With the bulk of last year’s team departed due to graduation, fourth-year head coach Allison Smith has plenty of holes to fill as preseason practice kicked off Monday for the Brownwood Lady Lions volleyball program.
“It’s going to be a little bit of a rebuilding year after graduating seven of my 12 that were on varsity last year, but I’m really excited and looking forward to this year,” Smith said. “I saw a lot of encouragement from my girls and leadership from my seniors. The incoming freshman class is working hard already, they seem like they’ve been up here with us the whole time. We hit all our goals today in the drills we did, and they did a lot of conditioning and pushed through it. The encouragement and communication seem better than it has starting a season in all four years, so I’m excited about that.”
The Lady Lions will scrimmage Wall, San Angelo Central and Big Spring Friday in San Angelo in their only tune up prior to their Tuesday, Aug. 9 season-opening dual match against Llano and Wall at Warren Gym.
“We’re going to have to figure out teams and we’re going to have to figure out rotations,” Smith said of the immediate goals. “Teams will be decided by Wednesday, then Thursday is a full-on adjustment practice. Luckily, we have three scrimmages on Friday. Even though it’s a short turnaround time, we have plenty of opportunities to tweak and adjust as we need to before Tuesday. Even after that first match if we need, we can switch stuff up. Luckily, we have until district to get it finalized.”
Smith reported 25 players reported to Monday’s two-a-day workouts.
A season preview story for Lady Lions volleyball will appear soon at BrownwoodNews.com.
