Eagle Spikers Need to “Step Up”

By Clara Aucoin
Gilpin County News Senior Writer

When a team returns four out of the starting six, it is not normally a rebuilding year.  But for the Gilpin Eagles, those two lost starters are tough shoes to fill.  Both were all conference selection, and one has already made varsity at her college.  Big shoes.

With the four returning Eagles, the volleyball team has an excellent defense, good serving, a returning outside hitter with tremendous power, and good passing. Notice height was not mentioned.  That is one of the problems.  According to Coach Alexis Donaldson, height is not one of the team’s assets.  She said, “For us to succeed, we have to be outstanding defensively, we are very small.  We also need big things from our outside hitters.  Kim Fuller and Amber Sterling will be starting in those positions and they need to step up.”

With the smaller team and its finesse, Donaldson is encouraged.  She said that it was not how hard a team hits, but where the hit is placed.  “If it gets hit too hard it ends up out of bounds.  That is no good.”  That and the serving specialists are back.

Donaldson says Kim Fuller is playing well.  Fuller is a senior and the only returning all conference selection from last year’s team.  She was ranked in the state in kills last year, and hopefully, will rise higher in those rankings this season.

Also returning and anchoring the Eagle defense will be Kim Hartman.  Hartman ripped a nail from her finger but the stitches are back and she should be ready for the starting game.  Hartman is the team’s setter and facing the beginning of the season without her was troublesome to the coach.

Val Spellman is one of the returning players that helps alleviate some of Coach Donaldson’s doubts.  Spellman played JV and got a lot of varsity minutes last year and she is ready to step up and help her team this season.  The question of which position, however, still has not been answered.  Spellman, says Donaldson is one of those team player types, “you can just use her anywhere and know you will be okay.” 

A player to keep an eye on, says Donaldson, is senior Brittany Steele.  Steele did not begin the game of volleyball until her junior year, but the coach says she is getting better and, “…doing really well.”

The final bond of cohesion for the Eagles could be their off season program.  Donaldson says the team spent so much time playing together over the summer it has helped get them past early season trial, such as talking among themselves and knowing their teammates, and they get along.  This Eagle team, says Donaldson has no really outstanding talent, but she says, the team works together.  And, she hopes, “…We play defense like crazy.”

The Eagles will be in the 1A Mile-High League again this season.  The league has changed somewhat, with one or two private religious schools going out of business and being replaced by a couple new private schools.  Resurrection Christian was a new school last year, but it attracted players from an existing school, so the program is not entirely new.

The Eagles first home game will be Friday, September 9 against Jim Elliott.  The game begins at 4:30 for JV with varsity to follow.