CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — We have been talking a lot lately about the upcoming high school football season. But volleyball will actually beat them to the punch as they start practice a week from tomorrow on Aug. 1, starting four days before football practice begins.
And something very interesting when it comes to volleyball, after just two days of practices, teams can begin to play scrimmages.
And starting Aug. 9, the big Spikefest Tournament gets underway with the majority of our local teams taking part..
It’s 22 years that.they have been playing volleyball in the CCISD. We caught up with CCISD assistant athletic director Jane Kieschnick, a former high school and college coach to get her take on how far the sport has come here in South Texas.
“We are getting better every day,” she said. “Our coaches are doing a great job and our kids are getting exposed to tougher levels of competition and we are certainly getting better every day.”
When asked how local competitors can compete on a statewide level, Kieschnick had a quick answer.
“You said the magic word right there and that's compete,” she said. “Everyday our girls need to battle on the court and coaches are doing a good job with that. But we have to get faster, we can't grow height but getter better on defense and have more finesse in our game.”
As a whole, South Texas should be well represented once the playoffs start.
So who are some of the strong teams to look for this year? Here is Kieschnick's take:
“Carroll is going to be one of the strongest teams in the Corpus Christi ISD along with Veterans being strong as well,” she said. “Outside of Corpus Christi, Gregory-Portland is going to be a very strong team with so many great players returning.
“And among the smaller schools, look out for Sinton because they went two or three rounds deep (in the playoffs) last year and we expect them to contend as well. So those are some of the strongest teams in the area right now.”
