Published: July 04, 2009 10:31 pm      

Hard work provides hope for Bluefield State volleyball

BLUEFIELD — Katherine Ward picked a challenge for her first head coaching job. She became the head coach of the Bluefield State volleyball team immediately upon graduating from Bluefield College and found the going tough.

But even though her team went 3-18 in her first season, she found reason for hope.

“Unfortunately, records don’t show how hard the girls worked and they worked harder each game,” Ward said. “Most matches they took to four and five games unlike years before.

“I feel very confident in the girls. They did a great job last year. They won more games than they have in the past couple years. It’s just something for us to build on. We’ve got some great recruits coming in. It’s gone very well this summer.”

Even though Ward came to the first tee ready to go, she was still hitting a blind shot.

When asked what the toughest part of taking the job was, Ward said, “Not knowing who had been recruited, what I was missing. I thought, honestly, the age difference would be a problem. The girls are very respectful. That was not an issue at all. So my biggest problem was not knowing my players and knowing how they worked.”

But she learned. Her group responded to her demands. With a roster of just eight players, they had to.

“Unfortunately, we had eight players that lasted us through the year and they did very well playing their positions, playing through injuries and they knew individually and as a team that each position depended on only one person,” Ward said.

“And they picked up the slack very well, worked just as hard as if they had a full team. But they knew they had nobody to depend on but themselves for each position. They did very well.”

In one respect, the prospect of taking over a program that was at the very bottom appealed to Ward. It meant she could mold the program the way she wanted. It also meant she could watch them grow as players.

“The thing that I stressed to them last year was after a hard game and even a good game to be like, ‘It’s all up to you,’” Ward said. “They have nowhere to go but up and this year they are going to climb the ladder very well.”

Five of Ward’s eight players from last season will be returning, making recruiting much more important. Currently she has five committed palyers with three possibilities.

Ward’s recruiting focus has been on amassing, “Depth, finding not just one player to take over each position, but being able to mix it up if the game calls for it, being able to turn to anybody down on the bench and say, ‘I trust you and the team trusts you. Go for it.’”

The Bluefield State coach will need people who can come in and play immediately. That means she will expect them to make a tough transition very quickly.

“…We do things a little different,” Ward said. “Rotations are done different in college, especially for each coach. I was looking for some girls from some junior colleges, but we’re going to get in early and we’re going to make sure these girls understand how things work and I have nothing but confidence in their ability to learn.”

Ward has seen what they are capable of first hand.

“In just a couple of open gyms in preseason, they did very well,” she said. “They listen. They take instruction very well. The only thing that I’m going to be looking for is catching on very quickly.

“Leniency in the beginning of the season, absolutely. But once things get going, it’s college. It’s no longer high school. Technically it’s a job. If they get paid to play, it’s a job and they are to come out every day and do their job.

“It’s serious on this level and … especially with Bluefield State being at the bottom of the totem pole, they have got to make a name for themselves and not be taken lightly this year.”

Ward knows that instilling a winning attitude is the most important part of changing the culture at Bluefield State from a losing one to a winning one.

“They need to have confidence in themselves and in the people that they’re playing with and at this level it’s hard because you haven’t been playing with everybody for so long,” she said. “The players come and go and the thing I look for from them is for them to learn to trust each other and when they do that it will all fall into place.”

She knows she is facing an uphill climb. But she is highly optimistic.

“This year, I look for them to improve greatly,” Ward said. “And saying ‘We want to win every game.’ That’s a great expectation, unrealistic unfortunately. But definitely just look for them to at least to have maybe eight wins this year and by no means stop at that. They have nowhere to go but up.”

— Contact Jed Lockett

at jlockett@bdtonline.com