year’s varsity team (Hillary King, Kendall Jones and Brianna Reband), Wood has to clear several hurdles before the first game is even played, such as filling up the varsity roster with the right players and getting those players to play as a single unit.

“We really haven’t meshed yet because there’s so many different people playing to-gether who haven’t played together before,” Wood said. “It’s still a work in progress be-cause there’s so many new faces and I’m still plugging people in here and there, taking

looks at them. It’s going to take a little time.”Wood said that he’s still evaluating several

junior varsity-level girls to see if they can play at the varsity level, and said he would play those girls in both scrimmages that took place on Friday in Azle and Saturday in Bird-ville.

The players that Wood has already as-signed a varsity spot to have impressed him early on.

“The three returning players from last

year have been impressing me a lot,” he said. “Hillary King (senior setter), Kendall Jones (senior outside hitter) and Brianna Reband (junior middle hitter) have shown some good things.

“Brianna’s going to play all the way around, which is something new for her be-cause she’s never played back row before. I’m hoping I can get her hitting out of the back

See CLEBURNE,

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David Beans/Special to the CTRAbove: The 2012 Cleburne Lady Jackets varsity volleyball team. Below, left: Senior Kend-all Jones is one of three returning players from last year’s varsity squad. Below: New head coach Jim Wood said he wants to see his team play fundamentally sound.

2012 marks a new era of Cleburne volleyball

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row and opening her offense even more. From what I understand, she’s been the best hitter in the district the last couple of years, even as a freshman and sopho-more. I’m hoping to expand her offense.”

Wood also said that junior Alli Suitt has been hitting real well out of the back row and ex-pects her to step up for the Lady Jackets this season, along with Wood’s daughter, Holly, who is also a junior.

“[Holly] is kind of a util-ity player,” Wood said. “She can play just about anything. She can play back row, she can play out-side hitter, right-side hitter. I’m going to probably start her out at setter. That’s nice to have some-body that I can fit in here and there if I need someone to step in at another position.”

King’s younger sister, Han-nah, is expected to make a contri-bution on the varsity level despite being a freshman.

“She’ll probably be playing libero for me,” he said. “She’s shown some flashes of brilliance. Some days, nothing hits the floor, and other days she struggles, but she’s just a freshman. I think by the time she’s a junior and senior, she’s really going to be good. She’s going to struggle some at times this year, but she’ll be fine.”

Another new face to the Lady Jackets will be senior Abby Zach-ary, who didn’t play volleyball for the Lady Jackets last season.

“She’s almost six-foot, two inches,” Wood said. “She’s played some club ball before. She’s on the swim team here, and she does real well in swimming, so she’s an athlete, and she’s big. I think she’s going to get some significant minutes playing for me. She’s going to be intimidat-ing off that right side and she’ll be blocking against everybody

else’s best outside hitters. I’m looking forward to seeing what she can do for us.”

When Wood, who was vol-leyball coach at Burleson High School several years ago, was asked about what the Lady Jack-ets are most excited for this sea-son, he said that they are looking to simply “get after it.”

“We’re looking forward to just playing,” he said. “Looking to get some wins under our belts and then eventually looking to be dominant. We’ve got some young players coming up that will help us in that goal. I know back in the day, Cleburne used to be awful dang good. We’re not at that level

that we used to be, but I’m hop-ing that we’ll get there. It’s go-ing to be a work in progress, but we’ll get there.”

Due to all of the change sur-rounding the vol-leyball program, a program that for nine years

had nothing but consistency when Floyd Rogers was the head coach, Wood said that his expec-tations early on are simple.

“I just want us to play funda-mentally sound,” he said. “I don’t want to get real fancy. I just want us working on the basics; good passing, good serving, good hit-ting. I want us making sure our techniques are correct and stuff like that.

“As we start getting that down, then that will open up things for us to get a little more sophisticated in our offenses and defenses, and start looking at match-ups instead of just playing a generic rotation. That would be nice to have people I could plug in for specific match-ups to give other teams problems. But right now I’m just looking for us to be fundamentally sound.”

