What does it take to become a regional championship team? Try quality, experienced coaches, players with athletic ability and years of training in the fundamentals, senior leadership, depth, balance and everyone contributing in her role.
All of those are true for the Logan County volleyball team, which heads to the state tournament in Louisville Friday after winning the 4th Region championship at home last week.
The coaching staff is dedicated and experienced. Head Coach Steven Lyne and Assistant Rob Imlay. They have been on the job for 14 seasons, and in fact were the founders of the team along with former head coach Tina Baker Lynch, Athletic Director Hugh McReynolds and former principal Bob Nylin. Lyne was voted Coach of the Year in the Fourth Region before his team won it all.
Imlay’s brother James has been a part of the program most of that time, at first keeping stats in the background and later becoming an official coach. Tim Hopkins, whose start with the program came singing the National Anthem, worked his way up to coaching status as well as being the father of one of the players in the regular rotation.
The starters are excellent athletes. Katelynn Jones starts in basketball and in tennis. Victoria Cates is the softball catcher and a key basketball player. Maddie Abbott has started at third base in softball throughout high school. (Softball coach Michael Crawford has been very supportive of the volleyball team.) Kapreshia Powell figures to play a huge role on new coach Finley Woodard’s first Lady Cougar basketball team.
Four of the starters are seniors, having played volleyball throughout high school. Most of them are also products of the Logan County Middle School program, started several years ago by Lyne and Rob Imlay. So this team has great experience.
That senior leadership, which includes Cates, Abbott, Jones and Savannah Shelton, is led by Rachyl Miller, who embraces the captain’s roles with quiet leadership without trying to promote herself. The South Warren players showed how they respect her following the down-to-the-wire Logan win in the championship game. Miller was rewarded by not only being named Fourth Region Player of the Year but also MVP of the regional tournament.
Depth proved to be key. The Lady Cougars played two five-game matches on successive nights against the other two top teams in the region, Bowling Green and South. The outcome was in doubt all the way through. So, depth was important. Senior Brianna Wooden was a force at the net when the big hitters rotated to the back. Classmate Savannah Shelton baled her team out when the Lady Cougars were having trouble returning serves. Freshmen Amber Carroll and Catherine Miller played huge roles as the top servers behind Rachyl Miller. Chelsea Hopkins played regularly against BGH.
And, finally, there was tremendous balance. Of the seven major categories, five different players have led a category on the season. Sophomore Chanler Steenbergen is a power hitter supreme who leads in kills and attacks. Rachyl Miller has set up all but 46 of over 900 assists, and she also has more aces than the second-place Steenbergen. Jones has remarkable anticipation and timing to go with her power, so she is the overwhelming blocks leader. Abbott, who has over 300 career digs and over 300 career assists, is the digs leader. And Cates, who does everything well in the backcourt, returned the most serves.
A look at season stats leaders so far follows:
Kills: Chanler Steenbergen 385, Katelynn Jones 154, Brianna Wooden 146, Kapreshia Powell 136, Maddie Abbott 67, Savannah Shelton 55, Rachyl Miller 53, Chelsea Hopkins 46
Attacks: Steenbergen 1,085, Powell 426, Jones 370, Wooden 356, Abbott 294, Shelton 156, Miller 151, Hopkins 131, Victoria Cates 111
Aces: R. Miller 160, Steenbergen 75, Amber Carroll 63, Catherine Miller and Cates 52 each, Abbott and Shelton 28 each, Jones 21
Blocks: Jones 153, Wooden 112, Steenbergen 86, R. Miller 68, Powell 33, R. Miller 17, Shelton 13
Digs: Abbott 363, Cates 316, R. Miller 273, Steenbergen 243, Carroll 139, Powell 89, C. Miller 86, Shelton 70, Jones 62, Hopkins 30, Jacqueline Batchelor
Assissts: R. Miller 861, Steenbergen 19,Molly Latham 17, Cates 6, Abbott 4
Serve Receptions: Cates 513, Abbott 343, Carroll 142, Powell 112, Miller 105, Hopkins 57, Shelton 43