Ken Roberts
For The New Era
When the Sweet Home volleyball team opens its season Thursday, with a jamboree-type competition on its own floor, it will be a chance for a truly fresh start for the Huskies.
They’ll be starting a new season in a new conference, the ValCo League, and, coach Debbie Danielson says, a new mentality.
That’s because Sweet Home played every ValCo team except Central last year and beat them all soundly. Danielson thinks that her team is going into the year expecting to win. In recent years, the Huskies have been very close, but kept coming up short in their efforts to qualify for the playoffs.
The new league will have Sweet Home playing its opponents three times, which compresses the preseason.
In fact, Sweet Home’s only pre-season match will be away against long-time nemesis Stayton. Then the Huskies go right into league play with their home opener against Philomath. As the league season unfolds, they will play in tournaments for five consecutive Saturdays.
The short pre-season gives Sweet Home little time to gain experience for seven of the 12 players who have never played in a varsity game. That will leave the burden for the five seniors with experience to bear the load early on.
“We want to keep things really simple,” said Danielson. “We don’t want to put in a bunch of stuff that we aren’t going to use in the season. Simple is better sometimes.”
Danielson is fairly confident in her team’s chances to make the state playoffs. However, there isn’t much room for error. Because the league was reduced in size and due to a loss in a coin flip with the Greater Oregon Conference, the ValCo League will have only two representatives at state.
Setter
Senior Julie Burcham returns as the setter in a 5-1 offense. Early on, the Huskies will run a simple offense. Danielson expects Burcham to be able to find the hot hitters and consistently set them in their preferred spots.
Occasionally, in tournament play, Sweet Home may use a 6-2 offense to give Amanda Basham experience as the back-up setter.
Hitters
Though she would prefer a balanced attack, Danielson expects to use the outside hitter often.
Sara Brocard leads the Huskies at this position and is probably the most powerful hitter for the Huskies. Breanne Messmer, currently injured, and Kayla Thompson will also be outside hitters. All are seniors whom Danielson feels are extremely strong in the back court as well.
Tabby Trahan and sophomore Paige Niemi will hit from the right side. Trahan has great leaping ability and Niemi shows tremendous promise as she learns the system.
Kami White and Jessalyn Seiber will share duties in the middle. Seiber came on strong at the end of last year. Both can provide some pop offensively but must develop their blocking skills. Blocking will be limited at first to the outside and middle hitters.
None of these positions are sets in stone as Danielson plans to spend time experimenting with her rotations as the season unfolds, especially in tournament play.
Defensive Specialist
Michelle Cliver is an all-league caliber defensive specialist and will play libero for the Huskies. This year the libero can serve as well as play defense, which will help the Huskies because Cliver is an excellent server as well, though a shoulder problem has limited her practice time in that area.
Erika Snow has shown tremendous improvement, having benefited greatly from the skills taught at the team camp earlier in August. Both she and Cliver are strong leaders for the team as well. Junior Sara Rosa is looking to gain experience in the back row and, with her leaping ability, could be a solid back row hitter.
Skills
Danielson is particularly impressed with the Huskies’ serving ability and has raised their goal of 85 percent from last year to 88 percent this year. She expects that they won’t be of the soft variety either.
Not only that, she sees the Huskies blossoming with their passing and service reception.
“We are already doing drills and setting our goals higher than we did last year,” she said.
She figures if her team can look that good against their own tough serving that they are on the right track.
Right now the Huskies are working to improve their blocking ability and strategy, including coverage behind the block.
Outlook
Danielson gets the impression that other coaches might think the league is fairly balanced among its members.
She is not so sure and believes the Huskies are poised to make their mark in the new league.
It may just come down to teamwork and belief in themselves.
“If you are not all playing together and getting along,” said Danielson, “then you are going to have trouble.”
Danielson will be looking for signs of that team and individual growth each practice.
“If they come into practice and work every single day on the little things, just the basics, then I think we will be OK,” Danielson said.