The Lady Jackets’ first match is at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Fort Worth Southwest. Cleburne’s first home game is Aug. 28 against Mansfield Lake Ridge.

District 8-4A1. Burleson2. Burleson Centennial3. Cleburne4. Crowley5. Everman6. Joshua7. Waco High8. Waco University

Cleburnecont. from pg. 6

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Coming off a bi-district loss to Eustace last season, Grand-view’s fourth playoff appear-ance in a row, the Lady Zebras look to set their sights higher for the 2012 season, the first under new head coach Melissa Cole.

“Things are looking really good,” Cole said. “I feel very positive about the direction we’re going and how much they’ve improved since we started practice on Monday. They’re connecting well to-gether and meshing real well. I think it’s going to be good.”

Cole left her coaching posi-tion at Burleson Centennial to be closer to her family so she could spend more time with her

daughter, and, despite losing five seniors to graduation last year, she inherits a relatively ex-perienced team that will feature five seniors in 2012.

“Honestly, we’re going to make the playoffs,” Cole said. “We’re shooting to win district. We’re looking to do that and then looking to move even fur-ther. We have a great set of kids who work really hard. I think we’re hoping to get past that bi-district round.

“The seniors are pushing everyone. Everybody’s getting pushed, everybody’s getting challenged. It’s a win-win. Our freshmen are getting after it and growing, too.”

Those seniors, Brittney Tschoepe, Kalani Basham, Paige Pollock, Harley Griffith and Alexis Wheeler, will be

Cole’s leaders on the court and in the locker room.

One of Cole’s biggest con-cerns as a coach, she said, is always being on the same page.

“We want to become a team that connects very well,” she said. “Our motto this year is ‘make a statement.’ We want to make a statement with every-thing we do, from the time we walk in the gym to the time we leave. It’s going to be an action not words. They’re all excited.”

When a head coaching change is made, there is usually some early growing pains.

“It’s all brand new,” Cole said. “They’re having to learn new things in a short time. We could be counted out by a lot of people. We’re just [concerned with] working on us. I’m not worried about what the other

teams are doing. It’s about what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.

“I want to make sure that defense-wise, we’re passing sound. To me it’s about putting our skills together and con-necting. I want to see us grow together as a team. Everyone out there has great talent as individuals, but I want us to put all of it together.”

Cole said that the challenge of a new, tougher district will be a welcome one.

Grandview is in District 10-2A with Godley, Keene Smith, Maypearl, Rio Vista, Tolar and Whitney.

The Lady Zebras open the season at Burleson Centennial on Tuesday.

Grandview’s district opener is at Tolar on Sept. 7.

Experienced Lady Zebras shooting for fifth straight playoff appearance

A.J. Crisp/CTRKolbi Rudduck and Grandview hope to make a fifth straight play-off appearance, and the first under new head coach Melissa Cole.

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Leadership and experience are often two overlooked quali-ties in sports because so much of the attention is paid to a team’s athleticism and talent. But lead-ership and experience are crucial aspects in building a successful program in team sports.

Those two intangibles are something that the 2012 Godley Lady Cats currently lack, said coach Todd Weese.

“We lost seven players off of our team last year,” Weese said. “We only have one senior and three returning players. And one of those girls is going to be a sophomore. I think leadership is going to be a big thing for us. We’re really, really young and inexperienced. The kids who were on varsity last year are going to have to step up and are going to have to fill those leadership roles. The sooner that happens, the better off we’ll be.”

Last year, Godley was extremely experienced, and that experience, along with the chemistry of the team, helped lead the Lady Cats to the Class 2A regional finals.

Weese started the Godley vol-leyball program upon his arrival 11 years ago, and despite facing

the challenge of a young and inexperienced team, he said their expectations are as high as ever.

“Our expectation is to be in the playoffs in November,” Weese said. “I told them they don’t want to be the first Godley team in five years that haven’t made the playoffs. This year since we have so many kids that are new and we’re kind of rebuilding, our slogan or motto

is ‘overcoming obstacles.’ That’s our team slogan this year is to overcome our inexperience and youth, but to still be successful.”

