There are a number of reasons for Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn head volleyball coach Cheryl Kroese to feel good about the upcoming season. One of them is the experience oozing from her team. The solid core includes seniors Abby Douma, Frankie Mohni, Kylee Schiphoff, Addison Sheeler and Eliza Tewes and juniors Moriah Otto, Eva Stammer and Lindsey Van Es. Also junior Payton Diehm will be seeing more action this season.
Kroese talked about that group of athletes, saying, “I’ve got my setter back, who’s been my starter for my last three years. Frankie is top-notch. She understands the game. She is strong and can get to balls that most people can’t get to. That will be good. Hitting-wise between Kylee, Abby, Moriah, Eliza, obviously I feel like we have an edge up there because, number one, I’ve got three girls that are standing six foot and above (Schiphoff, Douma and Otto). That doesn’t ever hurt. They’re athletic. They are really understanding the game this year, things that I’ve been trying to implement in the last couple years but I feel like now we’re finally at that point we’re there. They read each other, they mesh together and they understand the game a lot better than they did possibly as sophomores and juniors. It’s good to have them back.”

The coach continued, “Mixing in with that, Eva Stammer’s coming along really nice as a hitter. Addison played there for me last year and she’s actually improved a lot as a defensive specialist so I think we’ll see her more in that mix. She’s come along nicely there. If something happens that I need her up front, there’s not a problem putting her in there either. And then Payton Diehm I think will kind of mix some time in there with Addy in that defensive specialist role. We’ve got Lindsey Van Es back who was a defensive specialist last year and she’ll go into my libero jersey this year. She actually spent some time there last year…so she’s very comfortable with her position I think. Having that base of people – honestly there’s like one new face in the lineup, which would be Payton, that didn’t have significant varsity time last year – we’ve got high expectations.”
Along with the experience of playing together, maturing and understanding the game, the coach cited some other attributes of the team. “I think, athletic-wise, we’re a little quicker than we have been in the past,” said Kroese. “We’re able to speed up the game to where we maybe hadn’t done that before, understand different ways that we can score points that we know is necessary to win ball games. Based on our scrimmages, I really feel like our serving was solid. I think we’re more aggressive than we have been in quite some time. We’re able to move the ball around, being able to hit the spots and be aggressive with it to where I think we are going to be better in that aspect. Our blocking’s going to be solid. Height doesn’t hurt and I think we have some smart blockers so I’m hoping we can generate some offense off of our defense.”
Kroese elaborated on how the team’s experience has manifested itself. “They know the things they have to do,” explained the coach. “I don’t have to tell them that any more. When you can get your kids to know that and they take over what they need to do, that makes it a whole different level of confidence. I just tell them let’s try this or that…It’s where they’ve taken that next step to, hopefully, be more successful.”

The squad’s self-sufficiency has allowed the coach to change somewhat how she watches a match. “It shifts my focus to be able to concentrate on what the other team’s doing versus what my team’s doing because they can take care of themselves,” said Kroese. “If they can do that, I can look at what the other team’s doing and help them read that a little bit better and say, okay, you’ve got to do this right now or do that right now because here’s what their weaknesses are. I’d like to be able to do that more this year.”
The location of the premier volleyball player in the War Eagle Conference influences Kroese’s pick of a conference favorite. “You’ve got to believe with Bailey Boeve sitting at Hinton, they’re going to be at the top of the list,” she said. “I know they lost quite a few seniors but when you can build a team around that, you’re going to be pretty solid.” The coach noted that you never have a night off when it comes to the WEC schedule. “George-Little Rock isn’t bad and they came into the conference,” said Kroese. “You’ve got Remsen St. Mary’s that’s always got athletes coming out. MMCRU tends to get it done. I think maybe West Sioux will be down a little bit, but Trinity has come on in the last few years. They’ve really improved with their program.”
The team’s focus word “Passion” and theme of “Practice with Purpose, Play with Passion” is well suited for conference play. “Part of our challenge is coming into every match and, as I told the girls, you’ve got to come in and you’ve got to find that passion every night and figure out how to bring it to the court. You’re here for a reason. You’ve been doing this long enough. Be successful. We’ve got to bring that every night. That will be the challenge.”
Passion will also be required for the several in-season tournaments which will allow the Hawks to face some less familiar opponents. Said the coach, “I think that (unfamilarity) helps us not get in that mindset of ‘We’ve got to play Hinton tonight’ or ‘We’ve got to play Gehlen tonight’ every time that you go out on the court so, hopefully, that helps us to build some confidence, playing people and not having a pre-conceived notion about what they’re like. That’s kind of how I wish you walked into every match. Forget about who’s across court and worry about what you’re doing. Forget about the uniform. Play the match.”
At the time Coach Kroese shared her comments the team had not yet taken time out of practices to set the team and individual goals. “Personally, a 7-18 record last year wasn’t successful,” remarked the coach. “I know that we should be above that .500 range. In that top third of the conference would be where I would like to see us because we have some great athletes that can do some great things. Like I said, it’s a matter of coming out every night and doing the performance out on the court. If they do that and they bring that passion with them every night I don’t see a problem with flipping that record.”
Kroese has other thoughts about success that don’t key on wins and loss. “I think a successful team is one that feels like they can count on each other no matter whether it’s on the court or off the court,” she said, also mentioning growing together as a team and becoming a family and taking pride in the school that they’re playing for and putting the jersey on. “That’s something that I try to implement on a daily basis,” said the coach. She also noted, “The hardest thing to do is to cheer for someone else to be successful. If you can celebrate when someone else does well and if you can implement that on your team and across the board, that, to me, would be something special.”

HMS Volleyball Schedule

Coaches: Cheryl Kroese, Julia Storm, Patricia Zimmerman
Tuesday, Sept. 3, CBA, Conf., Hinton, home, 5:00
Thursday, Sept. 5, CBA, Conf., South O’Brien, at Paullina, 5:00
Tuesday, Sept. 10, CBA, Conf., Trinity Christian, home, 5:00
Thursday, Sept. 12, CBA, Conf., George-Little Rock, at George, 5:00
Monday, Sept. 16, CBA, Sibley-Ocheyedan, at Sibley, 5:00
Tuesday, Sept. 17, CBA, Conf., West Sioux, home, 5:00
Thursday, Sept. 19, C/JV triangular (Gehlen Catholic, George-Little Rock) at George, 4:30
Saturday, Sept. 21, Varsity Tournament, at Graettinger, 9:00 a.m.
Monday, Sept. 23, JV Tournament, at Spencer, 5:30
Tuesday, Sept. 24, CBA, Conf., Gehlen Catholic, at Le Mars, 5:00
Saturday, Sept. 28, HMS Tournament, home, 9:00 a.m.
Monday, Sept. 30, CBA, Conf., Remsen St. Mary’s, home, 5:00
Monday, Oct. 7, Freshman Tourney, at George, 4:00
Tuesday, Oct. 8, CBA, Conf., Harris-Lake Park, at Lake Park, 5:00
Tuesday, Oct. 15, CBA, Conf., MMCRU, 5:00
Thursday, Oct. 17, CBA, Conf., Akron-Westfield, at Akron, 5:00