When the Mississippi High School Activities Association voted to no longer sanction slow-pitch softball, several schools across the state decided to add volleyball as a fall sport.
Union and Newton were two of those schools. Neither Newton County nor Lake opted to add volleyball.
Both Newton and Union have schedules in place for the upcoming school year but there are concerns since school was cancelled before either of the two was able to hold tryouts.
“We have a schedule in place for the upcoming school year,” Newton AD and head basketball coach Crandal Porter said. “We were going to come back from spring break and do tryouts but all of that go cancelled. It’s really up in the air right now.”
Porter said he’s unsure of what might happen with volleyball at this point.
“We had some things lined up that I don’t really know if they are going to happen or not,” Porter said. “We were going to have some camps and bring some people in to work with our coach and help the kids to learn the basics. But like everything else right now, we are in a wait-and-see mode.”
In Union, softball coach Jacob Casey was named the volleyball coach after slow-pitch was cancelled. He said this was the time he would be having tryouts.
“I was planning on having tryouts when fast-pitch season ended,” Casey said. “At this point, I guess what we are going to do is try to have tryouts the first of June if the MHSAA allows it. Same thing with softball, we are going to try to prepare both of them in the summer.”
Casey said there had been a lot of interest in volleyball at Union.
“I think there was a lot of interest,” Casey said. “When the kids found out we were going to play volleyball, like anything new, there is a lot of interest. It doesn’t matter what we do at Union, we are going to do the best we can do at it. We are going to put some time and effort into it. When the kids figure that out, they may lose some interest. We are definitely going to hold tryouts and limit the number of kids in the first year.”
Casey said he had already reached out to some other coaches over the winter to pick up some pointers.
“Obviously, I’ve never coached volleyball so it’s going to be a learning curve for all of us,” Casey said. “I’ve looked at some of the basic practice drills and some of the basic rules of the game. I’m sure there are some things I am going to have to learn. It’s like anything in coaching, if you aren’t learning, you aren’t getting any better.”
Both Union and Newton have schedules in place for the 2020 season and were placed in a division which will be made up Newton, Union and Bay Springs. Union’s first regular-season game is scheduled for Aug. 13 with a home match against Stringer.
Casey said no alterations had been made to the gym at Union yet but the supplies were on hand. Porter said Newton hasn’t made any modifications to its gym either.
