Another year, another new, young coach. This time, there’s a young team to go with her.
Emporia High’s volleyball squad is on its third coach in three years, and this will be the second straight year that a new coach takes over the Spartans straight out of college. Unlike her predecessor, though, Ashley Nehls isn’t coming in cold, with no familiarity with the Spartan program. And the relatively small age gap between her and her players isn’t something she thinks about.
“I don’t really notice, actually,” Nehls said. “When I was younger (and) coaching, I did. But now I don’t. And they respect me just the same. I think being young like this is actually a plus, because I can still kind of think in their shoes. I can remember what it was like in high school, and the things that are and are not going to work for girls at this age.”
A year ago, Betsy Martling was saying similar things before beginning her first season as head coach after graduating from Wichita State. The senior-heavy Spartans did finish with a winning record at 20-19, but Martling resigned in the spring and became the new coach at her alma mater, Maize High School.
Now it’s Nehls’ turn — she just graduated from Emporia State — and one advantage for her could be her history with EHS and some of the Spartans’ key players. In 2006 and 2007, Nehls served as the JV coach under Kendra Bloomquist.
“It’s amazing for me to see them now,” Nehls said of the players she coached a couple of years ago. “Because they’ve improved so much in even just the year that I wasn’t here. A lot of ’em, I was expecting (improvement). They went above their expectations.
“But it is nice. They do know a lot of my drills already, which takes time.”
Junior middle hitter Sarah Kolmer, the Spartans’ top returner after earning honorable mention All-Centennial League honors last year, believes that familiarity makes the older Spartans feel more at ease. Kolmer said practice these days has an atmosphere similar to what it was like when Nehls coached her on the JV team her freshman year.
“She finds a happy medium with hard work and having fun,” Kolmer said. “And that’s what volleyball is about — having fun and working hard and winning games.”
More than before, Kolmer will be counted on for a big season. She’s one of just a handful of varsity returners Nehls has at her disposal after seven seniors, including second team All-Centennial selection Ashley Leihsing, graduated.
Another junior, Lauren Longbine, will be key after a summer in which she helped the KC Power club team win a 16-and-under national title, and Bailey Sosa is also back representing the junior class. Lindy Arndt is the only senior who logged significant varsity time last year. Even though Arndt is one of the Spartans who had Nehls as a coach two years ago, she knows there’s going to be some things to adjust to.
“I think we all have to be leaders,” Arndt said. “I know that some things, it’s all new for us, because it’s a new coach. So we all kind of have to be leaders. Especially the younger girls. You never know what could happen. There could be a sophomore playing on the varsity level.”
Nehls hopes she can sift quality new players out of quantity — a whopping 48 girls showed up at tryouts at the beginning of this week, the highest figure in years. On Wednesday, she cut that number to 34, including 21 on varsity and JV.
“We are really athletic,” she said. “If you look at the girls — I mean yeah, we lost quite a few. But we’re gaining girls, too. We’ve got quite a few girls that can really play.”
The starting lineup is far from set yet, but former JV players who will get varsity time this year include Kelly Bacon, Taylor Elbe, Ciera Hastings and Megan McRell.
Although winning a lot of matches could be a challenge in Nehls’ first year — the Centennial League is traditionally stacked, with defending three-time State champion Washburn Rural and others — Nehls is experiencing about as smooth a transition to varsity coaching as could be expected. Aiding that transition is her dad, EHS girls basketball coach Bill Nienstedt, who’s serving as an assistant.
“It is nice, because he knows a lot about the game,” Nehls said. “I’m not afraid to go and ask him. It just makes it really comfortable to ask any question.”
The Spartans travel to Topeka High on Sept. 8 to open their season at a quad that also includes Rural and Rossville.
Emporia High
volleyball schedule
Sept. 8 — Washburn Rural/Rossville/at Topeka High
Sept. 15 — Santa Fe Trail/Mill Valley/at Seaman
Sept. 19 — at Maize
Sept. 22 — Junction City/at Shawnee Heights
Sept. 29 — Highland Park/Shawnee Heights/at Topeka West
Oct. 1 — Olathe North/Olathe Northwest/at SM Northwest
Oct. 3 — at Ottawa tournament
Oct. 6 — MANHATTAN/WASHBURN RURAL/HIGHLAND PARK
Oct. 8 — HAYDEN
Oct. 17 — EMPORIA TOURNAMENT
Oct. 20 — BV North/Olathe East/at Lawrence
Oct. 24 — Substate