With so much turnover in just one year, Weese is still trying to fit the puzzle pieces together.

“We need to figure out a rotation, and it’s going to have to happen pretty quick,” Weese said. “Those three that were on varsity are going to have to get

used to playing with the kids who were on JV or the eighth-grade team. We could have two or three freshmen on varsity and the rest of the kids that we’re moving up were on JV last year. It’s a matter of time for when they get used to playing next to someone they’ve never played with before. It’ll take a little while getting used to playing with each other.

“I think if we can come together by district, we can reach our goal of going further than we did the year before.”

Lyndsie James (senior setter), Courtney Traylor (junior setter), Jacie Smith (sophomore middle blocker) are the key players for the Lady Cats this season, Weese said.

“They’re going to have to carry a big load. A couple of other juniors we’ve got are Callie Mantooth (junior), Casey Richardson (junior), Breanna Hunt (junior) and sophomore Leanna James, who can play about anywhere we need her to.”

Godley opens its season at home against Dallas Life Acad-emy at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Lady Cats are then scheduled to play in the Grandview Tourna-ment Aug. 16-18.

Godley’s District 10-2A opener is Sept. 11 at Whitney.

A.J. Crisp/CTRSophomore Leanna James will “play anywhere we need her to” for Godley and head coach Todd Weese.

Inexperienced Godley hopes to keep postseason run alive


After a down year in which Rio Vista missed the playoffs, coach Liza Guajardo has high expectations for the Lady Eagles in her second season as their coach.

“We’re looking very promising,” she said. “I have a good group of seniors coming up. This year, we have lots of leadership and more team unity than we did last year. Last year was a bumpy run. It’s a lot easier this year because the feel of the team is smoother than it was last year.”

That group of seniors consists of Krissa

Reese, Jordan Rotha and Macy Moreno. Guajardo will also count on junior Haley Hennis to lead a large group of juniors that make up the varsity team. There are seven returning varsity players from last year’s team.

Rio Vista also has a couple of transfer stu-dents that will likely play key roles this year, including junior Hannah Kamphaus.

“The biggest difference [this year] I think is the skill level has completely changed,” Guajardo said. “When I came in, I was trying to readjust all of their skills because there was so many bad habits. During the off-sea-son, that’s all we’ve done. So now we’re at

the level that’s expected of a varsity instead of having to build up to that level.”

Rio Vista made the playoffs the year before Guajardo became the head coach, and after a one-year absence, she believes the Lady Eagles are prime for a playoff berth.

“This year, I think our expectations are to at least make the playoffs, whether we’re district champs, second place or third place,” she said. “We just want to get there. We didn’t get there last year. I want to get there again and see how far we can go. Last year there were only two or three returning varsity

Continuity and leadership strong suits in Rio Vista

See RIO VISTA, Page 11

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Joshua struggled to a sixth-place finish in District 7-4A last year as a young and inexperienced team, but the Lady Owls are looking to build on the lessons they learned last year and turn that experience into a playoff berth this season in District 8-4A.

“Right now, it seems like we’re further along this year at this time than we were last year at this time,” said first-year head coach Craig Bethel, who took over the team last year when Heather Strebeck left for mater-nity leave. “A lot of that has to do with four returning seniors that were starters last year. We have eight seniors overall that were in the program last year, with some of them on JV. A lot of that helps, as far as them knowing what we want, them knowing how we structure our offense and defense.

They’re just familiar with each other on the court, so that helps.”

Despite a sixth-place finish, the 2011 season was one of the better in recent Joshua history. Last year, the Lady Owls recorded the most wins in a season since 2008, and Bethel expects them to improve on that.

“I think we’re ready to take the next step towards making a playoff run,” he said. “The new district definitely helps a little bit, getting Granbury out of the district, because they’re a pow-erhouse in volleyball. Cleburne’s going to be good. Burleson’s going to be good. We played Cen-tennial last year and they’re good. But I think we can compete more district-wide than we did last year.

