Nerves were high over the summer when freshman Hadley Heineman tried out for the volleyball team. She worried about if she would even make the freshman team.
However, Heineman made a strong impression early. She played eight games with the freshman team before getting a surprise from coach Tonya Smith.
“When we were standing in that huddle I couldn’t believe she said I was moving up,” Heineman said. “At first I was a little worried they wouldn’t like me, but they were very welcoming and very nice about it”.
It was a big change for Heineman, who became a pin (outside) hitter for the junior varsity volleyball team.
“It was a big change from being with all of my friends that I had just made and that had come from middle school to going to JV and not really knowing anyone,” she said. “But I felt like I did something right so that I was able to move up. I felt good.”
Heineman explained how the beginning of her season was kind of tough for her and the rest of the JV team.
“Definitely at the beginning of the season we didn’t know each other too well,” she said. “We didn’t work super good together.”
Towards the middle of Heineman’s season, the team started to see big improvements.
“We started to communicate better than we had been and that really helped us,” she said. “When we played Huntsville we were down (points), but then we came back and won the game.”
Heineman started playing sports when she was little, but it wasn’t until she was in seventh grade that she started to play volleyball.
“In swim and in softball my parents were really involved,” she said. “I liked volleyball because I got to have a coach that wasn’t my parents.
“My new coaches taught me to make adjustments when there were times that I did something that I needed to fix.”
For those joining or moving onto a new team this year, Heineman said a priority needs to be getting to know your teammates.
“Just be yourself,” she said. “Also, you can’t do anything without your team, so get to know them and hangout with them but also just have fun. It’s worth it.”
