NEW YEAR, NEW CHALLENGES: St. Johns River State volleyball pushes to build on excellence
PALATKA – A stark reality of junior college is that coaches only have their teams for a year. And if they’re lucky, two.
They don’t have the luxury of grooming their athletes for four years. They have to recruit good talent and work diligently and efficiently to have any success.
St. Johns River State College head volleyball coach Matt Cohen, the program’s all-time winningest coach, has done his best to navigate the ever-changing environment.
Last year, Cohen got a break from a “one-and-done” year when he got 10 returners. The result? A 31-5 finish.
The team introduced its new team this year, only returning two of its top players from last year. The challenge is to try to recreate the success the team had last year.
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Cohen made sure his young team had enough play during the pre-season to prepare them for the new year. It has worked, so far. They’re 13-9.
“We’ve taken some bruises along the way,” Cohen said.
The Lady Vikings got a recent welt from their trip to Texas at the Lee College Invitational. Among the teams they played, they saw juggernauts Wharton County (16-6) and Navarro (20-4). They fell to both teams, but they were able to gain a lot from the experience.
“You don’t learn much, sometimes, in wins,” Cohen said. “You learn a ton in a loss. But when we’re playing good teams, we learn even more because we see some of those habits that maybe work in our gym that don’t work at a higher level. So we can address those.”
Sophomore Tara English said the matches out in Texas was something the team needed “to get its fire back.” They’ve since followed up their road trip with a 2-1 home stand. The Lady Vikings are still ranked number 19 in the country, dropping only five spots from their preseason ranking.
Cohen expects his young team to make mistakes. But how they handle those mistakes will be what separates them from other programs, he said.
For freshman Katelynn Wright, their resiliency already separates them.
“We’re not people who give up,” Wright said. “I really love that about this team. We love to work hard and push through everything no matter the circumstances.”
This article originally appeared on St. Augustine Record: College volleyball: St. Johns River State tries to recreate excellence
