Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The LaGrange High volleyball team is heading into an important season. The Grangers are coming off a season in which they really struggled, but with a new coach at the helm — Meghan Smith —- there is a new energy in the team.

“I really feel like we are getting a fresh start and I feel like all the players are coming into this season with the same mindset,” senior Sophie Clough said. 

This newfound energy is not just talk. You can feel it in the way they interact with each other at practice. This was not something that happened overnight, but Smith steadily cultivated it since she took over as head of the program in the spring.

“We have done a bunch of team bonding exercises this summer and you can see it paying off now that it’s almost the season,” Abbie Lundy said. “We did gardening, yoga…” 

“The sleepover was so much fun,” Clough interjected with a chuckle.

The team had talent last season, but the results never quite matched the level of personnel on the court. Lundy and Macy Mormon made the All-Region teams a season ago and will be returning to help lead the program in 2024.

“You can really tell the difference between where we are now versus where we were at this point going into last season,” Mormon said.

The team is raring to go and hit the courts for their first game of the season. After a successful first scrimmage last week, the Grangers are feeling more confident heading into the season.

“The talent is through the roof, but I feel like we won’t know exactly what we need to work on until like, they’re all focused and getting into season shape,” Smith said. “I’m interested in seeing how they respond when the pressure starts to pick up once we start going through region play. The chemistry is good right now and everybody is loving on one another.”

The six seniors Clough, Mormon, Lundy, Georgia Jameson, Aniyah Payne and T’Maya Davis will be key for LaGrange this season. They will serve as important cogs in the machine but also will be important leaders on and off the court.

“Nothing rattles those girls,” Smith said. “I didn’t even have to ask them to step up and be leaders this season, they just did it. I have seen them come a long way in their four years.”

It’s a big shift for all six. With their senior year officially commencing on Friday, it is yet to fully sink in that these are the girls that the younger players are looking up to.

“It was so weird to go to school and come to practice and look around for the seniors and realize that we are the seniors now,” Payne said, laughing. 

LaGrange will rely on more than just seniors. The team is chock-full of younger talent that will have an impact on this season and beyond.

“Kelsey (Burks) is a junior and she is a phenomenal player for us. She played club ball for the first time this year and you can see the difference it has made,” Smith said. “Rylan (Burton) is our starting center and she is very versatile and Anna Poe is our second-string setter and a starter as our right-side hitter. We have a lot of girls who can play multiple roles for us.”

Davis knows what it means to rise up the ranks quickly. She took a long path to reaching varsity and now she is “killing it” according to Clough.

“I didn’t make the team in middle school and that really motivated me to try again in high school,” Davis said. “I feel like I’ve earned my spot on the team.”

The Grangers will be returning most of their talent with Molly Blackburn being a notable exception as she graduated a year early and will play at Reinhardt in the fall. All-Region player McKayla Wills will also be difficult to replace, but the Grangers have plenty of young talent moving up the ranks quickly. 

The season is nigh with the Grangers kicking it off next Thursday at Hardaway. LaGrange’s home opener is set for Aug. 13 against Heard County in an event that Smith said should not be missed as these six seniors enjoy one glorious final run together.

“We are embracing the fact that this is probably all of our last season playing together, so we just want to enjoy each other while we can,” Clough said.