The Webster County School Board recently approved for both East Webster and Eupora to add girls volleyball for the 2020-21 school year.
Both schools will field teams next year and both schools have already started preparing for the new sport. Both schools followed suit of many schools who have added volleyball after the Mississippi High School Activities Association killed slow-pitch softball.
At East Webster, Athletics Director Doug Wilson said adding volleyball was an easy decision.
“It fits with the schedule very well,” Wilson said. “We hated to go a whole semester with the girls not having something to do. We wanted to give them a chance to give volleyball a try. It will be a learning experience for everyone involved. We are excited to get started.”
Eupora Athletic Director Alex Rawls had similar thoughts about adding volleyball.
“When the MHSSA did away with slow-pitch we sat down and looked at a way to fill that void,” Rawls said. “Volleyball was the obvious choice. We are excited about that and a lot of our girls have shown interest in it. Some of them have already gone to Mississippi State and watched them play. There is a lot of excitement around right now.”
Wilson said East Webster was already looking at volleyball when the school had to do some work on their basketball floor at the beginning of the school year.
“We have a great facility ready to go that can seat a lot of people,” Wilson said. “We have an official court and already have our standards ready and the lines marked. We sort of knew it was coming and went ahead and made that decision when we redid the floor at the gym.”
Rawls said Eupora will have to do some renovations on their basketball gym.
“We will play our games in the high school basketball gym,” Rawls said. “We will get an opportunity to repaint and refinish the gym floor and do some renovations there. Our girls are excited about it and I think the community will come out and rally around us.”
Both ADs said that neither school has named a head coach for the volleyball program yet but both have already started working on a schedule for the season. Both schools have also been placed in divisions and will be able to compete for a division championship.
“We have had a lot of people offer to help us get started,” Wilson said. “Coach (Lee) Berryhill has already started on a schedule and we will have a full schedule. When we come back from Christmas, we will have an interest meeting and see what kind of interest we have.”
