Varsity Players Step Away from Hawthorne Volleyball
Hawthorne volleyball faced a loss much larger than one in the standings Wednesday night.
After its second to last match of the regular season against visiting Eastside, all but four varsity Hornets quit the team.
“There’s been a lot of things being said and slowly building,” Hawthorne coach Vannessa Gillman said. “I was finally just like, ‘Hey, we gotta either get it together or y’all just need to walk out.’”
Only three girls informed Gillman and their teammates that they would not be returning, according to Raegan Lee, a setter and one of the few varsity players remaining on the team. The rest failed to show up for Thursday night’s match against P.K. Yonge.
Gillman noted that tensions had been building on the team for almost a month with the Hornets mired in a 4-15 season after going 0-24 last year.
“They were not a fan of me being a coach,” Gillman said. “So I told them, ‘You do not like it, and we can’t support each other or your coach, then we don’t need to be here.’”
Lee felt that the tension was due to Gillman’s approach to practices and lineup rotations. She said that some players were frustrated when Gillman ended practices early or canceled them. One player joked about not receiving playing time.
Lee, however, did not share her teammates’ frustration with Gillman’s lineup decisions.
“I don’t have a problem with who she’s playing, because I understand that who she is playing are also good players, and they have contributed to us winning,” Lee said.
Gillman is in her second year as head coach. She started as an assistant and was thrust into the leading position after the previous coach’s resignation.
Gillman acknowledged her relationship with the former players was affecting their performance on the court.
“The people that were mad about her coaching just started getting really bad attitudes with her,” Lee said. “It just really started bringing the whole mood down.”
To be able to play against P.K. Yonge on Thursday night, the Hornets needed to pull players from the junior varsity team.
“Whatever JV wants to stay and to prove that maybe this is where the next step is … then let me see what y’all got,” Gillman said.
Sophomore Kassie Reed and eighth-grade students D’asia Williams, Bailey Carden and Xia Williams answered the call. The returning varsity players were senior Lauren Bryan, junior Lee and freshmen Rakia Glover and Deyauni Williams.
“I love the other girls endlessly but tonight, the environment was very refreshing,” Gillman said. “The sportsmanship out there was a completely different reflection.”
Lee agreed with Gillman’s sentiments, describing a shift in team dynamics and attitudes on the court. She said her former teammates would often blame her for mistakes made during play.
“Especially being a setter, I was blamed for a lot of the hitting mistakes,” Lee said. “Now it’s like, ‘Hey, it’s OK, you’ll get the next one,’ and people are more willing to help get the ball if I can’t get to it.”
Hawthorne (4-16) fell 3-0 to P.K. Yonge (11-8) for the second time this season.
Gillman said communication was lacking in the match, resulting in the lagging set scores of 25-15, 25-11 and 25-16. The Hornets had less than five kills and no aces.
However, she and Lee continued to express admiration for their select set of players.
“I’m very proud of them,” Gillman said. “Everyone wants to win all the time, but those girls did great.”
“I feel really thankful for them, to be willing to step up and make it so that we could play,” Lee said. “I think having them up there made our team a lot lighter and less stressful because they weren’t judgmental.”
Going into the postseason next week, Gillman spoke with the junior varsity team, offering them the chance to step up.
“They are more than welcome to come play districts with us,” Gillman said. “They showed tonight that they do deserve to be the ones I call up on district time.”
They will need to adjust without team stat leaders Rylee Triplett (in kills and serving aces), Raylen Cue (in total blocks) and Holly Moore (in digs and receptions).
Hawthorne competes in a Rural District 7 Tournament Quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Monday at Cedar Key (5-13).
Category: Hawthorne High School, High School Sports
