Bryan Jones doesn’t want to take the credit for Pope’s rise to volleyball elite.
He likes to throw accolades toward the coaches who run the middle school program, to his talented players and to the increasing number of club coaches and teams that have helped grow the sport in metro Atlanta and Georgia.
Junior Mary Hoey is one of Pope's top players and leads Georgia in kills heading into the state tournament.
“I just try to point the players in the right direction and keep them flowing well on the court,” Jones said.
Jones has to take at least some of the credit for developing Pope into a program that has won four consecutive Area 1AAAAA titles – perhaps the toughest in the state – and made Final Four appearances in 2004, ’06 and ’08. Last year, the Lady Greyhounds finished second to Northview.
This fall, Pope is 47-2, No. 1 in the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association AAAAA poll and No. 22 in the prepvolleyball.com national rankings. The Lady Greyhounds will open the state tournament against Marietta at 6 p.m. Thursday.
“We’re focused on the tangibles of volleyball right now,” said junior outside hitter Mary Hoey, who Jones said leads the state with 435 kills. “We’re concentrating on improving, doing our best and working hard. We feel like we’re really clicking right now.”
The state tournament could be a replay of the regular season for Pope. Of the nine teams in Area 1AAAAA, five – Pope, Walton, Kell, Lassiter and Etowah – are in the GACA poll. Pope’s only two losses have been to Walton, but the Lady Greyhounds are 4-2 against the Lady Raiders this season.
Jones, who is in his eighth season as coach after three as an assistant, said he feels fortunate in that he lost only one senior from last year’s team and has only one this year. The remainder of the team consists of five juniors and six sophomores.
“That’s sort of a rare thing, but we started a middle school program a few years ago and the first classes of the middle schoolers are coming up, basically creating a talent pool for us,” Jones said.
Pope's players have had plenty of reasons to celebrate this season, going 47-2 and earning a spot in a national poll.
And it leads to a close-knit group of players, who have grown up and played together for years. They know each other, their strengths and weaknesses, where they’ll be on the court and where they want the ball.
“We know each other so well,” Hoey said. “We’re all really good friends, and that’s one of our strengths. We’ve known each other a really long time. We’re mentally strong and know we can come back from anything. We’re resilient.”
It also helps that they’re tall and talented.
Hoey is 5-foot-11 ½, fellow junior Sarah Morris is 6-foot, senior Hannah Farmer is 5-10 and sophomores Leslye Barnette and Katie Bange are 5-11 and 6-3.
Danielle Thompson, Mary Hannah Arrington, Farmer and Hoey were selected all-1AAAAA, and Hoey was the area’s player of the year for the second straight season.
“It’s been nice to see it all come together,” Jones said. “We’ve started to create our own history.”
Comments: