North Georgia Christian Academy Volley Ball Team Report

The North Georgia Christian Academy Mariners’ volleyball team will take to the court under the tutelage of head coach, Tina Mabry. Mabry has been the coach for the last two years. The Mariners posted a winning record, of 10-6, last year. Mabry recently consented to an exclusive interview with FYN.Mabry began practice with her lady’s to prepare for the new season. A new addition to the program will be fifth grade students.

“We made a decision going into this year to start to open it up to fifth graders,”

Mabry said.

The decision should infuse young talent into the program that, according to Mabry, will most likely pay future dividends as the student matriculate.

“We got some new girls that are brand new to the game. I think it will be a good feeder to the J.V. down the road, because they all have some good basic skills.”

NGCA, being a small private school, does not play the traditional schedule of bigger public schools; however, the Mariners have had little difficulty digging up opponents.

“We play a combination of other Christian Schools and we actually play a couple of opposing high school, and JV public schools,”

Mabry said.

According to Mabry, the Mariners have grown tremendously within the last calendar year.

“The biggest growth that I’ve seen is just an advancement in basic skills and huge improvement overall, in just the fundamentals of the game. We always start back over with that, you have to make sure you’ve got the basics in place before you can move on to offensive and defensive information.”

The Mariners will serve spikes with eight veterans in the 2011 season. Team Captain, senior Taylor Osborne, will steer the Mariners’ ship. Senior “Team MVP, Sarah Lowman, will be back at the nets as well. Mabry had nothing but praise for the old guard.

On Osborne,

“She has a wonderful heart. She’s encouraging. She’s very skilled at the game. She loves the game, so she’s our captain and leader in that regard, but we have returning this year.”

On Lowman,

“Last year she was our Most Improved Player… wonderful team asset, very skilled.”

Mabry also spoke highly of, senior, Beth Jarvis, who

“Is one our most consistent servers.”

Mabry insisted that,

“We are blessed to have just a wonderful group of young ladies.”

The Mariners will take to the sea of competition this upcoming fall with dreams of spiking down opponents and digging up wins.