Keepin’ the Faith

Stability, positivity the watchwords under new Faith Christian volleyball coach; Lady Lions open area play with sweep of Winterboro

By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today

One of the first things Avery Gowens said in his first meeting with the Faith Christian varsity volleyball team is he was there for them for the long haul.

It was music to their ears.

The Lady Lions were about to enter the season with their fourth head coach in as many years, a revolving door that doesn’t do much for continuity and consistency. Every season they were trying to learn something new and it really never caught on until late in the year.

Luckily, they knew Gowens as their junior high coach the year before so the familiarity that’s so necessary was there. And it has translated on the floor. The Lady Lions say they’re more together than they’ve been in a while and Monday easily won their area opener over Winterboro, 25-12, 25-11, 25-20.

“I told them I’m here ‘til the end,” Gowens said. “My minimum, for the time I’ll be here, y’all will be long gone by then. 

“I fell in love with their effort and their drive last season that when they offered me the position I couldn’t not do it. There’s too much potential to win in this program at all levels for it to just be passed around coach to coach every year. 

“Something I touch on every day in practice is I’m there for them and I don’t want them to feel like he’s saying this but next year it’ll be someone else. For me to go it’s going to take a bit. It’s going to take a while.”

Faith athletics director Casey Farr said stability and continuity was important when she was charged with finding the Lady Lions another coach. Justin Kisor had the program for three years, took it to the state semifinals in 2018 and stayed another year before moving on to a larger public school.

The next two coaches stayed only a year.

“Avery was our junior high coach last year and he did a great job with them; you can see the benefits of that from our current (undefeated) junior high team,” Farr said. “When we were looking at hiring a new head coach that was our biggest concern – who’s going to stay here for the longest time.

“Right off the bat, he was committed that he wants to take his junior high girls he had last year and see them through to the end. There’s an excitement there that was very needed in this program.”

When senior Kelsey Brown heard Gowens say he was in it for the long haul, she applauded. It’s “frustrating,” she said, trying to adjust to a new coach and new expectations every year.

“It was amazing,” she said, “because every year that’s a promise but it never actually happens. But when we saw him come back and we believed him when he’s coming back, it just makes us feel closer as a family and know he actually cares about us and puts everything he has into this program.

“He puts his heart and soul into every player and he’ll motivate you the whole time and build you up and make sure you feel encouraged. I don’t think we’ve ever worked this well together. Before we were scrambling to get the ball over. This year we actually have played we’re working on.”

Gowens, a 23-year-old Jacksonville State student from Spring Garden, still had to teach his team some things, particularly how the postseason works. He drew out the area tournament bracket, the regional tournament bracket and the state tournament bracket and went step-by-step what it takes to negotiate each.

It’s important to think about the area tournament now, not when it gets here, which is what made laboring with success on Labor Day so significant.

“That was new to me,” Gowens said about the postseason primer. “Growing up I always kind of knew that kind of information around athletics, so teaching them was kind of a new world. They only knew we have one tournament at the end of the season that determines what happens next. They didn’t know all the steps you have to take within this event to get to that. I tried to show them it’s not this big monumental journey. It can be simple and easy if you break it down to what it really is.”

The Lady Lions (4-6) had an easy time of it against Winterboro. They jumped out to a 4-0 lead,  stretched it to 15-9 and then clinched the first set with a 10-2 run. They pulled away from an early 5-5 tie in the second set. The visitors drew within four points twice late in the third set, but the Lady Lions had all the momentum and closed out the match.

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