Published: August 20, 2008 12:25 am            

FALL SPORTS PREVIEW: Hornets young but thinking big

Willem touts Henryville athleticism

The Henryville High School volleyball team has a first-year head coach, a roster high in turnovers and will likely rely on freshmen to join the roster as the season progresses forward.

That’s not enough however to squash the optimism for the Hornets entering the 2008 campaign.

“We think we can win, win a lot actually,” said first-year Hornet head coach Shallon Willen. “We have great athletes, and the kids have shown a willingness to work together. I’m a big believer that if you can get a group together on the same page, it goes a long way to overcoming some of the other challenges your team faces.”

Willen’s squad features one returning senior in Tara Murphy and two junior starters in Amanda Embry and Georgia Lacy. A pair of sophomores, Haley Hall and Ashley Dickerson, saw time on the varsity squad as freshmen a year ago and will likely play there from the start this time around.

Freshmen could fill a variety of roles from the onset for the Hornets. Willen says her team will likely start the season with freshman Allison Knox as the team’s setter.

“We have young players, but we also have just freakishly athletic players,” Willen said. “They’re a talented group.”



GIRLS’ CROSS COUNTRY

All-Southern Athletic Conference senior performer Katie Spellman leads the Hornets for her final season. Spellman is no stranger to success, having advanced to the IHSAA semistate two straight years and winning back-to-back conference titles.

She’ll be counted on to lead a squad still sorting out its top five runners. Head coach Kyle Lewis says it’s “up in the air” about who he expects to fill the remaining four scoring spots behind Spellman in the lineup.

“Katie is definitely in,” said Lewis. “The other four could be anyone. Each day at practice is competitive.”

Returning for Henryville will be seniors Jacqueline Guthrie and Shelby Hodge and sophomores Caitlyn Lynch and Sarah Hunter. New to the team this year is freshman Hannah Gilstrap and sophomore Erica Porter.

“Our expectation is to win the conference meet and move on to regional as a team,” Lewis said. “We’re capable of doing that this season.”



BOYS’ CROSS COUNTRY

Coach Brad Nifong has returnees but also lost some key runners from last season’s team that fell one point short of topping Borden in the SAC championship meet last fall.

Senior Clayton Brishaber is the top runner back for Henryville, which also returns senior Colton Dietrich as well as Michael Webb this season.

Nifong also feels that freshman Alex Goode will be able to contribute to the lineup.

“From what I have seen so far, I can see I’ve got a group of guys who will work hard to get to their goal of winning conference,” said Nifong. “Borden will be tough. They bring basically everybody back, so we’ll have our work cut out for us.”



SOCCER

The Hornets had a bit of a historic season last year, winning the first two games in the history of the program. Henryville beat Rock Creek Christian and Salem during their regular season and competed at the Madison Sectional for the first time in program history.

        

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