ALEDO OVERCOMING INJURIES IN A BIG WAY
BY CHUCK LICATA, CEO/BIG DADDY MEDIA
When one talks to Claire Gay, the ninth-year head volleyball coach at Aledo High School, one hears about some issues the team is working to overcome.Issues such as injuries: Gay, married to Brock High School coach Nick Gay, has two starting right-side hitters who’ve been injured since the start of District 5-5A play (the Ladycats are 7-0 in district). Two other players – Karsyn Todd (Abilene Christian commit) and Kaelee Berkley – are back this year from serious leg injuries last season.
“I’m proud of this team for many reasons,” stated Gay, who sits with 596 career victories with five district games left in the regular season. “One of them is that we have girls willing to step up and play out of position to help the team. We’re fortunate to have the depth and talent to overcome some issues that we, as well as other teams, face at this point of the season.”
So based on that discussion alone, would you even guess the Ladycats not only own a 32-2 overall record, but they have been at the VERY TOP (ranked #1) of the Texas Girls Coaches Association (TGCA) Class 5A polls for the last four weeks and near the top of the GMSportsMedia.com polls for several weeks.
“I don’t pay attention to polls,” chuckled Gay, who owns two state titles with volleyball-power Decatur, where she was head coach for 10 years before starting her current nine-year stint with Aledo. “I don’t know if the girls notice it either.
“Between the tough schedule we’ve played, the rest of district play in front of us, and focusing on ourselves, we don’t have much time to pay attention to the (polls).”
And tough schedule is right. The Ladycats played at state-ranked Keller right out of the gate on Aug. 11 – a Class 6A power coached by Danielle Spivey and a team that features Anna Flores, a setter/hitter committed to (University of) California-Berkley who is considered one of the top 10 players in the state.
“The (season-opening) win at Keller was good moment to see how competitive we are,” Gay declared. “Consider – we lost nine seniors from last year’s state-semifinal squad. We do have 11 seniors on this year’s team, and the Keller (win) showed we had a good balance.
“Then we went to (the Katy-CISD) tournament and played some great competition. We lost to A&M Consolidated in that tournament for the first match of Day 2, but the girls bounced back well and won out (the Ladycats finished the tournament tied for 9th place at 8-1).”
The only other loss for Gay and the Ladycats this year has been to Mansfield in the Granbury Tournament championship match. The Tigers, a Class 6A squad, are a blistering 38-1 and have been ranked #2 in both the GMSportsMedia.com and (TGCA) polls almost all year long; some team named Byron Nelson (30-0) has been ranked #1 ahead of Mansfield.
Karsyn Evans, a junior libero and Texas Tech commit, heads up the Aledo defense with 444 digs; she has 105 assists and 49 aces. Senior Sophie Frank has dished out 529 assists with Kailey Hamilton chipping in with 413 dimes in a 6-2 system. Todd (382 kills) and Berkley (304) currently lead the offense while senior middle Lily Lufkin (78 blocks) and Karsyn Trott (68) make life difficult for opponents in the middle of the net.
As good as they are now, the Ladycats can be expected to make another run to state.
