Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook’s Addie Holden (7) passes the ball in a quarterfinal match during the AHSAA Class 6A quarterfinals at the Birmingham CrossPlex in October 2021.
Mattie Gardner’s first season as the Mountain Brook High School volleyball head coach could not have finished on a better note.
The Spartans won their third straight state title in 2021. Gardner was an assistant coach for two of those, then led the Spartans to the crown as the head coach last fall.
Now, Mountain Brook will attempt to follow that up this season.
“We’ve talked about how Mountain Brook has formed this legacy,” Gardner said. “We want to keep that. We want to keep the intensity, we want to keep a fast pace, we want to keep our ball control really strong. But this is the 2022 group, so how do we make it our own?”
Heading into the fall, Mountain Brook is expected to be one of the top teams in Class 6A once again.
“In the summer, you see a lot of what you need to work on more than what feels like it’s going right,” Gardner said. “There’s a lot on our to-do list, but what I have enjoyed seeing is these girls interact with each other.”
There are a handful of players returning from last year’s squad that have earned that crucial experience in the big moments. The Spartans will be relying on them to lead the way to potentially accomplishing more high marks this year.
There are three seniors on this team, as Addie Holden, Anna Frances Adams and Caroline Heck are tasked with being key players and critical leaders for the team. Holden is a vocal leader, Adams has a chance to be a top libero and Heck is hoping to return strong after battling injuries a year ago.
“They each play a very different role on this team, but each is so necessary,” Gardner said. “They have done a great job taking on my challenge to be servant leaders.”
In addition to them, setter Hannah Parant and middle blocker Alice Garzon carved out regular roles last season. They will need to use lessons learned and morph that with the needs of this year’s team to help the group reach its potential.
“What worked last year worked. We won a state championship. You’re not looking to clean the slate, but that group of girls interacted in a way that won’t work with the new girls. It’s just figuring out communication and figuring out how to replicate the intensity of the state tournament in practice,” Gardner said.
Gardner believes Parant has yet to reach her ceiling, while the Spartans want Garzon to be more assertive offensively following the graduation of dominant middle Greer Golden.
Ann Coleman and Paige Parant are junior outside hitters with plenty of potential, while twins Mae Mae Lacey and Annie Lacey are also looking for spots in the rotation. Mae Mae Beatty is a sophomore competing for time on the outside, while Ella Kate Wright and Ava Gillis are defensive specialists.
Mountain Brook’s schedule this season is tough as always, with the likes of Spanish Fort, McGill-Toolen, Vestavia Hills, Hoover, Homewood, Spain Park, Athens, and Northridge on the regular season schedule.
The Spartans are also playing in the Juanita Boddie Tournament, HeffStrong Tournament and Margaret Blalock Tournament, local fixtures. They are also playing a pair of out-of-state tournaments in Florida and South Carolina this fall.
