By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — A myriad of volleyball lessons were learned by Watauga’s young team after the Aug. 13, 3-0 loss at 3A rival, Hickory, but even more remain following a 3-1 setback to 2A power Foard on Aug. 14 in Lentz Eggers Gym.

Ever the pragmatist, Pioneer head coach Kim Pryor is fond of saying that when you lose there are just that many more opportunities to learn and grow as individuals and as a team. No season in recent memory has started with so many lessons to be learned for what is arguably the youngest Watauga roster in several years after losing seven seniors to graduation a year ago.

And yet, the improvement in play from one day to the next was clearly evident, especially in serving (offensively) and serve receive (defensively). The young Pioneers fielded Foard’s serves with much more authority than a day earlier against the Red Tornadoes. Although they lost 3-1 (25-22, 19-25, 25-23, 25-23) to the Tigers, all four sets in this match were proverbial nailbiters with plenty of long, extended rallies.

Besides improvement in serve receive, other bright spots for the Pioneers include middle blocker Grace Tillery’s 25 kills in 45 attempts with just two attack errors. The senior also racked up a total of 11 blocks, six of them of the solo variety.

From behind the service line, Watauga had three players each with a hat trick (3) of aces, including freshman Gracyn Phelps, senior Addison Parker and freshman Carolina Childers. Another freshman, Quinn Haines pocketed a pair of service aces to help keep things close in the decisive fourth set.

Watauga seems to be establishing a reliable dynamic duo in setting up attack opportunities with minimal ball-handling errors. Sophomore Lainey Gragg and Haines are filling in those roles adroitly, recording 29 and 22 assists, respectively, against Foard.

It was another youth movement defensively against the Tigers, as Childers (23 digs), sophomore Ashlyn Smith (15), Gragg (11), Haines (10), senior Kaitlyn Darner (8) and freshman Gracyn Phelps (7) each saw plenty of back row defensive action.

In the aforementioned serve receive category where Pryor put a lot of focus in practice prior to the Foard match, Childers was in the middle of the action with 34 serve receives vs. just a single receive error. Smith recorded 16 serve receives and Phelps, 15, during the four-set match.

Now 0-2 to start the season, Watauga goes back on the road Aug. 17 in search of a first win with matches against 0-2 West Rowan (12 p.m.) and 0-1 North Iredell (2 p.m.). Both are scheduled as varsity only, with both at North Iredell High School.

Watauga’s junior varsity volleyball team remains undefeated after a 2-0 win over Hickory on Aug. 13 and a come-from-behind, 2-1 win over Foard. Statistical leaders for the Pioneer JVs vs. Foard included Julia Rowan (7 kills), Ava Zaragoza (12 assists), Graycie Collins (6 digs) and Gracie Brown (4 service aces).

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By David Rogers. HICKORY, N.C. — Losing the opening volleyball match of the 2024 season to longtime rival Hickory (16-25, 19-25, 14-25) may not have been the goal — but for Watauga head coach Kim Pryor there is a silver lining.

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After losing seven seniors on last year’s Northwestern Conference championship team to graduation, the 2024 edition of the Pioneers is young, including three freshmen student athletes on varsity.

“Any time you lose,” said Pryor after the match, “it is an opportunity to learn and grow. So we have some things we can work on in the gym. A lot of it is mentality: playing the same way in a game that we do in practice, all out.”

With the next match hosted on Aug. 14 against perennial 2A state power Fred T. Foard in Lentz Eggers Gym, Watauga will need to be a quick study.

The Pioneers list five seniors on this year’s roster, led by middle blocker Grace Tillery, defensive specialist Kaitlyn Darner, right side hitter Hadleigh Windish, defensive specialist and opposite hitter Katie Matheson and middle blocker/outside hitter Addison Parker.

Seven juniors return to the 2024 squad, including middle blocker Kora Knight, defensive specialist and setter Lilli Combs, right side hitter Sophia Wade, opposite hitter and defensive specialist Anna Koontz, outside hitter Emma Pastusic (currently on injured list), defensive specialist Bella Wade, and right side hitter/outside hitter Athena Elliott.

The Pioneer sophomores are headlined by setter Lainey Gragg, as well as outside hitter and right side hitter Ashlyn Smith.

Four freshmen complete the Watauga roster, according to the information listed on MaxPreps, in setter and outside hitter Quinn Haines, libero and defensive specialist Caroline Childers, middle blocker Addie Stough and outside hitter Gracyn Phelps.

“All in all, we have a lot of positives that we can take from today as well as some things we need to work on, such as serve receive. We have the opportunity to grow from this experience,” said Pryor.

On the other side of the net, the winning Hickory head coach Jason Stephens was all smiles about the performance of his upperclassman-laden team’s performance.

“I was particularly pleased with our blocking,” said Stephens. “We got lots of touches and made things difficult for Watauga’s hitters. I was impressed with our serve game and did a lot of good things there. We have some setter-hitter timing things to work out. We can run things a lot faster, quicker and better. Overall, it was a nice start. It is always good to beat a good, well-coached team like Watauga.”

Stephens was quick to acknowledge that regardless of Watauga’s youth this season, he expects them to grow quickly.

“When you are young like that, they won’t be down long. Coach Pryor knows what she is doing. By the end of the year, they will be surprising some people,” said Stephens.

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By David Rogers. ASHEVILLE, N.C. — In terms of the most important takeaways for Watauga from the high school football “jamboree” hosted by Asheville HS on Aug. 10, head coach Ryan Habich said, “We have to get more physical.”

