Bradley back
- Updated: April 29, 2021
Dawson taking over White Plains volleyball team, looking to bring stability to a program that will have its sixth head coach in six years
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
Bradley Dawson is stepping in as White Plains’ latest volleyball coach and he’s looking to bring something to the program it hasn’t had a while – stability.
“My plan,” the White Plains grad said, “is to stay at White Plains as long as they’ll have me.”
If he just hangs in there more than a year that’ll be doing something. Dawson, who takes over for Rachel Ford, will be the Lady Wildcats’ sixth head coach in six years. (Dawson-Ford-Katie Burgess-Ben Carroll-Candi Cronan-Joi Watts).
“Rachel and I talked about … the best thing for the future of the program,” Bradley said. “We just wanted somebody who loved volleyball, knew a little bit about volleyball and somebody who could devote the maximum amount of time to it.
“In order to be successful, we have to get our junior high to a certain level and let it translate to the JV and work itself up. I want to build the volleyball the same way she built softball, in and out every year up near the top. I really want to be model it to how she built softball.”
Ford won’t be going far. She’ll still have a hand in the program with the junior varsity or junior high team, and Bradley welcomes her insight.
“She’s great at teaching work ethic and we want to teach them a standard and understand what that is,” he said. “If they don’t understand it until they’re with the varsity or JV, it’s too late.”
Dawson has been a head volleyball coach before, when he coached virtually everything at Faith Christian. He developed the Lady Lions team that Justin Kisor took the state semifinals in 2018. His second team went to the regionals and his third went 25-7.
Since then he’s been an assistant at Cleburne County, Shades Valley and Irondale. He’s been coaching club throughout.
“I’m excited, glad to be back coaching varsity volleyball,” he said.
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