Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Seniors are gone, youth rules the Northside roost

Prep volleyball race is wide open


Chocked full of talented seniors, the Northside Conference was the scourge of Idaho 1A volleyball last fall, casting off opponents left and right with hitting and efficiency.

The Shoshone Indians (33-2) won their second consecutive State 1A tournament championship in fairly easy three-game fashion over Genesee, and the Carey Panthers (29-7) brought home the school's first-ever state trophy in third place.

Shoshone, Carey and Dietrich, the top three Northside tournament finishers, dominated All-League teams with a long list of seniors.

The seniors have graduated, leaving the Northside race wide open for the 2006 season.

Carey coach Kathy Whitworth said, "Everybody has fairly young teams and there are a lot of unknown quantities. The race is pretty much wide open this year, although Richfield is the one team bringing back a lot of last year's juniors."

Four teams instead of five from the combined Northside and Southside conferences qualify for this year's State 1A tournament at Declo. And the Carey School Panthers will host both the Northside tournament and Fourth District finals in 2006.

Carey School Panthers

Carey's second straight trip to the state tournament in 2005 was indeed a memorable campaign for coach Whitworth, now in her third season at the Panther helm and helped by her father, longtime Northside boys basketball coach Dick Simpson.

The only teams Carey lost to were Shoshone (four losses), Mackay (two losses) and state runner-up Genesee (in the state semi-final). The Panthers won 20 of their 29 matches in the minimum number of games and emerged victorious in three thrilling five-gamers with Dietrich.

Second-team All-Leaguers Whitney Peck, Jessica Royal and Amy Olsen were among seven Panther seniors who graduated. But Whitworth has high hopes for the 19-match season that started Tuesday night with a home triangular against Mackay and Hansen.

"They're young but willing to learn and want to do well this year," said Whitworth about the current Panther varsity. "It's a pretty good all-around team, not real powerful in hitting but a pretty consistent passing team, and most of them are good servers. On defense they cover the court nicely and move well.

"They remember what it was like to have a great season last year and go to state. So far the transition to the new season has gone smoothly."

Carey's five seniors are 5-6 offhand hitter Cassie Weaver, 5-6 outside hitter Emily Olsen, 5-7 middle blocker Serene Bingham, 5-9 middle/offhand Allison Shaffer and 5-10 middle blocker Brittany Hennefer.

The three juniors up from last year's junior varsity who are tackling Carey's 6-2 offense are outside hitter Jennifer Cenarrusa, defensive specialist/offhand Katie Patterson and setter Bonnie Olsen. The sophomores, both setters, are Shelby Hansen and Emily Butcher.

On Carey's 10-player junior varsity are six sophomores—Kelsey Green, Chelsey Hunt, Ashley Harshbarger, Brooke Bingham, Jasmine Gamino and Kayla Bailey—plus four freshmen. They are Jenni Murphy, Taylor Whitby, Amy Ellsworth and Jessica Parke.

Community School Cutthroats

Of the 23 players chosen to the Northside Conference All-League teams last fall, 21 were seniors and only one was a sophomore, and that was Amaya Ingram of The Community School. She made honorable mention and nearly the second team.

Fifth-year Community School coach Reamy Goodwin is happy to have 5-7 outside hitter Ingram back for the 13-match Cutthroat regular-season slate that started Tuesday at home against the 2006 Northside Conference favorite Richfield Tigers.

"Richfield is the team to beat," said Goodwin.

Goodwin had an extremely young team last fall featuring three juniors, six sophomores and four freshmen. Still the Cutthroats (7-16) picked up a couple of league wins over Bliss and one tournament victory over the Bears and gained some experience.

This year, Goodwin said, "experience is certainly the bright spot."

He added, "I think we'll be competitive. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we're going to get ourselves in competitive situations this year—and it will be fun to see how we handle it. I hope we have some four- or five-game matches early."

The only Cutthroat senior is 5-7 opposite Rachael Becker. Juniors will provide the foundation of the varsity squad. They are Ingram, 5-6 opposite Shawnee Brew, 5-4 setter Khrystyne Inman, 5-8 middle Jen Tormey, 5-6 outside hitter Ashley Bradley and 5-9 middle Caroline Fairchild.

Last year's freshman didn't return, but Goodwin is working with seven current freshmen.

They are 5-4 outside hitter McKenna Anderson, 5-5 outside hitter Chloe Jory, 5-4 outside hitter Tate Reed-McDorman, 5-6 outside hitter Jessica Bradley, 5-7 opposite Maggie Shafran, 5-5 middle Melissa Becker and 5-9 middle Hailey Zanes.

Goodwin said he's delighted to have his former Wood River High School star player Kristyn Price as his assistant Cutthroat coach this fall. "We're having a great time," he said.

Price helped Wood River varsity volleyball teams under coach Goodwin to a 127-29 record and four district tournament titles from 1995-98. Outside hitter Price was also a four-year starter at Albertson College of Idaho in Caldwell. She set kills records and was Cascade Conference "Player of the Year," in 2002.




 Local Weather 
Search archives:


Copyright © 2024 Express Publishing Inc.   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy
All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited. 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.