New coach looking forward to volleyball season

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers open their 2008 volleyball season with a conference match at Emmett this Thursday night.

Rachele Asbury takes over the Lady Tiger varsity program this year, moving up from the freshman squad, where she has coached the past four years.

She indicated they had a great turnout for volleyball this year.

"We had between 45 and 50 turn out for our tryouts, and filled four teams, from freshman through the varsity level."

Coach Asbury has 12 on her varsity squad, made up of five seniors, six juniors and a freshman.

Returning starters from last year are senior Sarah Cantrell and junior Nickayla Skinner. Junior Charde Huntington moved up from the junior varsity squad during the latter part of the season and saw playing time on the varsity.

"We have two returning starters from last year, and the rest we've pulled up from the other teams," said Coach Asbury.

"We have one transfer in, other than that, we're just trying to mesh together some girls that haven't played together much, so it's a building year, but we'll be able to put a lot of experience on the floor for the following year."

Having coached the ninth grade squad the past four years, Asbury has coached many of the players she has on this year's varsity team.

"They kind of know what I expect and they understand what I'm looking for, so it's an easier transition taking over the varsity spot."

Coach Asbury expects a tough conference race, with Skyview and Emmett the teams to beat.

"All of the teams in our conference are going to be tough, and some of the ones that are going to be at the top are Skyview and Emmett. They're going to be the ones we'll really need to prepare for.

"Right now I'm relying on my assistant coaches who saw the other conference teams play, so they're going to be able to give me a lot of information to get us prepared for our season."

Coach Asbury says her game plan for the first match against Emmett is to have her Lady Tigers ready to play.

"Basically we're just trying to be prepared and have our basics down and go into there with the knowledge coming from my other coaches on what Emmett has done in the past."

The Lady Tigers are also on the road next week, traveling to Bishop Kelly on Sept. 2, and then go to Kuna on Sept. 4 for a tri-match with Kuna and Nampa. They play their first home match on Sept. 11 against Columbia.

Coach Asbury indicated until the high school gym roof is completed, they will be playing their home matches in the junior high gym.