County fills regionals
- Updated: October 19, 2016
Volleyball regionals will have a distinct Calhoun County flavor as two-thirds of the county’s teams make the field, seven as area champs
Oxford and Alexandria (cover) are among seven area champs among the 10 Calhoun County teams playing in this week’s AHSAA volleyball regionals. (Inside photo by Kristen Stringer/Krisp Pics Photography/Cover photo by B.J. Franklin/GungHo Photos)
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
JACKSONVILLE – Calhoun County produces some pretty good high school volleyball and you don’t think so just look at this year’s regional tournament fields.
There are 15 schools within the county lines that play volleyball. Ten are going to regionals later this week in Huntsville and Montgomery and seven of those are going as area champions.
Alexandria, Jacksonville, Oxford, Saks and White Plains all punched their tickets to the regionals Tuesday night. Donoho, Pleasant Valley, Sacred Heart, Weaver and Wellborn set the stage on Monday.
And realistically there could have been one more.
“We’ve always said Calhoun County is strong in volleyball and you’ve got to be pretty decent is order to survive,” Saks coach Randy Law said.
With so many teams in the regional field, the percentages would favor expecting several to advance to the Elite Eight in Birmingham and even contend for the state championship, but all of that depends on the draw. Donoho, Saks and Jacksonville all made it there last year, with Donoho playing for the state championship.
“I’ve always felt like if you could do well in our county you could do well across the state, and it’s usually held true,” Jacksonville coach David Clark said. “The teams Ive been fortunate enough to take to the state tournament and the state finals we did well in our county. We were good enough to win our county and when you put that many quality teams with really good tradition in one place you’re bound to have a good by-product.”
Here is the list Calhoun County teams in the regional fields and their first-round regional opponent (x-indicates South regional):
Donoho (1A Area 10 champion) – Cedar Bluff, 9 a.m. Thursday (winner vs. Shoals Christian-Appalachian winner)
Weaver (3A Area 9 champion) – New Hope, 11:30 a.m. Thursday (winner vs. West Morgan-Oakman winner)
Pleasant Valley (3A Area 10 champion) – Sylvania, 10:15 a.m. Thursday (winner vs. Lexington-Susan Moore winner)
x-Saks (4A Area 8 champion) – Ashford, 9 a.m. Friday (winner vs. W.S. Neal-Hale County winner)
Jacksonville (4A Area 12 champion) – Priceville, 10:15 a.m. Friday (winner vs. DAR-Oneonta winner)
Alexandria (5A Area 13 champion) – Woodlawn, 11:30 a.m. Thursday (winner vs. Hayden-Ardmore winner)
Oxford (6A Area 13 champion) – McAdory , 11:30 a.m. Friday (winner vs. Austin-Clay-Chalkville winner)
Sacred Heart (1A Area 10 runnerup) – Spring Garden, 9 a.m., Thursday (winner vs. Southeastern-Waterloo winner)
Wellborn (3A Area 9 runnerup) – Geraldine, 10:15 a.m. Thursday (winner vs. Carbon Hill-Clements winner)
White Plains (4A Area 12 runnerup) – Danville, 11:30 a.m. Friday (winner vs. Leeds-Sardis winner)
“I think we have the best county tournament in the state,” Alexandria coach Whitney Welch said. “There might be another county that thinks theirs is, but in my opinion we have the best county tournament. I love playing in our county. It’s competitive and you don’t have to travel far to get better.”
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