Sumter High boys volleyball takes big strides in Year 2

Last fall, the Sumter High volleyball team was just happy to get in the win column near the end of its inaugural season. They developed throughout the fall and won both games of a doubleheader with South Florence in their final home games. This fall, they were ready to take another step.

The Gamecocks put in plenty of work this offseason. The players brought in a few friends to deepen the bench and bring in a bit more competition. After hours of practice, they matched last year's win total by their fourth match and finished the regular season with eight victories. They may even have a playoff berth in their future, though they're still waiting for word on the postseason, which begins next week. Head coach Terri Wood-McCray loved the way her team just kept improving, culminating in a sweep of Airport to cap off the regular season on Wednesday, Oct. 8.

"Last year was kind of trial and error on a lot of stuff, so we knew coming into the season a lot of the stuff that worked and what didn't work," Wood-McCray said. "We had our returning players, and they were able to add a lot to the team and help us coach the new players. The dedication, as usual, was wonderful. We have a fantastic group of boys, and I'm so proud of them. They made so many improvements, and we did a lot better than we did last year."

While they didn't tally a ton of wins in Year 1, the Gamecocks were able to firmly establish their program, which helped them grab the attention of newcomers. Their bench was completely full on game days, and that depth also allows for more efficient practices with enough players to properly scrimmage. That helped them earn multiple wins against Airport, South Florence, Ridge View, West Florence and a new program over at Manning. SHS finished their season by winning six of their final eight matches.

"A lot of the people that came out to tryouts were by word of mouth," Wood-McCray said. "The boys from last year, returning or not, spread the word. They talked to all of their friends, people at the church, people everywhere, and we had people come out who I never would've had contact with."

The Gamecocks had three dedicated seniors, Alfredo Gutierrez, Joey DeGuzman and Trillyon Glover, as well as a stable of underclassmen who gained critical experience last year. David Vizcarra is a high-energy leader alongside fellow captain Noah Grossman. Owen Sunderland returned as their top offensive player. His leaping and strength helped deliver a team-high 73 kills on the year, while he also had seven aces. Vizcarra led the team with 25 aces, while Grossman had 13 kills and four aces. Gutierrez added an additional 14 aces and eight kills.

"Owen has an incredible vertical and a great ability to hit. He really is a well-rounded player," Wood-McCray said. "David is a great player, and he's really good at communication. He, overall, does really well communicating with the guys, whether it's on the court, in practice, even through our text threads. Noah is also a great communicator, and he's very good at taking the lead with exercises and getting the guys to go where they need to go."

Of the newcomers, Wood-McCray was really impressed by the way Tyler Lighty stepped onto the scene. He finished the regular season with 19 aces and 15 kills.

"He admitted when he got here that he didn't really play organized volleyball, but he's doing really well," the SHS head coach said. "He has a great vertical, and his speed is incredible. He'd be great whether we put him as one of our hitters or as a libero. He's doing really well."

While coaches can hammer home technique every day in practice, there are some things you just need to learn by playing in games. Wood-McCray said her team's volleyball IQ has improved leaps and bounds simply because they have more reps against real competition.

"I term it 'P.E. volleyball,' which is everyone goes for the ball at once and hit it as hard as you can every time," Wood-McCray said of the initial brand of volleyball most of the boys adopted early. "They had to learn when to really hit it and how to hit it and when to just lob it in."

The Gamecocks are also trying to take new strides off the court, using websites like MaxPreps to have stats and results available, while also filming games in order to send tape to college coaches.

"I'm going to update MaxPreps as much as I can so that we can get data for the guys' futures who want to take their game to the next level," Wood-McCray said. "Noah's taken a role in taping the games, helping us get film."

Overall, this season was a massive step for the program. A trip to the playoffs would be great, but Wood-McCray thought this season was the perfect followup for what they established last fall. She plans to keep the arrow pointing upward.

"Coach (Crasten) Davis has already told me that he's working on a feeder program," she said. "A JV team would be absolutely amazing because then I won't be starting with fresh freshmen."