Volleyball teams ready to make a splash this fall

Hewitt-Trussville, Clay-Chalkville and Pinson Valley each face different challenges to achieve their goals, and each volleyball program has its work cut out for it to make the 2016 season — which begins Thursday, August 25 — a successful one.

The Lady Huskies look to rebound from a rough area schedule a year ago. Head coach Katie Riggins said her group had opportunities to have success, but never seized the chance.

“We didn’t show up, physically and mentally,” she said. “The coaches were more confident than the players.”

Riggins, entering her 24th season, has to replace four seniors but feels the pieces rising to the top this fall have what it takes to put forth a solid showing.

“We lost four seniors but we still have four seniors this year. All the ones that were there last year, they’re returning and they were players. They were on the court. They should help us,” she said.

Seniors Trinity Roper and Rhianna Tyldesley are the captains for the Lady Huskies. Katie

Edwards and Kaela Belcher are also seniors. The four of them will be the first ones Riggins looks to ensure that last season takes a different path.

Natasha Brown is entering her third season at Clay-Chalkville, and has a few streaks to keep alive. Each season, the Lady Cougars have won the Jefferson County Tournament and the Class 6A, Area 12 Tournament.

Gone are five seniors, including Kardasia Hitchcock, who is now at Stony Brook University, and Raven Omar, who will just play basketball this season. Returning are Clay-Chalkville’s middles, Mekaila Hill and La’Cherrie Harris.

“This is a younger group,” Brown said of a program coming off a Sweet 16 berth. “The results can be the same. Each year I’ve been at Clay, we’ve progressed.”

Even though she is replacing the core of the team, Brown wants to replicate what the team did a year ago, as the Lady Cougars made it one step further than the previous season. Making an equal jump again will put them in the state tournament.

“The goal this season is to compete at the [Birmingham] CrossPlex,” Brown said. “This group, we definitely have to commit and work harder, which is not an issue.”

Jaleria Thomason will be Clay-Chalkville’s new setter, and Brown said Harris would be a “dominant factor” in the team’s offense. Jewel Mealing, Darci Champion and Octavia Manhand, along with others, will get the chance to make their mark.

The team is young, but Brown hopes that gives them a high ceiling, and a great deal of room to improve.

“So yes, the expectation is for us to be a much better team on October 13 than we are August 28,” she said.

Destiny Frazier takes the reins of the Pinson Valley program this fall, as the Lady Indians look to put together a successful campaign.