Story By John Mann
The Guntersville Wildcats Volleyball team, under the direction of new head coach Melissa-Paul Gardner, has been putting on a good show over their summer play dates and look primed for a successful season when they open on August 21.
“They’ve looked really good,” Gardner said. “I don’t think I’ve ran the same rotation twice in a row, I’ve tried to get everyone in at some point. You never know what circumstances you might face so we want to keep mixing it up. They’ve shown great movement and confidence in each other and I’m proud of where they are, that energy and confidence is what is going to win games.”
The Wildcats started their summer off at Supreme Courts in Guntersville the first week of July where they won all of their matches, taking down Buckhorn Fyffe, Lauderdale County and Randolf. At their next camp they made it into the championship round of the bracket but fell just shy of winning against Oak Mountain.
They were able to grab two wins in their next play date against Athens and Priceville and most recently on July 18 they got four more wins against New Hope, Bob Jones, James Clemens and East Limestone.
The Wildcats boast a big senior class this season of nine players with Kinsley O’Neal, Mary George Vandergriff, Caroline Canady, Lily Roberts, SheLonda Wellington, Gabi Lett, Josselyn Lett and Sophie Porch. Gardner noted Wellington and Porch in particular who have been splitting time with the Wildcats basketball team. Garnder has been working with basketball coach Kelly Robinson to make sure the pair are staying healthy but says that “when the time comes they commit one hundred percent to what they are playing that day.”
“The leadership is immaculate,” Gardner said. “The girls are leading with confidence and communicating, the way they present themselves on and off the court is something I would kill for in other teams I’ve coached and they want success more than any group I think I’ve ever worked with and it runs straight to the underclassmen. They take each other under their wing, they coach each other, they give constructive criticism of each other and they all have a great attitude.”
The Wildcats are in a dead week at the moment but have one more summer play date planned for August 9 at Buckhorn. The team will face a tough schedule this season with matches against Hartselle, Sparkman and Boaz along with area matchups with rivals Arab and Scottsboro. The team will also be taking part in multiple tournaments throughout the season including the Juanita Boddie Tournament early in the season in Birmingham.
The toughest part of the schedule is the frontloaded road schedule, which will keep the Wildcats traveling for the first chunk of the season, not giving them a home game until September 2 when they play both Boaz and Lawrence County.
“It’s a good, strong schedule and we’re excited to see what we can do,” Gardner said. “We’ll be playing a big tournament with Juanita Boddie very early in the season, and that’s a time when it’s still okay to make mistakes and find your footing. We have Fairview plus Arab who are always a good match and a big rival you always want to get a win over. We also have tournaments late in the season where we will see some aggressive Birmingham area teams that will really show us where we need to improve before the postseason.”
The Wildcats will kick things off with a pair of matches on August 21 at Boaz High School. They will play the Boaz Pirates first at 4 pm followed by the Hayden Wildcats at 5 pm.
