H.S. Volleyball Will Be Here Before You Know It

Believe it or not, high school volleyball practices are a week and a half away.

Tuesday the University Interscholastic League released a new schedule for athletic practices and games, and it allows for Class 1A-4A schools like La Grange and all the other schools in Fayette County, to begin volleyball practices Aug. 3 and volleyball match Aug. 10.

La Grange has been holding voluntary conditioning workouts this summer and head coach Leslie Coltrain said participation has been “decent” considering coronavirus concerns and summer vacation travel.

“For us as coaches, getting to walk back into the gym, and the net is set up and you are about to put balls in play, it was emotional, we’ve missed our kids. We got into this for the kids, so we miss them when we don’t get to be with them,” she said.

Even before Tuesday’s scheduling announcement, Coltrain said she’s already been informed of lots of changes ahead for this volleyball season. “They have already told us

“They have already told us we won’t be switching sides of the net, there will only be one captain at the pregame meeting, no coin toss unless it’s a deciding set,” Coltrain said. “They want us to be 3-6 foot apart on the bench, limit personnel, so no statisticians on the bench.”

And then there’s the mask impact. “As long as the mask order is in place, kids on the bench will have to wear masks, coaches will have to wear masks, the people at the scorers’ table will have to wear masks. No shaking hands before and after matches,” she said.

But those are all small inconveniences to get to play.

“We don’t care if we switch sides, we don’t care who serves first, let’s be honest we just want to play volleyball, we want these kids to be able to have a season, and we’ll have some kind of season,” Coltrain said.

Of course as we have all learned this year, everything’s subject to change

“I would hope we’d get a full season, but something’s better than nothing,” Coltrain said.