If Jonathan Nuttall is half the coach he is cheerleader, the Healdsburg Greyhounds volleyball team is headed for the playoffs. Only in his second year as a high school head coach, the youthful design-engineer-by-day, volleyball-coach-by-night is already surprised by this year’s team.
“Maybe it’ll be less of a rebuilding year than I had initially thought it would be,” he mused before a midweek practice in the newly christened Frost Gym (formerly the East Gym). “The emotional, the attitude side of the team, really caught me off guard this year. I think they’re playing really, really well together.”
That was demonstrated right out of the gate, in the Lady Hounds first match of the season last Thursday, Aug. 21, in Cloverdale. Healdsburg took the best-of-five match in a 3-0 sweep. “It was surprisingly emotional for all of us, I think, which caught me off guard,” said the coach. “But yeah, I think getting a win like that in a full best-of-five match was really important. Last year we only had two matches the whole year that we won in an actual five-set match.”
Last year’s girls volleyball team also didn’t get its first win until after 10 long games, and ended the season 7-20 overall, 3-7 in the North Bay – Redwood league. This year it won twice in the first three days, following up its Aug. 21 win with a 2-0 tournament defeat of Paradise in the Nor-Cal Invitational at Vintage High on Aug. 23.
“I think we did okay last year. We’re a lot more on top of things this year and it’s making it easier for us to focus on the kids at the start of the season instead of scrambling,” Nuttall said.
Though the team lost five players to graduation last year, this year’s team is bigger—it can field freshman and junior varsity teams at every opportunity. “A lot of young girls are coming and joining the team with less experience than some of the older ones,” he said. “But the older girls are stepping up as leaders.”
This year’s roster includes three seniors who were starters last year—Siena Sbragia at setter, Josie Mork hitting outside and Tatum Kiff hitting right side. “They were already key parts of the team last year,” Nuttall said. “They’re looking significantly better than they did last year already. And they’re really starting to take charge of the team, to take ownership, which you love to see.”
Healdsburg volleyball fans will have many opportunities to see the girls’ teams, all three of them, in action at Frost Hall this fall. Home matches began this Tuesday with a meeting against Credo; on Thursday, St. Helena comes calling. Varsity games start around 6pm, following freshman and JV games (if any)
