Back to back days of volleyball played at Good Hope Gymnasium:
GDW Analysis:
GOOD HOPE: Girls athletics last season at Good Hope High School reigned supreme in three sports.
Volleyball, basketball and softball excelled in winning the Cullman County championship, plus what they experienced in good area play that carried well into the AHSAA postseason.
In a month, the 2024/25 AHSAA athletic year will get under way as volleyball leads it off.
For the past two days, the Lady Raiders have gotten in quality work time during a playday series from Good Hope Gymnasium.
Despite the loss of county tournament MVP Charly Johnson, all state Ivey Maddox and Emma Bailey to graduation, plus not seeing Makenzie Cruce return for the upcoming year, the Lady Raiders will be looked at being a strong unit under the command of Natasha Holder.
Holder begins her 8th year at Good Hope. The last two seasons have seen the Lady Raiders produce 66 victories out of 90 decisions, a winning percentage of .730.
Good Hope went 30 & 10 the past season and has three consecutive area championships plus a couple of trips into the North Regional of the AHSAA playoffs.
The Lady Raiders have participated in five different playday ventures in the last three weeks. They were idle last week due to AHSAA rules with it being all star sports week and coaching clinics.
Pretty good opposition came to the Good Hope series. On Monday, the Lady Raiders faced Hayden, Ashville, Randolph and Cold Springs.
The Tuesday tour consisted of Good Hope vs. Fairview, Corner and Dora.
Providing the team experience this season will be Campbell Koch as the setter with Carly Adams, Mattie Wix, Macey Denton, Chloe Eisner and Lexi Marshall giving them good opportunities to execute from near the net and on the back row.
Patiently waiting to have back with squad for Holder is senior Jolee McHan and sophomore Molly Benefield.
MChan will be released by the doctors August 1 after having surgery to repair ligament damage in her leg.
McHan works well on the outside of the front and back line.
Benefield prospers from attacking in the middle as she made key contributions in her freshman campaign. She is recovering from hip surgery. She was in uniform with her team Tuesday and sat on the bench as seen by Gameday Weekly.
Giving a preseason report:
GDW sees Good Hope again a strong challenge in county volleyball. They have won the last three championships.
West Point is a unit that has plenty of personnel to mix it up with Good Hope.
Even though they have a new coach in Meagan Cagle, the experience the Lady Warriors return and the emotion Cagle has been in her role running the team makes the worthy of reaching the championship match.
Laklin Shadix, Macie Brown, Katie Beth Yovino, Caitlee Simmons, Adrianna Owens and Patton Fell see nothing but the opportunity in trying to bring back the county crown to the school for the first time since 2020.
Vinemont is a squad that has everything to gain and very little to lose. Vinemont hired Bobby Daniels who has been superb in AHSAA volleyball in 19 years.
Eight years at Jasper High School allowed Daniels to make a run of 921 total victories with this being the first time he has coached a school in Cullman County.
Carley Stephens, Aubrey Sandlin, Abby Kuykendall, Caroline Miller and Morgan Flanagan are understanding what Daniels is expecting from the squad as experience will go deep, despite a change in the philosophy.
Graduation took its toll on Fairview, Holly Pond, Hanceville and Cold Springs.
Each will be much younger coming into 2024.
Cold Springs has a change in leadership with Kate Peek coming to the 2A school in Southwest Cullman County after a couple of years at West Point.
The third year awaits Katie Ball at Fairview, the 6th season for Adrien Adams at Holly Pond and the 2nd with Morgan Hammock in Hanceville.
As for Good Hope, the 8th year of the Holder era has the Lady Raiders at home on opening night, August 22 with a tri match vs. Hayden and Holly Pond.
Last year, Good Hope volleyball, girls basketball and softball combined for 81 victories against 23 losses.
The team remains optimistic to maintain a good winning formula as four of the members of the Class of 2024 accepted an opportunity by signing a collegiate scholarship.
Ivey Maddox to UNA basketball, Heather and Bailey Tetro to Wallace State basketball, Johnson to Gadsden State volleyball.
Photo of Good Hope VB coach Natasha Holder and her team vs. Fairview in a playday Tuesday from Good Hope Gymnasium.
GDW photo by Johnny Thornton.
