LEXINGTON, Va. – Rockbridge County volleyball has sure made a name for itself in recent years, and 2021 has been no exception.
“We’re moving forward to regions again, we were district regular season champions, our third year in a row I believe, and the district tournament coming up, we’ve been the district tournament champions for three years,” head coach Amanda McCoy said.
One of the most unique parts of this team is their youth, with four freshman in their starting rotation. But they’re proving age doesn’t matter as much as skill and talent.
“You wouldn’t expect a team with one senior to be successful, but we’ve really just improved and worked so hard every practice,” senior Jaydyn Clemmer said.
Clemmer is the lone senior on the squad. The outside hitter was on the first team in school history to make it to states in 2017, and is someone her teammates strive to be.
“As a coach, it makes your job a little easier when they have these kids to look up to,” McCoy said. “Not every day you have a kid like Jaydyn come through your program who is going to go to James Madison and play.”
“The whole time, I’m congratulating them and keeping them motivated while trying to keep myself,” Clemmer said. “I think that’s awesome to me. I love doing that, I love being there for my team.”
The Wildcats hope to make some noise in the postseason for what has been an unusual year, but freshman Maddie Dahl says the driving force is to win it all for Clemmer.
“It’s going to be awesome when we get really far, we have to do it for her because she’s teaching us so much. Being a really young team and having five freshman on the varsity team, that’s really crazy,” Dahl said. “We just got to utilize her, while she’s here we have to use her because she’s teaching us a lot, so getting far for her would be a great thing.”