GHS “New” Lady “Cats” Volleyball Coach, Donna Parks, Discusses Upcoming Season

Newly appointed head volleyball coach, Donna Parks, is currently grooming the Lady “Cats” for the upcoming season. The Lady “Cats” are in the midst of summer conditioning, despite not having access to the gymnasium due to reflooring.Parks said that the summer workouts are the most integral part of preparing for the season.

“We’ve got to get them here to see what they can do.”

Parks, along with assistant coaches Janet English and Susan Nunn, concentrated on conditioning first before working the fundamentals with the team.

“This week I’m going to start off (with) just the conditioning. I’ve been in touch with the past players through June, and I’ve asked them, ‘Please run a mile, please run a couple miles, something to keep yourself in shape; because when we start we start.’ So this week mostly like this, the conditioning the stairs the ladders, stuff like that. Next week, when we get into the gym, we’ll see how much we need to work on fundamentals.”

Parks also discussed the difficulties that arise with bringing the younger players along without a middle school feeder program.

“Hopefully a lot of these girls have played, but the younger ones, since we don’t have a middle school program, that makes it tough, because they have no way to learn like they do, in you know, basketball, and football. But we’ll start to see who needs the fundamental help and go from there. That’s all we can do.”

Parks plans to rely heavily on coaches English and Nunn to help develop the younger players.

The Lady Bobcats have an experienced team, with most players playing since freshman year. Parks also inherited a team that lost no senior players, and therefore plans on having success in the upcoming season.

“I want to win!”

Parks is not completely new to the program, having been the junior varsity coach for the last four years. She expects the transition to be seamless.

“I’ve been with all these girls since they started at the high school.”

FYN Interview With New GHS Volleyball Coach Donna Parks from Fetch on Vimeo.