Volleyball features

Volleyball - Volleyball features

Austin Westlake. Lewisville Hebron. Lucas Lovejoy.

That’s not just a short list of three of the best volleyball teams in the state — those are teams Corpus Christi King has already beaten this season.

Or better yet, teams the No. 1 Mustangs defeated.

King (25-3 overall) — the first top-ranked volleyball team from Corpus Christi — likes that distinction so much, it wants to keep it.

“I don’t think that No. 1 ranking will sink in until we get to state and win that No. 1 spot — we don’t want to rest,” said 6-foot-1 Mustangs senior hitter Dempsey Thornton, who plans to sign a letter of intent in early November to play Division I college volleyball for UTSA next season.

Corpus Christi Caller-Times

Volleyball - Volleyball features

Volleyball - Volleyball features

If anyone doubts that successful coaching is largely a study in psychology, a quick look at Bronte volleyball coach Keith McCutchen may change their mind.  McCutchen, who helped Bronte earn its 12th trip to the state tournament last year in his first season as coach, is by his own admission, a football guy.

“I just didn’t want to screw things up,” McCutchen said. “Had I not had some assistants that I felt very confident in, I wouldn’t have attempted to do this.

The role McCutchen plays, however, is a bit larger than he is willing to say.

Abilene Reporter News

Volleyball - Volleyball features

On the surface, the move may have seemed questionable.

Veteran Brownwood volleyball coach Mary Steed had retired following the 2009 season, leaving in her wake a program that had notched seven playoff appearances in eight years — including six in a row — and a trip to the state tournament in 2008.

Her replacement? An untried assistant who never had served as a varsity head coach.

Jackie Lang, however, possesses a much deeper résumé than one may expect, and despite a slow start, is getting positive reviews from those playing under her.

Abilene Reporter News

Volleyball - Volleyball features

Lewisville Hebron senior middle blocker Olivia Okoro is on the the U.S. Youth Olympic Team that will compete in the first Youth Olympic Games from Saturday-Aug. 26 in Singapore.

But, for Okoro, hitting a volleyball hasn't always been so effortless.

Dallas Morning News