Hemingway volleyball building for the future

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.