Photo by Wade Davis. The 9 girls pictured are – Kris’Ani Hunt, Olivia McKinney, Ariana Lambar, Violet Davis, Londynn Campbell, Grace Hochstetler, Nureen Khan, Damia Soles, and Kenya Laney. The volleyball team finished their season 5-14.
On September 19, the Riverside High School women’s volleyball team came out hot and won a set against Jordan. The Pirates ultimately lost 3-1, but the scoreboard didn’t tell the full story.
It was the team’s first game in a week since DPS opened a Title IX investigation in early September. Head coach Michael Hodge and assistant coach JaLisa Sessoms stepped down on September 13, leaving the team without a coach and pausing the season indefinitely.
Three parents, determined to help their kids finish out the season, volunteered themselves to be interim coaches: Lori Khan, Jennifer Gilette, and Maria Lewek.
Khan is the volleyball coach for Triangle Day School, and Gillette coaches for Carrington Middle School. Once they stepped in, the first challenge they faced was scheduling. Due to the pause mid-season the team missed two games and were able to make one of them up after the athletic director Robert Duncan worked with the school district, game officials and opponents to get it rescheduled.
Duncan was also able to push all of the games they had scheduled back by half an hour in order to give the volunteer coaches time to finish their regular jobs and other coaching responsibilities.
Khan said coaching two teams at the same time was difficult, but worth it.
“[It’s] okay with me if I have to spend more time in the gym, coming from my practices or games to these practices and games,” she said. “We just wanted to make sure that the girls had an opportunity to finish [their season].”
These events and scheduling changes happened a week at a time, which left the athletes with their own issues.
Senior Kris’Ani Hunt says the biggest challenge was the inconsistency.
“We didn’t know what we’re doing the next week,” she said. “Because we don’t have a coach, the people that were coaching us had to go through every week to figure out what we can and cannot do through DPS. So we have a lot of inconsistencies with practices.”
“We kept thinking our season was going to be canceled after every game,” says sophomore Grace Hochstetler. “We didn’t know if we were going to have practice. We didn’t know who is going to show up to practice, if the coaches are going to be there or if Duncan is going to be there. It was very unpredictable.”
The team took the scheduling challenges as an opportunity to make the most of every practice and game, not knowing if they were going to have another one.
“We really changed our mindset,” Hochstetler says, “We’ve been using the phrase ‘We get to’ – we get to play, we get to be here and everybody is just enjoying playing the game. We’ve all decided to go for it and see what happens.”
Khan adopted the “We get to” phrase from the Duke volleyball coach. “We came in with the intent for our games and our practice that ‘we get to’…at one point that wasn’t certain.”
Having a huge change mid-season can be shattering for many teams, but the Pirates were intentional about staying together and have bonded over this new experience.
“I feel like we were all helping each other – being more friends rather than just teammates,” Hunt said.
Hunt added that it translated to their games as well. The connection with each other made their game stronger on the court.
“We talked about things more when it comes to game play,” she said. “We checked in with each other throughout the match, becoming more of a team.”
The team finished the season with an overall record of 5-14, which is 3 more losses compared to last year, but the Pirates’ spot in the conference standings (fifth) remained the same.
“I’m the most proud of their resilience and their ability to maintain a positive spirit and energy with each other and with us on and off the court,” Khan said.
Khan hopes the team will continue to grow its bond.
“We were a very young team this year, so it’s building on those foundations,” she said.
The future coach for Riverside Volleyball remains unknown. Duncan says Riverside is reviewing applications, and school leaders hope to hire a coach by no later than March. This would allow the team to have a full spring training season.
Duncan also said the strong Riverside community made it possible to finish the volleyball season.
“Our parent group has done a huge job stepping up and making sure they’re available to be supportive and helping the ladies who’ve come on to help the team,” Duncan said. “I think it’s really important to have that community, it’s what I feel like Riverside has grown to be and what it’s about.”
