Excellence, consistency are cornerstones for Heritage
The 2020-2021 school year was a historic one for Heritage girls’ athletics and the Lady Generals’ volleyball team certainly played its part in the school’s third-place finish in the GADA Director’s Cup girls’ standings for Class AAAA.
The Navy-and-Red grabbed the Region 7-AAAA championship before taking down Miller Grove, Chestatee and Central-Carroll in the playoffs, all by 3-0 sweeps, before falling to eventual state champion Marist during Heritage’s firstever appearance in volleyball’s Final Four.
Now, with a good nucleus back and some new faces ready to show what they can do, Heritage is ready to get back to action and see if they can come close to, or perhaps even surpass, what they did a year ago.
However, seventh-year head coach Kari Cooper said her team isn’t looking too far ahead just yet.
“Obviously, we have a solid core returning with some of our players,” she said. “We definitely had some gaps defensively. We lost two of our top defensive specialists (from last year), so we’re just trying to see what’s going to work best for us, find those all-around players and try to see what’s going to work best between the setters and the hitters. We definitely have a lot to explore and process in the first couple of weeks of the season.”
But Cooper said she is also “very confident” that this year’s team will eventually find its way.
“I’m doing my job to see what we have and what we need to put it together,” she continued. “By the end of the season, it’s no longer in my hands, but the team’s hands to see if they’re willing to put forth the work and work together to continue what we’ve built. I think if everybody stays in the right mind frame and continues to have the team ahead of everything else, we’ll be just fine.”
Leading off the senior class is setter/middle blocker Lauren Francis, who earned the
Region 7-AAAA Player of the Year award, the Catoosa County Player of the Year award and a first team Class AAAA All-State selection after 468 assists, 267 kills, 278 digs, 126 serve receptions and 88 aces a year ago. As in the past couple of years, she will also serve as the floor leader for the Lady Generals.
Abbey Blevins (116 kills, 96 digs, 35 aces) will play mainly as an outside hitter this season, but could also see time as a setter. Cooper said that Blevins is a player that simply does whatever is asked of her to help benefit the team.
Zoe Ha, the only full-time defensive specialist on the roster, is moving to
the libero position this year. She has developed into an excellent server over her career and picked up 47 aces in 2020 to go with 179 digs. The final senior, Zandria Burton, is moving up to the varsity roster after playing on the JV squad last season. An outstanding athlete and track standout in the spring, Burton’s skills should come into play both as a hitter and as a blocker.
Both of this year’s juniors saw extensive playing time as sophomores hitters last year and will be asked to produce even more offense in 2021. Lauren Mock (36 kills) will again play in an outside hitter’s role, while Annasten Sterl (53 kills) will fill a right side position.
Sophomore Aaliyah Rodgers is a natural right side player who’s coming off an outstanding freshman campaign
(196 kills, 32 blocks, 56 aces). Carmiya Motter will line up at outside hitter, while Haylee Brownsey is an all-around player that will primarily play on the back row. Both Motter and Brownsey will be beginning their first seasons with the varsity club, as will a pair of promising and talented freshmen, middle hitter Lexi Berry and defensive specialist/setter Georgia Taylor.
Last year’s coaching staff also returns intact with Cadi Guest and Eddie Bryant assisting Cooper from the bench and working with the JV squad.
“I think what could end up being a real strength for this team, especially toward the end of the season, is situational volleyball,” Cooper explained. “I think that they’re going to know when we need to serve tough and aggressively and they’ll know
players on the other team that we need to serve. I think they’ll know where to put the ball in transition, on free balls and just a lot about how to play the game. Hopefully we’ll be able to execute that.”
Apart from staying healthy, Cooper said her team just has to “maintain the correct mentality” and stay together as a team if they are to reach its goals.
“We’ve always had high expectations for ourselves and (for) what we wanted to have,” she added. “Obviously, we had a better opportunity to try to get to the Final Four last year. It’s a good goal to have, but it’s not the be-all-end-all of our program. We don’t want to have just a (single) win or a certain number of wins. There’s a whole lot more to it that we want for who we are as a program.”