Lewisville WR Jacorreun Howze on the run after a catch.

By Neill Kirkpatrick Special to the HSSR Hemingway – Head Coach Chakaris Thomas is looking more to the future for the Hemingway volleyball program as the 2024 season has been a trying year for the Lady Tigers program as they have had to play their home games at the middle school because of renovations being done on the high school gym and they are only playing region games. “Coming into this year my expectation for this year are higher for my JV than my varsity,” said coach Thomas. “ I have five first year senior players that came out to help the team so we lack experience in every area of volleyball. We are teaching the game, the positions, how to move on the court and how to communicate with each other.” Coach continued, “ It is hard because the other schools are more advanced than we are at this time. We are in a rebuilding mode for the next couple of years. Hopefully by the time the JV team moves up they will have played together for a couple of years and be able to compete at a higher level.” The Lady Tigers have only four returning players from last season and one up from the JV so when practice started they did not even have a player for every spot on the court. The returning Lady Tigers are Elisha Singletary , Shakiya Cooper, Zanyia Woods and Staresha Turner and up from the JV is Mariana Hanna. Singletary, a junior, is a returning All-Region player. She is very athletic and plays all over the court for the Lady Tigers. She is quick and can get to every ball. She is the team leader and is arguably the best athlete at Hemingway. Woods is the lone returning senior player and has the most experience of all the Lady Tigers. She is in her third year on the varsity squad. Tuner and Cooper, both juniors, are in their second year on the varsity team. Senior Jasmin Verner has been a good addition to the team. She has played awesome along the back line and coach Thomas said she should have been playing since her freshman year. She is very talented. Kenyorah Priest , Shaesha Turner and Shiasia Palmer are all first-year players and have played hard all year. Coach Thomas is changing the culture of Hemingway Volleyball one day at a time. This past summer she brought in a coach from Coastal Carolina to work with her. While they learned a lot about volleyball, how to practice and how to work on their skills.

By Neill Kirkpatrick Hemingway – The Hemingway track and field teams have had a successful season as they have several runners on both boys and girl’s teams eyeing a trip to lower state. “Right now, we have been doing well but we have an incredibly young team. They have been working hard and getting better every day,” said assistant and track coach Joseph Cooper . “We do not have a track, so we have to train with what we have. Our kids our resilient and make the best of the situation.” The Tigers’ strengths are in the sprinting events for both teams. The girls are led by sophomores Elisha Singletary and Shakiya Cooper and eighth graders Kennedi Hayward and Leanna Washington and seventh grader Rayne Bell . These girls run the 100, 200 and make up the four x100 relay team. Singletary, arguably the best athlete at Hemingway, also runs the 100-meter hurdle and does the long jump in the field events. She ran a 20.34 at the lower state meet and she also qualified in the long jump. Loyalty Anderson and Honesty Anderson also run the 100-meter hurdles. Senior Leilani Pressley leads the field performers throwing the shot put and discus. Joining her in the discus is Dianna Smith and Staresha Turner in shot put. The boys’ team is also led by two seniors in Jerel Hampton and Jordan Petersen . They both run the one hundred and the 4 x 100 relay while Hampton is the Tigers top 200-meter runner. He has run a team best 12.32 in the 110 and he ran a 24.26 at lower state which was a new PR. Three sophomores in Alexander Timmons , Jeric Nesmith and Tony Holmes make up the rest of the 4 x100. Nesmith also runs the 400 meters, and he is looking to run a sub 60 second 400 at the region meet. He clocked 12.72 in the 100. The 4x100 ran a season best 47.97 at lower state. Alexander Timmons and Tony Holmes also sophomores run the 400 meters and 800 meters, respectively. Holmes ran a 2:28.50 at lower state. It was just off his PR. In the field events Robert Cooper competes in both the shot put and the discus and is joined by Joshua Eaddy in the discus.