The Oxford High School volleyball team started their season on Aug. 2 in the Mississippi High School Activities Association Volleyball Invitational in Jackson, Miss. The team is led by head coach Ashley Martin and assistant coach Brianna McGraw. Martin explains how the team has high expectations for themselves this year and who this team is gonna be this season.
“We had a really good spring, so my expectations are just to build off that going into this season,” Martin said. “We went to the Mississippi State camp this summer and it made our team closer, so this year we really want to work together to push through hard things.”
Unlike years in the past, the volleyball team this year is mainly composed of younger athletes. Senior Claire Wicker shares how having a younger team has not affected their gameplay.
“Although we’re still very young this season, we are probably one of the most experienced teams in 7A right now because all of our starters were on varsity last season and we’ve gotten used to playing together,” Wicker said. After losing several upperclassmen last season, the current upperclassmen of the team feel the need to step up and take more responsibility.
“We lost three seniors so there has been a lot of pressure on the upperclassmen to take a bigger leadership role,” junior Liza Feltenstein said. “It pushes us to keep a more positive attitude and pushes underclassmen to become leaders too.”
While the team is young class-wise with most of the volleyball team being freshman and sophomores, they are not young when it comes to experience. Most people on the team have at least one year of varsity experience under their belt.
“When you have teams that are graduating several seniors every year, their players have the same amount of varsity experience as ours,” Martin said. “So we are not using that as an excuse this year and we are still pushing ourselves to be better.”
The Chargers have big goals for themselves this season not only on the court but also outside the lines too.
“Obviously you want to win a district championship, you want to go on to win a state title, but at the end of the day, I just wanna make sure that I’m a good example for my players and that I’m helping them to be the best person that they can be,” Martin said.
The team is a close knit group this year. They are great teammates while they are playing and good friends when practice and games are over.
“They get along really well,” Martin said. “I think one of my favorite things I’ve seen are some of the upperclassmen taking the lead and helping the younger girls develop and giving them positive, uplifting feedback.”
According to Martin, the Chargers are a very good offensive team this year but they will need to learn how to be effective on defense.
“We have a very good offensive side of the ball this year, so make sure that we stay very disciplined without our defensive side of the ball,” Martin said.
Martin explains how important it is to stay positive throughout the entire journey.
“I think that some of the bigger challenges will be just pushing through and making sure that we have each other’s back,” Martin said. “Making sure that we’re continually supporting each other when times get tough, and I think that is hard for people in general, like in your everyday life. So making sure that we are continuously supporting each other no matter what.”