“I think the district is more of a level playing field this year than it was last year. Not to say that the level of play is going down. Everybody was young last year. We’re going to be better, I think

Burleson’s going to be better, Centennial’s going to be better just because they have another year of varsity experience. Crow-ley’s got a bunch of good girls coming up. ... I think the quality of volleyball is getting better but everybody’s about on the same page.”

Despite the transition of a new head coach, there is a lot of continuity in the program.

“It’s a little bit new, but for the most part we’re running the same defense and offense as we did last year,” said Bethel, who was the varsity assistant the previous two years.

The Lady Owls relied heavily on a pair of freshmen last year in Calie Payne and Ashley Brackel, but that year on varsity has helped improve their games, and, paired with the experienced seniors, makes Joshua prime for a playoff run.

“Our sophomores are very ath-letic and their volleyball knowl-edge is unbelievable,” Bethel said. “Last year, they played for a national championship in their club team. They play all the time. I’m looking forward to getting them all on the court at the same time this year.”

Senior outside hitter Maddison Moad, senior Hannah Nelson, who can play middle blocker and

outside or right-side hitter, and Kathryn Martin, Joshua’s libero, are three returning starters with three years of varsity experience. Payne was second in blocks behind Nelson last season.

“I think the experience level on the court is the biggest differ-ence this year,” Bethel said. “Last year, we had freshman that were key players. They went straight from eighth-grade ball to varsity ball. Three of our seniors have been starting since they were sophomores. They’ve played all summer together in two different leagues. I think it’s going to be an exciting season.”

Bethel is trying to build Joshua’s volleyball program in a similar way that Coach Jerry Bird is trying to build the Joshua football program, and that’s from the middle school and up.

“Our JV group last year was a bunch of freshmen, and they won district,” Bethel said. “We’re looking forward to not just the varsity season, but we want the JV to do well and the freshmen to do well. We’re trying to start our program out at seventh grade and build the program as a whole. I don’t want just the varsity to be successful. I want all of our teams to be successful.”

The Lady Owls open their season Tuesday at Azle.

The time is now for the Lady Owls

A.J. Crisp/CTRSophomore Calie Payne will be a key component in Joshua’s play-off hopes.

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players, and this year we have seven coming back, so that’ll be easier to work with because they already know how each other plays.”

The view from outsiders re-garding Rio Vista athletics is that the program’s stock, as a whole, is going down, but Guajardo begs to differ.

“I know before that people used to say that Rio’s athletics are going down,” she said. “It’s tough when they’re switching coaches every year. Even with me being in my second year has made a big difference already. The girls last year asked where I was going next year, and it kind

of freaked them out when I said I was staying.”

Rio Vista’s season opens in Carthage at the Carthage Tour-nament on Thursday, and it’s something that the Lady Eagles have been anticipating for quite a while.

“We have a big tournament coming up with a bunch of 4A and 5A schools,” Guajardo said. “I made this schedule a lot tougher this year, instead of playing 1A’s and 2A’s. That tournament is our focus right now because we don’t have a game on Tuesday. We’re focus-ing on getting three wins to open the season to get in the winner’s bracket of that tournament. When we play harder teams, it makes playing our level easier because we know how to adjust to it.”

rio Vistacont. from pg. 9

A.J. Crisp/CTRHannah Kamphaus, a transfer to Rio Vista, will be one of several upperclassmen coach Liza Guajardo will rely on this year.


The 2012 Keene Lady Chargers will face a similar problem that the 2011 squad faced — lack of size.

But despite the lack of size, the Lady Char-gers will still play their game and look to im-prove on a team that won one district game last year — its last of the season.

“Right when we started figuring things out last year, the season ended,” said Keene coach Michelle Connelly. “So hopefully we can build on that. We’ve been working hard.”

For a program that has yet to make the play-offs in 10 years of existence, the expectations for Keene are never high from an outsider’s view, but Connelly believes the Lady Chargers can take a big step forward in District 10-2A.

“I would like to see us win half of our dis-trict games,” she said. “That would be a really good goal for us. They’ve been working hard and have had a good attitude.”

