The running joke for Jonathan Flowers on most nights last season was that his biggest worry was to make sure the scorer’s table was set up correctly before the Concord High volleyball team took the court. “That’s what I was like last year: ‘These girls got this and I can just sit back and watch.’ ”
The seventh-year head coach for the Tide is no stranger to creating a winning environment and engineering successful teams, but the 2016 version of Concord volleyball almost seemed like it could float through games on autopilot without much pushback from the opposition. And that’s because at times, it could.
With floor general Caitlyn Shea – one of two players in New Hampshire high school history to reach 2,000 career assists – orchestrating the offense, and Lauren Hatch – one of the most dynamic middle hitters and blockers to come through the doors of Concord – finishing off every opportunity, everything was always in place for last year’s team. All that was evident by the Tide’s 16-2 record, 11 wins via sweep and a runner-up finish in Division I.
Now, without that tandem of Shea and Hatch who spent their careers filling up the state’s record books, Flowers is presented with a new team and a new challenge this season.
“Shea had so much volleyball knowledge that she could just look at the court and know exactly where people were supposed to be,” Flowers said. “I didn’t even have to think about that because she was there. And now, all of a sudden, I don’t have that person out there who’s just kind of running the show on the floor.
“The last couple of years I knew exactly where everyone was going to be, and it was just like, ‘That’s your spot. You there,’ but this year is taking a little bit of a time to figure out who fits best in what spots, who plays better next to each other, trust, and all the rest of that kind of stuff so it’s going to be a challenge.”
While there’s no replacement for a setter with 2,029 assists, or a ferocious hitter with 1,051 kills and 142½ blocks, Concord did not completely clean out the cupboard. The Tide returns four starters, including Paige Weatherbee and Mia Harmon, as well as senior captains Brenna Vandersea and Maria Wimpey to form a new core group.
Vandersea and Weatherbee will anchor the defense in the back row, while Harmon is making the move from middle to outside and Wimpey is transitioning from outside to setter.
“In past years, we’ve known going to jamborees, rather than mixing stuff up, everyone’s had a specific position,” Wimpey said. “Whereas this year, our middles are playing outside, some of our outsides are going to the middle. It’s pretty crazy. I’ve been setting sometimes this year and I am not a setter so that’s been pretty interesting.”
Based on Flowers’s assessment through the preseason, Wimpey appears poised to start the year as the setter when Concord opens the season at home against Goffstown on Friday. But Flowers likes his senior captain in other spots on the floor, too, which could lead to many of the girls playing multiple positions.
“The one thing we do have, which is a little bit different and I’ll say is a bonus: The players that we have are all well-rounded volleyball players and they can play any position I put them in,” Flowers said. “(Wimpey) happens to be one of our best players and best passers and when you put that person in your setting position, they’re not hitting and they’re not passing. If we don’t control the ball well, then nothing flows from that.”
If Flowers opts to move Wimpey back to the outside, junior Abby Rochette could take over setting duties. Rochette is a returning player who spent time behind Shea on the depth chart.
“We’ve really been grooming her to see if we can move her up to a setting position,” Flowers said. “She’s been our backup the last couple of years. But of course with (Shea), that’s like being the backup behind Tom Brady.”
Other returners who provided much-needed depth last year, and could do so again this season are junior Dasha Savelieva and senior Grace Allaire, while newcomers Quinn Daniels, Emma Ferguson, Kayla Bondra, Helen Massah and Ceylon Ayan will all look to carve out roles for themselves.
Daniels is a super athletic hitter with a basketball bloodline; Flowers called the freshman Ferguson a “diamond in the rough” and suspected that she could be a well-known player in the state at the middle by the time she leaves Concord; and Ayan was actually cut from the team last fall and served as the manager, only to come back this season as the most consistent outside hitter through the preseason.
“We just have to keep working together and get used to playing with each other,” Vandersea said. “We have a lot of new people on the team, there’s a lot of juniors so it’s not like we’re young, we’re just all not familiar with each other.”
“I think the biggest thing this year is going to be about all-around chemistry,” Flowers said. “Finding the right spots and building the chemistry.”
(Jay McAree can be reached at 369-3371, jmcaree@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @JayMcAree.)