Trio in charge

A Spartan trio is looking to go out with a bang.

Caroline Davies, Emmy Kilgore and Ellie Ritter are all hitters on the Mountain Brook High School volleyball team, and they are the three senior leaders who will propel the team on its journey through the duration of the 2016 fall season.

Expectations are high for a program that has won consecutive Class 7A state championships, the first two years of existence for the highest classification in the Alabama High School Athletic Association.

Davies and Kilgore have been on the varsity squad since they were freshmen. Ritter is in her second year with the top group, so all three know what it’s like to reach the top of the mountain and win it all.

They have also seen first-hand how seniors and upperclassmen before them have guided a team to reach its goals, and will look to apply those lessons to their own leadership styles.

“We’ve gotten to watch really great leaders in the past couple years,” said Davies, who singled out Sara Carr and Sara Chandler Mitchell as examples from last year. The Spartans had a similar situation last year, with Carr, Mitchell and Payton Selman the three seniors on that team.

Davies continued, “We take what we liked from them and make it into our own, and it’s really different having all the younger ones look up to you.”

Coaches say all the time that every team is different, even if the core remains intact from one year to the next. Each group gels together in a unique way and the dynamic of a unit shifts each season.

“Leadership in our program is outstanding,” head coach Haven O’Quinn said. “The veteran players take past experiences, both positive and negative, and understand how to use them to make them matter. Our three seniors are playing with no regrets and are providing a great foundation for the rest of our roster.”

The Spartans have transitioned from a veteran-laden team to one featuring a mix of young and old, with five freshmen the most O’Quinn said she has ever had on one team.

For that reason, the three seniors had to have a conversation before the season started, because they realized that all of their leadership styles were nearly identical; fiery and to the point.

“We were a little bit more snappy,” Davies said.

Understanding that not everyone responds best to that type of encouragement and/or criticism, Ritter has become the calmer voice when that is needed. But don’t mistake a softer voice for making any less of an impact.

“When she says something, everyone gets quiet,” Davies said.

The girls see that need for leadership not only on the floor during matches, but maybe even more so in practices, especially early in the season while the younger players are still adjusting and becoming comfortable.

“I was very intimidated,” said Ritter, speaking from experience. “I can’t even imagine how scared (the freshmen) are with all us.” 

“We have two or three drills where it’s really hard,” Davies said. “We know going in that we’re going to run if we don’t get this. Being a freshman, scared out of my mind, I didn’t want to get the ball.”

Davies wants to make sure the current wave of youngsters overcomes that hurdle quicker.

She said, “But we told them, you’ve got to keep being aggressive. Everyone makes errors; no one’s perfect, so there’s no point in holding back. That’s what our seniors used to tell me, and it helped a lot.”

Kilgore contends that the reason the Spartans have the potential to be so successful on the court is because the team, specifically the seniors, is so close away from the sport.

“We’re really close and volleyball has brought us closer,” Kilgore said. “We’re all very tight-knit, we talk in a group text all the time. We’re very close to each other.”

That friendship also lends itself to the ability to trust one another on the court. Kilgore plays on the outside while Ritter and Davies are middles, but they all share total confidence in one another.

“All three of us can put the ball down, especially Emmy and Caroline,” Ritter said. “ I think both of the middles have come a long way with our blocking, but that’s something we have to continue working on. You can always count on Emmy and Caroline.”

Combine the three seniors with the production of Lacey Jeffcoat, who many coaches say is the best libero in the state, and many other key contributors, the Spartans have as good a chance as any team to hoist the blue map toward the end of October.

The Area 6 tournament will take place on Oct. 17, and the super regionals later that week should the Spartans qualify. The state tournament is set for Oct. 26-27 at the Birmingham CrossPlex.

Each player summed up her hopes for the season in a different manner. Winning a third straight state title would “be icing on the cake” for Davies, but she is certainly not taking anything for granted.

“This year, we want to reach our full potential,” she said. “It’s starting to become real that we’re going to be graduating soon.”

Ritter said that the Spartans cannot win without “good ball control,” and added, “We have to work on focusing throughout the whole process.”

Kilgore has the same answers for anyone who asks about her final season at Mountain Brook.

She said, “All the time, people say, ‘what do you want?’ I always say I want to win another state championship…We know what it takes and it’s a lot of hard work, and we’re willing to put that in, and hopefully that’s the outcome.”

“Just want to end with a bang,” Davies said.