Junior Jenna Bulles and sophomore Zayda Gonzalez will be two of the Lady Chargers’ key players this season, Connelly said. Bulles is the team’s best passer and digger, and Gonzalez will be the setter.

“I’m looking for good things from those two,” said Connelly, entering her 10th year at Keene. “We have one senior. And then I have several juniors and then the rest are underclass-men. We only had one senior last year, too. I think we’ve gained some leadership this year that we didn’t have last year. That was some-thing we really struggled with the last few years

was leadership. I’ve already seen some kids step up and I’m hoping that will help. They’ve worked really hard this summer so I’m hoping that will transfer to this year, too.”

Due to a lack of size, the Lady Chargers’ team philosophy this year is “Don’t let the balls hit the floor.” Keene will be a team that rarely plays defense on the net. Instead, they will play off the net and look to be one of the better dig-ging teams in district.

“We’re not going to be getting a lot of blocks,” Connelly said. “I would love to be able to coach some height, but it’s been awhile. We’ve never been as small as we are this year and were last year. What we have now is just not very tall. We do everything else pretty well. I think we were the best digging team last year. We got lots of compliments on how many balls we were able to dig. We don’t have any big mid-dles and everybody else does have big middles, and it’s hard to compete with that.”

Not having much size is not only a problem defensively when it comes to blocks, but also offensively in getting kills. Connelly has adapt-ed her practices and said she sometimes bring in some of the boy’s coaches to give the Lady Chargers some practice against hard kills to im-prove their defense and practice perfecting their digging.

Two of Connelly’s middle blockers are Sev-enth day Adventists, so they aren’t allowed to play in games on Saturday or when the sun goes down on Fridays, which poses a challenge.

Despite all of the challenges facing the Keene Lady Chargers, Connelly and her team is ready to get the 2012 season started.

“Part of the reason they’ve worked so hard this summer is because they want to be better than they were last year,” Connelly said. “I’m very blessed. I have good kids who have good morals. They work hard. They may not be tall or have support that other schools have, but they’re good kids.”

Keene opens its season Tuesday Boyd at home. District play begins Sept. 7 against May-pearl.

A.J. Crisp/CTRPamela Marquez works on her serving dur-ing Keene’s practice.

Challenges abound for Lady Chargers

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Alvarado volleyball scheduleDATE OPPONENT TIMEAug. 14 Northside 11 a.m.Aug. 16/18 Grandview Tournament TBDAug. 17 Poly Tech 10 a.m.Aug. 21 at Rio Vista/Covington Dual 5 p.m.Aug. 24-25 Brewer Tournament TBDAug. 28 at Toler 5:30 p.m.8/30 & 9/1 Southwest Tournament TBDAug. 31 Southwest 6 p.m.Sept. 4 Ferris 5:30 p.m.Sept. 7 West 5:30 p.m.Sept. 11 at Dunbar 6 p.m.Sept. 14 Everman 5 p.m.Sept. 18 at Castleberry 6 p.m.Sept. 21 Glen Rose* 4:30 p.m.Sept. 25 Hillsboro* 6 p.m.Sept. 28 Boswell* 4:30 p.m.Oct. 2 at Stephenville* 6 p.m.Oct. 5 at Venus* 4:30 p.m.Oct. 9 at Glen Rose* 6 p.m.Oct. 12 at Hillsboro* 4:30 p.m.Oct. 16 Grandview 5:30 p.m.Oct. 19 Stephenville* 4:30 p.m.Oct. 23 Venus* 6 p.m.* — Denotes 7-3A contest

