This is Daniels' 20th year in coaching AHSAA volleyball:
GDW Analysis:
VINEMONT: When Vinemont High School decided to hire Bobby Daniels as its new volleyball coach, the school felt it had won a jackpot.
Daniels comes to the 3A school in the North part of Cullman County with impressive credentials.
His first season with Vinemont will be his 20th in AHSAA volleyball.
Daniels is putting the Lady Eagles through hard work and sweat for the month of July.
Vinemont is currently playing in a playday series (or team camp) this week at Wallace State Community College.
Gameday Weekly got to see the 2024 Lady Eagles up close and personal Wednesday in three assignments at Tom Drake Coliseum.
GDW analyzed Daniels in the role of coaching and teaching his team.
Vinemont does have personnel with game time experience. They are led by seniors Carley Stephens as a middle hitter, Aubrey Sandlin as a defensive specialist, Abby Kuykendall an outside hitter.
Juniors Caroline Miller, Addison Holcomb and Reagan Robinson give the team balance in rotating from the back row to near the net.
Vinemont opened the Wednesday schedule in going to a tiebreaking set with Winston County, losing two games to one to the Yellow Jackets.
Vinemont defeated the Guntersville JV and Springville in the early afternoon.
For Daniels and his Lady Eagles, Day Two of the event from the Wallace State campus Thursday will put them in assignments at 9:00. 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 1:00 & 2:00.
The matches, set up by Wallace State coach Randy Daniel, are played in 1 hour, the best of 3 to be the winner.
Just the facts:
Daniels goes into 2024 with 921 victories in AHSAA volleyball out of 1,345 games.
His time coaching the Jasper Lady Vikings enabled him to receive recognition as a contributor to a sport that has grown tremendously in Alabama through the 2000s.
Jasper earned 443 victories with Daniels there for nine years.
The Lady Vikings took back to back AHSAA championships in 2019 and 2020. Those 2 years Jasper won 133 times and lost only 14.
Daniels is one of eight coaches that is listed through information as still active.
Ann Schilling of Bayside Academy leads the AHSAA in wins with 1,732. She is listed as active for the upcoming season.
Robyn Hutto of Lawrence County has claimed 1,037 victories. Her daughter, Anna Claire, finished playing for Wallace State for two seasons with the Lady Lions winning the ACCC championship both years and never losing an assignment in 28 tries at Tom Drake Coliseum.
Currently ahead of Daniels in all time victories and still active is Jana Killen from Deshler.
Killen has coached at the 4A school in Tuscumbia since 1988, seeing the Lady Tigers go 1,022 & 488.
Another coach, now retired just ahead of Daniels, hails from Cullman County.
It's Rosemary Brown. Brown came to Good Hope in the fall of 1978 and would set the Lady Raiders on an incredible run of 1,036 wins, 17 Cullman County championships and 7 seasons in which her team won more than 30 games in a calendar year.
No doubt Vinemont shows optimism from what is guiding the team. The Lady Eagles played competitive in 2023 but managed just 12 wins against 14 losses.
The pattern between Daniels and the team in understanding one another is moving right along. Playdays are the finish touch to polish before the season opener on August 22 at Vinemont in a Tri match with Columbia from Huntsville and Cullman Christian School.
Photo of Vinemont volleyball 2024.
Photo courtesy of Vinemont High School.