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Whether blocking or tackling — or being blocked or tackled — football is an intentionally physical game and good players cannot shy away from the contact. That is at least part of the message Habich seemed to convey to his players after the competitive sessions were all done against three other high school teams from the region: host Asheville, as well as Swain County (Bryson City, Cherokee and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park) and David Crockett High School (Jonesborough, Tenn.).

All three of the other schools shared some similarities with Watauga, even if differently. Asheville and Crockett are similar in terms of enrollment, even if the former draws from a more metropolitan school district and Crockett, as well as Swain have more rural enrollments, like Watauga.

“The jamboree format is not really a scrimmage,” said Habich after more than two hours of roundrobin play in which all schools had a chance to compete against one another at least once. “For each session, we play the other schools 10 plays on offense and 10 plays on defense, then we switch opponents.”

When asked what his coaching goals are for this kind of event, Habich was quick to respond.

“What we are trying to do is get everyone on tape. We want film on as many guys as possible, so we can tell not only where we need to improve but who we have. Our ultimate goal is to create depth at every position. Sometimes that is moving a player laterally, from one position to another. Other times that is having a player step up from the sideline,” said Habich.

Overall, Watauga’s first and second team units played well on both offense and defense, showing a lot of promise for the upcoming 2024 campaign, although each of their opponents were able to move the ball at times, even scoring, as did the Pioneers.

Except for being much warmer conditions than what Watauga has more often practiced in, in Boone, the weather was clear and sunny. For all of the players, adequate hydration was a critical part of the practice instructions.

Editor’s Note: For all of the teams, any printed roster did not match the names and numbers of the players, so so obtaining accurate player IDs was problematic.

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All photographic images by David Rogers for High Country Sports

By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — Opening up the 2024 collegiate women’s soccer season with a scrimmage against a legion of pirates, or “Buccaneers,” in this case from East Tennessee State, the Appalachian State women’s soccer team got a chance to implement a new formation while introducing a host of new faces on Aug. 5 at the Ted Mackeroll Soccer Complex.

ETSU’s backline defenders and defensive midfielders showed off a lot of one- and two-touch passing skills in mounting counterattacks, but the offensive efforts seemed to bog down once the Bucs crossed into the Mountaineers’ half of the field. At least some of the credit has to be given to App State’s defensive unit, led by senior Skylar Walk, freshman Sydney Snowden, Momu Guisasola, and goalkeeper Sarah Wommack, as well as the many substitutions shuttled in and out of the lineup.

“Our goals with this scrimmage were to try out some new systems and to play a lot of players,” said App State head coach Aimee Haywood after the final whistle had blown in the format comprised of three, 30-minute periods, “to see what we have. You can play in practice all you want but it is a little bit different when you are playing another team in a live match. We tried a few different systems and played everybody that was eligible to play, so I think we got out of it what we wanted, which is a lot of information. We are still in that preseason period where we are trying to build our team identity.”

Wommack, a redshirt freshman from Kernersville, N.C., played high school ball with Northwest Guilford and seemed satisfied with how the team on the field in front of her handled a new alignment, a 3-4-3.

“It makes more players available to attack,” she explained.

Although well-skilled ETSU defenders preserved a clean sheet for the visitors, App State’s offense manufactured more opportunities. Bucs goalkeeper Ashton Blair played all but 15 minutes of the 90 minutes of action, recording seven saves. Her replacement, Finley Dybik, turned away one Mountaineer shot. In total, the Mountaineers took 18 shots on goal. Meanwhile, the ETSU offense manufactured only five opportunities against App State’s stout defense.

“I thought it went very well today,” said graduate student forward Izzi Wood, returning from a 2023 season in which she became the first Mountaineer soccer player to earn all-Sun Belt honors since 2018, leading the conference in shots (79) and shots on target (34). “We have a lot of freshmen players who got a lot of minutes tonight. We were able to practice different formations and different systems, so overall I am very excited to see how far we can go this season.”

Incorporating a lot of new faces in freshmen and transfers is always a challenge to any program in any sport, but Wood explained how the team’s leaders took charge.

“Most of us got here in July, including the freshmen,” said Wood. “So we were able to train and workout together without the coaches. That helped us get to know them and gave us a chance to build some team chemistry. So when we were finally able to work with the coaches, it was not a cold start. I am very impressed with our freshmen. They made us better and were very impactful in the game tonight.

“I thought that ETSU’s backline and midfielders were the strongest part of their team tonight, but it comes down to our need to be a step faster. That will come as we play together more and gain confidence,” added Wood.

“Collectively, we all maintained our backside shape pretty well,” said Mountaineer defender Skylar Walk, who as a senior is one of the team’s elder statesmen, at least among the defenders. “Our sixes, or defensive midfielders, played down very well so made it easier or more predictable for us to come in and make tackles or win possession.”

Haywood seemed generally please with her team’s ability to counterattack after winning possession in the defensive half of the field.

“I thought we did a good job in counterattacking tonight, especially in the first half. In the second and third periods I think we could have done a better job of connecting a couple more passes before trying to go to goal,” said App State’s head coach, now in her third season at the helm.

In 2023, Haywood led the team to third place in the Sun Belt Conference, the best finish in program history. The Mountaineers finished the season with a program record eight shutouts, four of them consecutively, also tying a program record. The Mountaineers finished with an RPI of 75, their best since 2015 and No. 3 in North Carolina behind UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke.

App State travels to Rock Hill, S.C. on Aug. 9 to face Winthrop University in another exhibition match before opening the regular season at North Carolina State University in Raleigh on Aug. 15.