Burleson volleyball scheduleDATE OPPONENT TIMEAug. 14 Stephenville 6:30 p.m.Aug. 17-18 Bev Ball Classic TBDAug. 21 Central 6:30 p.m.Aug. 24-25 Granbury Tournament TBDAug. 28 Granbury 6:30 p.m.8/30-9/1 Argyle Inv. TBDSept. 4 Aledo 6:30 p.m.Sept. 7 at Waco Univ.* 5:30 p.m.Sept. 11 Waco High* 6:30 p.m.Sept. 14 Joshua* 5:30 p.m.Sept. 18 at Cleburne* 6:30 p.m.Sept. 21 at Burleson Centennial* 5:30 p.m.Sept. 25 at Crowley* 6:30 p.m.Sept. 28 Everman* 5:30 p.m.Oct. 2 Waco Univ.* 6:30 p.m.Oct. 5 at Waco High* 5:30 p.m.Oct. 9 at Joshua* 6:30 p.m.Oct. 12 Cleburne* 5:30 p.m.Oct. 16 Burleson Centennial* 6:30 p.m.Oct. 19 Crowley* 5:30 p.m.Oct. 23 at Everman* 6:30 p.m.* — Denotes District 8-4A contest

Godley volleyball scheduleDATE OPPONENT TIMEAug. 14 at Dallas Life 5:30 p.m.Aug. 16/18 Grandview Tournament TBDAug. 21 at Jacksboro 5 p.m.Aug. 23/25 Glen Rose Tournament TBDAug. 28 Castleberry 5:30 p.m.8/30-9/1 Dublin Tournament TBDAug. 31 Mineral Wells 5:30 p.m.Sept. 4 Kennedale 6 p.m.Sept. 7 at Millsap 4:30 p.m.Sept. 11 at Whitney* 6:30 p.m.Sept. 14 at Tolar* 4:30 p.m.Sept. 18 Keene* 5:30 p.m.Sept. 21 at Rio Vista* 4:30 p.m.Sept. 25 Grandview* 6:30 p.m.Sept. 28 at Millsap* 4:30 p.m.Oct. 5 Whitney* 4:30 p.m.Oct. 9 Tolar* 6:30 p.m.Oct. 12 at Keene* 4:30 p.m.Oct. 16 Rio Vista* 6:30 p.m.Oct. 19 at Grandview* 4:30 p.m.Oct. 23 at Maypearl* 6:30 p.m.* — District 10-2A match

Cleburne volleyball scheduleDATE OPPONENT TIMEAug. 14 at Southwest 6:30 p.m.Aug. 16-18 MISD Tournament TBDAug. 21 at Keller 6:30 p.m.Aug. 19-20 Byron Nelson Classic TBDAug. 23 at Grand Prairie 6:30 p.m.Aug. 24-25 Byron Nelson Classic TBDAug. 28 Mansfield Lake Ridge 6:30 p.m.8-30/9-1 Leander Tournament TBDSept. 4 at Brewer 6 p.m.Sept. 7 at Crowley* 5:30 p.m.Sept. 11 Joshua* 6:30 p.m.Sept. 14 Everman* 5:30 p.m.Sept. 18 Burleson* 6:30 p.m.Sept. 21 at Waco University* 5:30 p.m.Sept. 25 at Burleson Centennial* 6:30 p.m.Sept. 28 Waco High* 5:30 p.m.Oct. 2 Crowley* 6:30 p.m.Oct. 5 at Joshua* 5:30 p.m.Oct. 9 at Everman* 6:30 p.m.Oct. 12 at Burleson* 5:30 p.m.Oct. 16 Waco University* 6:30 p.m.Oct. 19 Burleson Centennial* 5:30 p.m.Oct. 23 at Waco* 6:30 p.m.* — District 8-4A match

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Joshua volleyball scheduleDATE OPPONENT TIMEAug. 14 at Azle Dual TBDAug. 16/18 EMS Tournament TBDAug. 21 Glen Rose/Mineral Wells TBDAug. 23-25 Glen Rose Tournament TBDAug. 28 South Hills 6:30 p.m.8/30-9/1 Argyle Tourney TBASept. 4 at Weatherford 6:30 p.m.Sept. 7 Waco High* 5:30 p.m.Sept. 11 at Cleburne* 6:30 p.m.Sept. 14 at Burleson* 5:30 p.m.Sept. 18 at Burleson Centennial* 6:30 p.m.Sept. 21 Crowley* 5:30 p.m.Sept. 25 Everman* 6:30 p.m.Sept. 28 at Waco University* 5:30 p.m.Oct. 2 at Waco High* 6:30 p.m.Oct. 5 Cleburne* 5:30 p.m.Oct. 9 Burleson* 6:30 p.m.Oct. 12 Burleson Centennial* 5:30 p.m.Oct. 16 at Crowley* 6:30 p.m.Oct. 19 at Everman* 5:30 p.m.Oct. 23 Waco University* 6:30 p.m.* — District 8-4A match

