New coaches, new Sherman attitude

Bold denotes Home Game

9/1/2016 Thu 5pm @ Heppner

9/1/2016 Thu 6pm @ Echo (Heppner)

9/6/2016 Tue 5pm vs. South Wasco County

9/8/2016 Thu 5pm @ Mitchell/Spray

9/12/2016 Mon 5pm vs. Lyle - Wishram (WA)

9/13/2016 Tue 5pm @ Dufur

9/15/2016 Thu 5pm vs. Arlington

9/16/2016 Fri 5pm @ Ione

9/20/2016 Tue 6pm vs. Horizon Christian, Hood River

9/23/2016 Fri 5pm vs. Condon/Wheeler (Moro)

9/24/2016 Sat TBD vs. Irrigon (Sherman Tournament)

9/24/2016 Sat 9am vs. Portland Waldorf (Sherman Tournament)

9/27/2016 Tue 5pm vs. Ione

9/29/2016 Thu 5pm vs. Mitchell/Spray

10/4/2016 Tue 5pm @ South Wasco County

10/6/2016 Thu 6pm @ Arlington

10/11/2016 Tue 5pm vs. Dufur

10/13/2016 Thu 5pm @ Condon/Wheeler (Wheeler High School - Fossil)

10/15/2016 Sat 1pm @ Horizon Christian, Hood River

Coaching Staff

Amy Huffman................Head Coach

Brooklyn Sandquist.......Asst. Coach

Julie Butterfield..............Asst. Coach

Karissa Gorham.............Asst. Coach

Jessica Baptiste.............Asst. Coach

Varsity Roster

Taylor Henderson.............................10

Meghan Belshe................................12

Stormy Rhodes................................12

Jaelyn Justesen..................................9

Sammie Lepinski..............................10

Ellie Davis.........................................12

Emily Hill...........................................12

Savannah Moe.................................10

Desiree Winslow...............................10

C.J. Johnson....................................10

Emma Stutzman...............................10

Gaby Rubio......................................10

Kiersten Casper...........Team Manager

Deah Ballesteros.........Team Manager

MORO – Playing for Sherman High School, there is an element of pride on the line in practices and games.

With four new assistant coaches and new head coach Amy Huffman, the four Husky volleyball seniors, Emily Hill, Meghan Belshe, Stormy Rhodes and Ellie Davis want to instill a winning culture and a positive legacy for the younger group to take hold of.

Through the first three weeks of practices, the new changes have created a positive vibe in the program.

“All of us know what we need to bring to this team in order to make us better,” Davis said. “We all know that this is the time for us to start progressing more and work harder. I think that with the good coaches that we have now, the discipline that we have now and the new mindset we have now, that we are going to do really good with that and make this a successful season.”

Over the past three years, the Huskies have a 15-47 overall record and at the start of camp, Huffman had more than 20 girls trying out for varsity and junior varsity play, 15 underclassmen, seven sophomores.

Huffman has cleared the slate and started working on the fundamentals of the sport, like passing, serving, hitting and limiting unforced errors.

Working along with assistants, Brooklyn Sandquist, Julie Butterfield, Karissa Gorham and Jessica Baptiste, Huffman said the players have all been attentive and have been willing to make the proper adjustments to better themselves for the start of fall play.

“I think they have the work ethic and the drive to really take that next step,” Huffman said. “We have a real knowledgeable coaching staff here to help them along. We have never had such a strong support system here for the girls before and I think by having that, the girls will be able excel at all levels of the game.”

Along with the veteran quartet of Hill, Belshe, Davis and Rhodes, the rest of the Husky roster is comprised of sophomore athletes, such as Savannah Moe, Gaby Rubio, Sammie Lepinski, Desiree Winslow, C.J. Johnson, Emma Stutzman and freshman hitter Jaelyn Justesen.

Having such a young core of volleyball athletes allows Huffman and her staff to mold and shape the players to her liking, so that when they are juniors and seniors, they have the necessary tools to play at an all-league level.

“I am really excited to work with this group of girls,” Huffman said. “This team has a lot of underclassmen, so the potential we have here is limitless if they are willing to put in the hard work. I think they can have a great season. So far, they have improved a lot and have worked hard and are dedicated to this program.”

Given the team’s lack of height, Both Davis and Belshe said the coaching staff has focused on jump drills, hitting and other workouts during practices to make up for the team’s lack of height.

“We know how to discipline ourselves and we work hard on our conditioning and we are always running around at practice,” Belshe said. “We have some good, athletic girls out this year. We are not as tall as we have been in the past, but we make up for it with speed and agility. I think we are going to do pretty good.”

Defense is an important part of the game and the team is showing steady improvement on that end, but with a new setter at the net, passing and hitting are going to be elements of the game that need to show progression.

Belshe is making a switch from setter to hitter, so she knows all about the importance of feel, comfort and communication between the positions that can get an offense hitting on all cylinders.

“Passing is a really big thing. We have been working extensively hard on passing and getting perfect passes to our teammates to set things up,” Belshe said. “We do a lot of drills that emphasize perfect passing and our hits have been coming along. Coach tells us to just go for it when we are hitting, instead of just free balling it over. We are taught to work hard and just hit everything we can.”

Now that she is a senior, Davis is embracing her role as one of the team leaders for this young group.

The message is positivity, patience and teaching to help everyone come along.

When all of those aspects are united for a common goal, she feels this group has the ability to have a winning season and possibly earn a playoff berth.

“It is the last year here for me, so I am going to give it everything,” Davis said. “We have to work as hard we can to get where we want to go. This has been one of my favorite sports and I have always wanted to be in this position and I am glad to be here with my team. We all want to work together and we all want to get to the same place.”

The Huskies start their regular season at 5 p.m. on Thursday in a non-league double dual against both Heppner and Echo at Heppner High School.