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By Jason O. Boyd
For the Washington Daily News

While new faces are leading Southside and Washington’s high school volleyball programs, it’s business as usual at Northside.

The Seahawks and Pam Pack have first-year coaches as both look to build a level of success this season. Misty Mooring, who coached at Chocowinity Middle School, is leading the way at Southside while Angie Shifflet is in her first year at Washington. At Northside, Michelle Leathers is back for her ninth season, seeking another trip to the state playoffs.

Southside
Mooring said she was happy with the summer workouts and the dedication her team put into it. With seven seniors and a freshman setter with travel volleyball experience, there was optimism the Seahawks could improve from a two-win season in 2023.

Last week’s victory over Martin County was the perfect example of the team’s progress. The Seahawks won the first two sets, 25-14 and 25-15, before dropping the next two 22-25 and 23-25. They won the fifth set, 15-13 to improve to 2-3 on the season.

Mooring said she was proud of her team but know they were spent after playing three times this week. They’re now 2-1 in five-set matches, beating West Craven earlier and dropping a close one to North Pitt.

“It’s nice to see some early success, to see them get rewarded for their effort,” Mooring said. “I think that the cohesiveness we developed in the summer is starting to pay off a little bit. I like the start and, hopefully, it’s gonna help us prepare down the road for conference play.”

The team showed good movement against Martin County and didn’t get too when breaks didn’t go their way. The crowd got behind the team as it rallied in the fifth set before putting away the final points to win it.

“What we’ve really tried to push here is really focusing on everybody’s strengths,” Mooring said. “What you can provide for the team. We don’t necessarily have a superstar, which I think is a good thing. So, everybody is doing what they can, sometimes it’s somebody different stepping up to get the job done.”

Northside
Consistency is the name of the game at Northside. The Panthers were 14-9 last season, finished second in the Coastal Plains 1-A/2-A and advanced to the second round of the state playoffs, losing to Falls Lake.
Six seniors lead a talented program which is off to a 2-0 start this season and looks to get stronger as the season progresses. They are seeking their 10th straight state playoff berth and maybe more.

“We’ve been working hard, every year trying to get better, especially on JV, put a good team together,” Leathers said. “First game was a good game. Just taking the process slowly, but we’re gonna get where we need to be.”

Leathers pointed to her seniors as those she will be counting on to lead the program. Three of them, Madison Scheffler, Mollie and Mallorie Cook-Coltrain said it’s the team’s togetherness that makes playing fun and productive.

It’s been a great growing experience,” Mallorie Cook-Coltrain said. “Getting to know other people and grow within the sport together.

“I like in that with varsity, we are small (in numbers),” Scheffler said. “It makes us all closer.”
“We’re all just like a big family,” Mollie Cook-Coltrain said. “… We want to just play the best we can as a team and have fun.”

Having a good season, learning and growing are some of the goals this season for the Panthers.

“We want to replicate (our success) and go further,” Leathers said. “Execute the plan, play hard, do what we need to do as a team to get past that second round (of the state playoffs).

Washington
Shifflet has a young team with two seniors, two juniors, three sophomores and five freshmen on the roster, according to MaxPreps.com. “These girls are so fun to watch,” she said. “Every single person has a job to make the Pam Pack successful. It might just be for serving or hitting middle for one rotation, but whatever it is, they all contribute to making their team a contender. If we work together, play as one and have fun playing the game we love, these girls will go far.”

Shifflet had simple goals for her new team, from conditioning to finding the right fit on junior varsity and varsity. The varsity team had just three practices before starting the season against Edenton with the JV squad only having two practices. While the JV team won, the varsity dealt with some first-game jitters in a loss.

Still, Shifflet is optimistic about what her squad can do this season.

“We are still working on rotation and building these young teams every practice,” Shifflet said. “One of our varsity captains said in practice Edenton was a great game to have for our first game. It showed us what our strengths and weaknesses are.”