Rio Vista volleyball scheduleDATE OPPONENT TIMEAug. 16/18 Carthage Tournament TBDAug. 17 Carthage 6 p.m.Aug. 21 Covington/Alvarado TBDAug. 23 Robinson Tournament TBDAug. 24 Venus 7 p.m.Aug. 28 at Blum 6 p.m.Aug. 31 at Clifton 7 p.m.Sept. 4 Hico 7 p.m.Sept. 7 at Whitney* 5:30 p.m.Sept. 11 at Keene* 6:30 p.m.Sept. 14 Maypearl* 5:30 p.m.Sept. 21 Godley* 5:30 p.m.Sept. 25 Tolar* 6:30 p.m.Sept. 28 Grandview* 5:30 p.m.Oct. 2 Whitney* 6:30 p.m.Oct. 5 Keene* 5:30 p.m.Oct. 9 at Maypearl* 6:30 p.m.Oct. 12 Clifton “Dig Pink” 5:30 p.m.Oct. 16 at Godley* 6:30 p.m.Oct. 25 at Maypearl* 6:30 p.m.Oct. 19 at Tolar* 5:30 p.m.Oct. 23 at Grandview 6:30 p.m.* — District 10-2A match

Centennial volleyball scheduleDATE OPPONENT TIMEAug. 14 Dual Ranch/Grandview TBDAug. 17-18 Saginaw Tournament TBDAug. 21 Ennis/Groesbeck Dual 4 p.m.Aug. 24-25 Granbury Tournament TBDAug. 28 Springtown 4:30 p.m.8/30-9/1 Robinson Tournament TBDSept. 4 Maypearl 6:30 p.m.Sept. 7 Everman* 5:30 p.m.Sept. 11 at Waco Univ.* 6:30 p.m.Sept. 14 at Waco High* 5:30 p.m.Sept. 18 Joshua* 6:30 p.m.Sept. 21 Burleson* 5:30 p.m.Sept. 25 Cleburne* 6:30 p.m.Sept. 28 at Crowley* 5:30 p.m.Oct. 2 at Everman* 6:30 p.m.Oct. 5 Waco University* 5:30 p.m.Oct. 9 Waco High* 6:30 p.m.Oct. 12 at Joshua* 5:30 p.m.Oct. 16 at Burleson* 6:30 p.m.Oct. 19 at Cleburne* 5:30 p.m.Oct. 23 Crowley* 6:30 p.m.* — District 8-4A match

Keene volleyball scheduleDATE OPPONENT TIMEAug. 14 Boyd 2 p.m.Aug. 16/18 Venus Tournament TBAAug. 21 at Millsap 6 p.m.Aug. 23-25 Keene Tournament TBAAug. 28 NCA at Crowley 6 p.m.Aug. 31 Venus 5:30 p.m.Sept. 4 NCA 5:30 p.m.Sept. 7 Maypearl* 4:30 p.m.Sept. 11 Rio Vista* 5 p.m.Sept. 14 at Grandview* 4:30 p.m.Sept. 18 at Godley* 5 p.m.Sept. 21 Tolar* 4:30 p.m.Sept. 25 at Whitney* 5 p.m.Oct. 2 at Maypearl* 5 p.m.Oct. 5 at Rio Vista* 4:30 p.m.Oct. 9 Grandview* 5 p.m.Oct. 12 Godley* 4:30 p.m.Oct. 16 at Tolar* 5 p.m.Oct. 19 Whitney* 4:30 p.m.* — District 10-2A match

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