By Borislava Panayotova

   The return of Coach Natalie Johnson to the TPA Girls Volleyball team serves as the start of a new season.

   This year the volleyball team started off small. With only 15 girls showing up to tryouts, the Varsity team has nine players and the Junior Varsity team has only six. This can make games difficult since there are not enough players for substitutes or changes, especially on the JV team.

    However, having everyone in the game at all times allows them to play all positions, not just the ones they are used to. Coach Natalie notes of the JV team: “They’ve become such well-rounded players just in the last month.”

   Another challenge that the girls faced coming back was the coach’s return. Each coach has a different style of coaching and the players must get used to it before they can learn to work as a team. “It’s been kind of a learning curve coming back because I took a year off,” Coach Natalie says, but she adds that “I know we’re only gonna get better.”

   Her goal for this year is to improve the team’s offense and learn a bigger variety of defense plays — this alongside the goal of getting to and winning the state championship.