Volleyball starts 2018 season Wednesday night
August 22nd, 2018
East Peoria, Ill. – The Illinois Central College Volleyball team is just under 24 hours from hitting the court for their first official match of the 2018 season. They return six players, and their coaching staff is almost completely in tact, but with an added accolade.
29th-year Head Coach Sue Sinclair was recently named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Hall of Fame. Sinclair is one of three honorees that will be inducted in a ceremony at the 2018 Jostens Coaches Honors Luncheon, which is held jointly with the AVCA’s convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
With a typically long off-season, Sinclair and the team are ready to be back. The Hall-of-Fame coach says that you can see the excitement up and down the roster.
“I think, for the freshmen, there’s a lot of unknowns, and so they’re excited to see just what it all is. Sophomores, they’re always excited to be back on the floor in their home gym with their home fans.”
The coaching staff will look a tad different in 2018. Former assistant coach Paloma Simundic left the Cougars to become the head coach of the Rockets of Bartonville Limestone High School, the alma mater of one current player, freshman outside hitter Brooke Hammer. Sinclair says that although it’s a “huge loss” for the ICC program, she is a “huge win” for Limestone. Simundic replaces the retiring Shelly Stoner.
One of the key components of this year’s time according to Sinclair is the leadership capabilities of the sophomore class, paced by the returning sophomores, Amanda Pratt, Jackie Beaver, Mary O’Brien, and Jessica Norris.
The leadership is not only evident now, but Sinclair says that they should be able to maintain it throughout the entirety of the season, adding that it helps her out as a coach.
“It does take that load off the shoulders of the coaches, that they’re (sophomores) going to take care of business and get the other athletes to take care of business.”
It should be a busy season, and to add the label of Hall-of-Famer, to some degree, it has come full circle for the former Southern Illinois Saluki.
Sinclair said that she got in contact with AVCA executive director Kathy DeBoer to discuss something. She says that her induction into the Hall of Fame was the last thing on her mind as to what the topic of discussion would be. It was “overwhelming” for her. She says a special significance is added, given her coach at Southern Illinois-Carbondale was inducted in the inaugural AVCA class (2003), and Sinclair was able to be at that ceremony.
Sinclair even got a phone call from Coach Debbie Hunter, saying that it was another emotional moment in the various moments having to do with the induction, calling Hunter a “mentor”.
To turn back to the season, Sinclair says there’s a few matches that the program has literally highlighted, those being all of the region matches that go towards postseason seeding. Particularly, teams like Parkland and Lincoln Land are ‘marquee’ dates, as the two programs have matched up well with the Cougars in the past few years.
The Cougars open with Iowa Central tomorrow evening, a 5:00 p.m. start from the Lorene Ramsey Gymnasium. Harbinger Student Media will have coverage from opening night.
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