Second-year Enid High Volleyball Coach Gabe Watts wants his players to leave a legacy at Enid, as players, and as people. And since Enid just started playing volleyball in 1994, there is not a lot of history and legacy to compare it to. “There were some good teams in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, but its been a long time since we have made the State tournament. We almost did it in 2018-2019, but didn’t quite get there, but that’s always our goal, and we are set up to have a pretty good run,” says Watts.
And after coming up just shy of finishing .500 last year (14-16), and graduating six seniors, this year’s Pacer Volleyball squad has a little ways to go. “We are such a young team this year. Out of our 8-9 min rotation players, only three are Seniors, and we have a lot of Sophomores and Juniors we have to rely on to be competitive,” Watts says. “This year we have been right there with some teams, but we are just killing ourselves and have made too many mistakes. But we are just going to keep grinding, getting these young kids some experience (some girls are playing JV and Varsity to get reps) and we could find ourselves chasing .500 again, and maybe even doing a little damage at regionals if we end up playing some of the east schools again.”
And to do that, it’s going to take stellar play from team leaders like Junior Addison Polesky. “Addison is an all around good player, and can do just about anything from the outside hitter position. She leads the team in kills and is second in digs and is who we look to to lead us to wins.” Junior Baylee Ross and Sophomore Lauren Jackson are also players that need to play well for Enid to reach their goals. “Baylee is a really good soccer player that is coming into her own as a volleyball player and playing well this year,” said Watts, and Lauren has come in this year, and shown that she can play good at this level.”
If these girls keep improving and getting experience, it would be a pretty good bet, they will leave a legacy for future teams to remember.
