Sports

Lady Panthers prep for season opener at St. James

By Griffin Pritchard
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After stepping on the court as the coach of the Elmore County volleyball team two weeks prior to the start of the 2007 season, coach Jenna Mead has spent the summer working with Lady Panthers in preparing for the 2008 season.

“We’re pumped,” Mead said before taking the court Thursday afternoon.

“We’ve installed a new offense that is going to require a lot of communication between the girls.”

Mead wouldn’t reveal much about her squad’s new attack, other than “it’ll be fun to watch.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing how that works out,” said Mead. “Especially now that I’ve had a lot more time to work with the girls. There was no gelling time for us last year.”

The Lady Panthers will be led by four seniors �”Shun Birmingham, Kayla Whetstone, Allysa Andrews and Jessica Harmon.

“We’ve really worked on communication, and I have really good senior leadership,” said Mead.

“We are going to have very high expectations. A lot of the girls had never been on the court in a game before I came last year. And we lost a lot of experience to graduation. We lost seven seniors and our libero (free-roaming center).”

Mead, who played volleyball at Huntingdon, brought the college game to Eclectic.

“We had a girl from LaGrange College come down and work with our girls,” said Mead.

“She worked very well with them, and we are pumped about the season.”

Along with senior leadership that Mead expects to have on the floor, she also listed Ashley Parker as a player to keep an eye on.

“Andrews made the transition from outside hitter to center and Parker has gone from center to outside hitter,” said Mead. “So we’ve made a transition with those two and then we have our ‘Fab Four’ seniors that are going to be heart of the team.”

Elmore County’s season tips off Aug. 23 with a berth into the Capital City Tournament, hosted by St. James. The tournament is varsity only and the first of three straight road dates for the Lady Panthers.

“That tournament is going to help us get the butterflies out and set the tone for the season,” said Mead.

After a trip to Montgomery, Elmore County will travel to Benjamin Russell (Aug. 26) and then to rival Wetumpka (Aug. 28) before hosting Tallassee Sept. 2.

“We’ve got to communicate, practice hard and we’ve got to get through the games better,” said Mead. “We have to got to take ourselves more serious at practice and that will show on the court.”

The Lady Panthers remained in class 4A following the most recent reclassification by the Alabama High School Athletic Association, however, their area changed to include Alabama Christian and Holtville.

“We always want to win our area games and this year we have a very competitive area,” said Mead. “We have a rivalry with Tallassee that started last year. Especially since their coach is my old college coach. She was my college coach at Huntingdon.”

After hosting Tallassee, the Lady Panthers will then meet Holtville (Sept. 9) and ACA (Sept. 11) for the first time in regional play.

Sept. 16 marks the beginning of a four-game homestand for the Lady Panthers that includes visits from Central Coosa and Benjamin Russell, Montgomery Catholic (Sept. 23), Holtville (Sept. 25) and ACA (Sept. 29).

“We like to play every game like its our most important game,” said Mead. “That’s how we stay ready.”

Elmore County will face St. James in Montgomery (Sept. 30), Central Coosa in Hanover (Oct. 2) and then compete in the St. James Tournament Oct. 4.

“There is good competition and it’s very well organized,” said Mead. “They are the best tournaments that we could play in. Benjamin Russell is usually there, all of the Montgomery schools, UMS-Wright from Mobile is usually there. Last year we got to play Jacksonville High School. That was pretty interesting for us.”

Senior day is scheduled for Oct. 6 against Wetumpka and is the last home match of the season for the Lady Panthers.

Montgomery Catholic (Oct. 7) and Tallassee (Oct. 9) are the final two regular season games for the Lady Panthers. The area tournament is scheduled for Oct. 14, but the site is yet to be announced.

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