Head Volleyball Coach Logan Hicks is preparing his team to build on last year’s undefeated district run with a focused goal of advancing past the region tournament and into the state competition.
Hicks said the current senior class is modeling its leadership after the previous year’s graduates who established the program’s standards. Hicks said the team holds practice nearly every morning where seniors are intentionally paired with underclassmen to teach them the program’s specific systems and expectations.
“A lot of these seniors have been with us through this whole time, so they understand what it takes to be have a successful season,” Hicks said. “And I believe that they have the mindset of even going further than we did last season, even though we went undefeated during district and losing in the region really kind of hurt them, and I think they’re going to come in with a chip on the shoulder wanting to get past the region and into the state.”
Hicks said the program utilizes a universal vocabulary so that every player across all levels of the team communicates using the same terms. Hicks said this shared language prevents confusion when players move between different groups and helps foster a stronger bond because the entire roster practices together rather than being split up.
“We try to do a lot of stuff together,” Hicks said. “So many of our practices we’re not split like a lot of people choose from, just so everybody gets the same vocabulary down, make sure we’re all communicating the same way and it’s not different between one team and another team.”
Hicks said the success of the team’s system depends on the collective effort of all six players on the court performing their specific roles simultaneously. Hicks said if a single player fails to do their job, the entire system fails to function.
“One thing that I’m really big on is we play as one,” Hicks said. “If if we play our game the way that we want to, then we should have no trouble. But if one person is not doing their job, then that means the entire our whole system cannot work.”
Hicks said senior outside hitter Taylor Ann Owen serves as a primary leader for the squad and a standout representative of the program in the community. Hicks said Owen comes from a strong athletic background and maintains a reputation as a hard worker that her teammates can approach for guidance.
“She’s a wonderful athlete, a wonderful person on and off the court, in the classroom, in the community,” Hicks said. “Uh, she’s one that I would that’s a standout.”
Hicks said he reinforces the importance of academic performance by reminding his players they are students before they are athletes. Hicks said several players on the roster currently maintain grade point averages above a 4.0.
“I take pride in that, that we are students that before we are athletes,” Hicks said.
