“I believe athletics offer students great opportunities to learn valuable skills.” Milburn Pack, Athletic Director at Midland Trail High School.
And in that spirit, the first ever volleyball team has been assembled for grades 6-8 at Midland Trail. So far, the volleyball team has had positive feedback from community members, teachers, and students.
“Kristi Rader and I started having this discussion last spring with the administration. Kristi was able to get a few local donors to start the team up. We had to send a list of girls that were interested in the program just to make sure we would have the interest. The list was huge just by asking the basketball and softball girls. We sent the list to Mr. Harper, and he was able to receive approval from the board for us to have a volleyball team,” said Stevie Mooney, assistant coach of the Midland Trail Middle School volleyball team.
“The other schools in Fayette County have a volleyball team. We had plenty of girls that had expressed interest in it, so we pursued the interest,” said Mooney.
Pack, said, “From the perspective of the school, the goal in having the team was to have more opportunities for our girls to participate in extracurricular activities. There has been interest for some time. Now with the new gym it is more feasible to accommodate having a team.”
“I think there has been a positive impact on the school. It is early, but we have a great number of girls participating,” said Pack.
Varsity player Maddie Rader said, “There has been a great response. A lot of girls showed up to try out, and we’re really excited for our first game.”
Principal Richard Pettit said, “The community impact thus far from volleyball team is, the support and excitement beyond our traditional district. Students from both Valley and Fayetteville have been part of volleyball programs for years.”
Due to this team only being available for the middle school grades, chances are remarkably high that a high school team will be established in the future. “I do believe there will be a high school volleyball team. We currently have 7th and 8th graders on the team, and you can already see their love of the game! We have also had several high school girls express interest for a team,” said Mooney.
Coach Rader said, “Hopefully high school will be able to start one next year too, since they will have six or seven girls going into ninth grade from this year; plus, a handful of girls who played previously at Fayetteville and Mountain View Christian. There were a few girls transferring in from other schools to middle school grades who had played before, so it was good timing to start them now and have a few players who could help the others learn.”
Pack said, “I hope next year we are able to take the 8th graders moving up to high school and add enough upper-class girls to have a team.”
“Our hopes are that there will continue to be enough interest in volleyball to build a high school program. I believe as soon as next year,” said Pettit.
Rader said, “It’s given me the chance to make new friends and learn a new sport in a great facility.” She also said, “The team offers a chance to learn a new sport that Trail hasn’t had before and make memories and friendships with teammates.”
“This team offers friendship, sportsmanship, teamwork, good work ethic, and staying active,” said Player CJ Ford.
Mooney also said, “I have enjoyed learning more about the sport. I find it very exciting. And then this evening, after watching our first scrimmage, I am absolutely hooked to the sport.”
“The girls are doing great. They are learning quickly. We have several multi-sport athletes on the team, so they were already accustomed to the work you have put in to learn new skills. I think we’ll have a great year of learning and pull out a few wins too,” said Coach Rader.
The construction of a new gym began near the end of 2020 and ended towards the beginning of 2021. The new gym is located between the school and the softball field, where the tennis courts used to be, right outside of the old gym. The inside of this gym is painted white, with blue and red details on the basketball court. Inside, six basketball rims can be found on any one of the walls, and a large set of blue bleachers can be found running down one of the walls.
“As for the volleyball team being related to the gym: 100% it is. Since my start as principal at MTHS in 2017, I have been approached about having volleyball. At the time, we couldn’t because the net requires stands that actually set into the floor. The old gym does not have this option, however with the build of a new gym that comes as an industry standard now,” said Principal Richard Pettit.
This gym will really help with sports when the winter season comes. During winter, there are five teams trying to share the gym, which usually calls for bickering.
Other than different teams having games or practices that overlap, another great plus of the gym is the ability to manage students during the school day. Throughout the day, the middle and high school are on different bell schedules which can make things difficult at times. Having this extra gym can make life much easier because middle school can go in one and the high school in the other.
With this gym came a brand-new parking lot as well. This is great because parking has always been an issue at the school. From regular school days, to sporting events, to random events, there is always a struggle to find parking. Though this parking lot is not big, it will offer some help to popular events. One of the most popular events is football games. There is always a huge struggle with parking at football games given that hundreds of people show up. A lot of times, people will be parked all the way down the side of the road and must walk over a mile just to make it to the event. Chances are, if an event starts and you must walk a long distance from your car to the school, you will miss a notable portion of the event. Though this parking lot is not big, it could potentially be a tremendous help with many timing and parking issues at the school.
Pettit said, “So far, the gym has definitely made life easier with scheduling classes. No longer do we have to consider keeping middle and high school PE (Physical Education) classes separate on the schedule because we can offer two locations for those classes to meet.”
(All photos were taken by Brylee Stephenson. Click on any photo to enlarge the picture or the gallery.)
