The Long County Blue Tide volleyball team enters its third year of existence in 2024 and they are looking to continue to make strides. The team looks to use its experience over the last two years to compete for a spot in the state playoffs going into the 2024 season.
Head coach Tyleeah Maddox, a Tide alumnus and former volleyball all-American at Brenau College, is excited about the improvements her team has made since starting in 2022. She specifically highlighted the team’s serving and passing as having been improved the most.
“Definitely you can see the team getting to mold into a team as far as us coming together, being able to pass efficiently,” Maddox said. “We struggled our first year getting our athletes to be able to get up under the ball and see where the ball is coming from on serve receive. Now, we have girls going into playing for three years and they’re more confident in their abilities.”
On the flip side of that, the team is still young. They have four seniors going into the season and they will all play a big role. However, they still have a lot to continue to improve.
“Getting the girls to actually swing at the ball instead of waiting for it to come to them. Hitting,” Maddox said. “Our eye work, definitely, and their reaction times, going from back row to front row. We are still struggling reacting to where the ball is coming. That ties into eye work. Are they analyzing the server? Are they analyzing the hitter? Seeing where the ball is going into play.”
In terms of wins, the team has struggled, as you would expect with a new program. In 2022, they failed to win a game and in 2023, they won five. Maddox says that she really is anticipating more fan support in 2024.
“I know we’re new and we’re still trying to get people involved and understand what volleyball is, but having their support, I feel like we had some of our best games when we had a lot of support from the girls’ friends, families, even teachers and faculty,” Maddox said. “We’re pushing really to get people to come out and support the girls because they are working hard and I feel like we’re doing everything we can as coaches to instill in them the game of volleyball and I would love to actually be able to implement it on the court and see the hard work they have to go through to get through a volleyball game.” The Blue Tide volleyball team gets their season started on Thursday, August 8 with a home play date against Bradwell Institute and Liberty County.