BLADENBORO – A senior-laden team led by a pair of former middle school coaches familiar with the players has sparked confidence for the West Bladen High School volleyball team.
Eight of the 12 players listed on the Knights roster are seniors. West Bladen finished 9-11 last season and did not qualify for the N.C. High School Athletic Association playoffs. The team finished third in the former Southeastern Conference with a 5-5 record.
“We do have a lot of strong returners,” first-year coach Jessica Rhodes said. “They have a very good skill set to start with. We’re just in there working on our technical aspects to get things polished up.”
West Bladen returns its top two attackers from last season in seniors Natalee Sykes and Tahlela Bethea, who had a 52% kill percentage, its top-scoring server in junior Greer Pope (134 points), its top two blockers in senior Jaylyn Clark (27) and Bethea (31), its top two in assist leaders in Pope (164) and Sykes (78) and its top player in digs in senior Emmy Bryant (68).
“I think we’re good at all positions,” Rhodes said. “The diversity of positions and skills that we have covered we’re really set up well.”
Other seniors on the roster are Kali Allen, Helaina Conklin, Brenna Hester and Makenna Thurman. Also on the team are Kimberly Dowless, Karlee Gause and Shanna Lewis.
“Our seniors are where we expect most of our leadership roles to come from because there are so many of them,” Rhodes said.
Rhodes was the volleyball coach at Bladenboro Middle School for several years. She is joined by junior varsity coach Nikki Bryant, who joined the Knights staff after coaching at Tar Heel Middle. West Bladen draws many of its players from those middle schools.
“I think having that background knowledge of seeing them in middle school is an advantage,” Rhodes said. “We know the skills they have for middle school and what we can keep building on.
“At middle school levels, we’re pretty much working on fundamentals. Here, the girls have the fundamentals, so we’re really digging deep to push those technical skills and strategy skills to help them reach that next level.”
West Bladen is in the newly formed Southeastern Conference. The Knights, South Columbus and Whiteville are class 3A schools along with 4A Fairmont and Red Springs, and 5A South Brunswick.
West Bladen is scheduled to open its season Monday, Aug. 11 at Union. The first home match is set for Aug. 19 against West Columbus.