HMS is in rebuild mode but plenty of building blocks are available
Although six of last year’s letterwinners return for 2021, the Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn volleyball program has a couple of gaping holes to fill. Among those lost to graduation were the Hawks’ primary setter in Taya Mason and their libero Jessica Riedemann. The half-dozen returning players who earned letters last year are seniors Jasmine Lux and Kaley Pearson and juniors Elise Haack, Abby Kunzman, Emily Mutombo and Emily Otto.
“It’s a building process,” admitted head coach Cheryl Kroese, who will again be assisted by JV coach Michele Wagner and C team coach Jenny Nassiff. “It’s definitely a rebuilding year in that you’ve got your position player gone in Taya as being my setter for the last three years. Right now were sharing some of the time between Mutombo and Pearson. Jessica had played for me for three years also as my libero, so you put those two position players into perspective and that’s a big chunk to fill on your roster.”
The head coach has several of the necessary building blocks already in place. “Obviously first would be Jasy (hitter Jasmine Lux),” said Kroese. “She’s going to be our offensive go-to. Jasy’s just got that experience. She’s got the awareness on the court and leadership as far as practice goes with her voice. We’re really looking at her to step up and be that go-to girl. Elise Haack has done a great job and I’ve put her into the libero position. She’s already played back row for two years. We toyed with her playing all the way around and she was one that it’s just so apparent how comfortable she is in the back row. She just reads the court well, reads the offense coming at her well and plays great defense because she just responds to it. So I’m looking forward to having her in that uniform. Kaley Pearson got some time for us significantly last year. We’re looking at her to step up more into a leadership role with part of the setting duties. Those three pieces are pretty solid right there as far as returning players and then you add Mutombo into that mix as my other setter and part of the hitting lineup.”
Kroese indicated she is encouraged about this year’s group, which also includes juniors Morgan Grooters and Madison Ten Kley, sophomores Abby Otto and Kinsey Schirmer and freshmen Abby Douma, Frankie Mohni, Kylee Schiphoff and Eliza Tewes. “I know that I need to continue this season to be open minded in positioning of my players,” stated the coach. “I’ve already talked to several about possibilities. Honestly, at the beginning of this season probably more this year than I have in the last couple, I’m just going to have to keep mixing it up because I’m not 100 percent sure where their best fit is. I have, obviously, ideas…good ideas. I’ve got to just feel it out game-wise to see who fits where I think they do. In fact, yesterday I told a kid in practice ‘I’m moving you here because you’re just more comfortable’ and she smiled and said ‘Yeah, I am.’ You see it, they know it and sometimes you’ve just got to make that move.”
The head coach feels that one of the strengths of the team is that it truly is a team. “This is a group that works together,” commented Kroese. “They’re team-oriented and that excites me. As I work through older to younger girls, that’s something we stress greatly, being good teammates and being good individuals on and off the court. These are great young ladies. They come in, they work hard and they work together.”
During practice, Kroese has been emphasizing communication, saying, “the communication piece that they grow into the role that they’re in and that’s that first-time varsity player type thing that were going to have to really grow into being comfortable with their role and taking that next step up and say ‘Okay I’ve got this and I’m going to lead in this position and I know what I need to do here.’ I have lots of options for that. I wish I had about four more scrimmages before we had a game.”
The challenge of getting the younger players to step into those roles comes with a silver lining. “The encouraging part is that I have a group of ladies who walked in the gym willing to work hard,” said Kroese. “By working hard they’ve earned the positions that I’ve put them in so far and you’re going to see some of them in my lineup maybe right off the bat. I’m not going to say for sure where I’m at yet, but there will be youth on the court. Part of it is, as I told the girls, I said to one of them ‘Your job probably right now is if I call you into the game you’re walking into the game to serve because you’ve got killer serve, or you’re walking into the game to block because you’re able to do that because your body lends to that taller stature.’ So positioning-wise using them according to what we need out on the court. Maturity will come. It will be a work in progress, of course, as all things, but I’m not worried about them stepping up into my roles that I’m going to ask them to fill. I dangle with the rest of the team: if you didn’t make varsity, there’s a suit out there yet. You never know, keep working hard.”
Kroese has observed in her younger players an inner drive to excel. “They push themselves,” said the coach. “I’ve watched some great, great efforts of kids who just come into practice and they give 100 percent. That’s an inner thing you can’t teach. It’s something they’ve got innately in their blood.” The coach related watching of one of the youngsters block a senior in practice and just smile while the coach was going crazy with excitement. “I think it will get to that point where they’re going to learn to not be afraid to celebrate and compete against each other at practice because if you can do that, that’s going to get you to the next level,” said Kroese.
The coach shared that the team has also been working on “the overall physicality-wise of perfecting the form of different things that we do, a lot of individual drills that we’ve done trying to perfect our hitting form or our passing form or our movement of defense and offense. I’m encouraged because they come out of the drills and I feel like we do well in some of those drills.”
For the volleyball coach, the number of girls out for the sport at HMS this year has really been a positive. Said Kroese, “One of the other aspects we’ve really worked on and talked about is I’ve got 32 girls out so I’m able to have a solid C team, a solid JV and a solid varsity where I have very few overlap. I do have some overlap with the JV girls who are suiting varsity. I’m excited that my C team girls are all going to get the time they need. We’re really stressing I want the wins and I want the success at that level and we want the wins and success at the JV level. I really think we have pieces in place that, as we rebuild and as we’re growing, you’re going to see some definite fun things to watch this year and in years to come.”
Not surprisingly, the War Eagle Conference will again provide some stiff competition. “You know what Unity’s going to have and what they’re going to bring to the table,” stated Kroese. “They have the girls who’ve played a lot of volleyball in their younger days and they’re going to be a solidly-run team with the coach that they have.” The HMS coach went on to provide capsule comments on some of the other top teams in the loop. “I’ve seen Hinton already. They’ve got a nice group of young ladies. They’ve got some strength there and some height. Akron has still got the 6’4” Natalie Nielsen. You know that they’re going to have a solid group around her because of that factor and she was just a great athlete. Gehlen’s going to be in there. I’ve seen them too. They’re just going to be solid.” Kroese acknowledged, “You can’t go to sleep any night of the season in the War Eagle Conference, or northwest Iowa volleyball for that matter.”
When asked about success, Kroese remarked, “Success would be getting in the win column more than you’re getting in the loss column.” Upon reflection, she added, “You can take it on so many different levels. Obviously, winning is your first piece of success and so, in the process, success is creating a group of young women who are not only great characters on the volleyball court but great characters off the court. I consider that part of my mission, teaching them the character values and them learning parts of the game and parts of life at the same time.”