School is underway and fall is in sight somewhere, which means sports are back and the West Marion Trojans volleyball squad is returning to the hardwood.
The Trojans had a difficult go of things a year ago, possessing the talent to be one of the best teams in the state in Class 3A, but they only had their full team together for the final two weeks of the regular season because of quarantine rules and injuries. During those final two weeks, they went 6-1 and beat several playoff-bound teams including Sacred Heart and Purvis, but it wasn’t enough to get the Trojans into the playoffs as they finished 12-9 and 4-4 in district play.
As if that wasn’t hard enough to swallow for head coach Todd Pittman, he also had to say goodbye to seven graduating seniors. However, talent still remains on the West side, and Pittman is optimistic the Trojans have what it takes to reach the postseason this time around.
One reason he has optimism is the postseason has been expanded to include three teams from each district instead of only two. That will help considerably with West Marion being in the same district as perennial powerhouses Our Lady Academy and St. Patrick.
“Those two teams are going to be tough as always,” Pittman said. “If we do make the playoffs, I think we have a good enough team to make a little noise and beat some teams. It’s just according to how the girls play and put it all together.”
Madison Hitt returns as a senior setter for West Marion who Pittman expects to run the offense and be a coach on the floor. Raven Jones is moving from middle hitter to outside hitter as the Trojans’ top attacker at the net, and Pittman has high hopes for her. He also likes what he’s seen from senior Jadyn Eaton, Kirsten Williams, Alexis Williams and Alicia Conerly.
“We’re coming together. We have a bunch of young girls in the rotation right now, with four sophomores in the rotation. We have three or four seniors mixed in and one junior,” Pittman said. “I don’t have a lot of big girls like I’ve had in the past, but we’re going to be OK. We won’t be quite as powerful hitting the ball and attacking as we’ve been, but it’s just going to be a little learning curve.
“Some of them got a little playing time last year on varsity, but now that they’re going to be out there full time, they’re going to have to adjust to it. We’ll see how it goes.”
West Marion begins its season Saturday in Columbia High School’s annual Mountain Dew Classic. The junior varsity Trojans will kick things off at 9 a.m. against Columbia’s JV squad before the varsity Trojans take the court for back-to-back matches against Columbia at 10 a.m. and Hattiesburg at 11 a.m.
