Former volleyball players participate in spring tournament
The volleyball program hosted its annual spring tournament at D.L. Ligon Coliseum, April 6.
According to head volleyball coach and Assistant Athletic Director Venera Flores-Stafford, the tournament, which is one of three the team will play in during its spring offseason, gives the players an opportunity to get to know the dynamic of playing with each other, as well as understanding what leadership roles they’ll have in the fall season.
“This group is a fantastic group,” she said. “Their effort is beyond 100 percent. They go out there, they love to play and they love to play for each other. What we’re going to be working on for the fall is just being able to have open arms to bring in a new set of people.”
After last year’s 7-23 season, the volleyball team will be revamping its roster by bringing in nine new recruits.
“We have almost as many people that we’re going to bring in as we have on the team now, almost an exact 1:1 ratio,” Flores-Stafford said. “That will bring in a different dynamic, because typically, it’s only three of four [players] coming in.”
Set to lead next year’s team are returning starters Caitlin Wallace, Brandy Flores and Michelle Blount. Flores-Stafford said that she expects the three seniors to use their playing experience to lead by example and help guide the younger players to where the program would like to be.
“We want to be like everyone else,” Flores-Stafford said. “We want to get that ring and we want to place the flag up in the coliseum like the basketball teams. That’s what [the team has] got their eyes set on.”
While getting next season’s team ready to play is one goal of the tournament, another purpose for the tournament is for the annual volleyball alumni spring game.
A team made of MSU alumni volleyball players also participated in Saturday’s tournament, playing matches against San Jacinto State, UT-Permian Basin, Cameron and then ending the day squaring off against the current MSU team.
“We’ve done it every spring since I’ve been here, with the exception of maybe the first year or two that I started,” Flores-Stafford said. “We have two alumni events schedule each year. We have an alumni match in the fall, when my current team just plays the alumni, and then we have the spring tournament, where the alumni act like they’re young again and they play in the tournament like everybody else.”
According to Flores-Stafford, most of the alumni that play are sill involved with volleyball in some form or fashion, either coaching for high schools or club teams. Alysha Humpert, who played from 2006-2009, is currently the head volleyball coach at S.H. Rider High School.
“I came back to play because [Coach Flores-Stafford] encouraged me to,” Humpert said. “I also wanted to see some of my old girls. ”
The alumni team is organized through a Facebook group that Flores-Stafford keeps active to communicate with her former players. According to Flores-Stafford, she’ll post the alumni events in a group message with a date, and those that respond are the alumni who will play on the team.
The class year of the alumni ranges from those that ended their elligibility during Coach Flores-Stafford’s first year of coaching here in 2004, to recent seniors, such as Mallory Goon and Miranda Byrd.
“I think the team has improved a lot from last year and they should have a really good year coming up,” Byrd said.
After the tournament, the current volleyball team held an hour-long clinic for girls in junior high and below to teach them the fundamentals of volleyball.
Admission for both the tournament and the clinic was one non-perishable food item to be donated to the Wichita Falls Food Bank, another tradition that is associated with this tournament. According to Stafford, the box set outside of the coliseum for donations was full by the end of the day.
“We’re just happy that a ton of people came out to support us,” Flores-Stafford said. “We didn’t keep count of how many people came, but looking up in the stands and seeing them mostly full was phenomenal. I was excited that a lot of students came out and supported us. It was a great showing.”