Young Patriots ready to compete
The Homewood High School volleyball team was one set away from advancing to the Class 6A state championship match a season ago. It was a banner season for the program, which entered the year with experience and high expectations.
The Patriots lived up to those high hopes and want to do something similar once again this fall. The task won’t be easy, though, considering so much of last year’s core graduated.
“This group’s got a lot of talent, a lot of potential,” Homewood head coach Andie Freedman said. “We’ve got a lot of youth on the team.”
There are six returning players on varsity, two of them back with significant varsity experience.
“It’s really a fresh year with a bunch of different new faces in the mix,” Freedman said.
Entering last season, the Patriots were essentially a known commodity. Many of last year’s seniors stepped into big roles as juniors and continued to carry that torch into 2021. The building process for the 2022 team has a lot more unknowns this time around.
“We’re untried, a little bit,” Freedman said. “All summer, it’s been trying different lineups and figuring out which spots people go into to get the strongest lineup on the court.”
Freedman said the team still has “work to do” to get where it wants to be, but at the same time, there are plenty of possibilities with a long season ahead.
“Every team is unique and has a different identity,” she said. “There’s a lot of opportunity for some of those younger players to come in and snag some of those spots.”
Sydney Humes is one of five seniors on this year’s team and is one of the leaders heading into the year. She will be the team’s primary libero, having played in the AHSAA North-South All-Star Game over the summer. She also holds several Division I scholarship offers.
Maddie Cobb and Mary Larkin Mullins are senior defensive specialists that will also help out on the back row to provide strong defense for the Patriots, giving Freedman plenty of confidence in the team’s back row.
Mary Przybysz has been on varsity before and will finally get her chance to be the main setter for Homewood for her senior campaign. Olivia Jackson is the team’s other senior and returns to the program after not playing last season. She will provide plenty of offense as an outside hitter.
Ellie Watts and Carson Jarmon also play on the outside. Mira McCool, Ellis McCool, Grace Brown, Caroline Griffin, Ella Serotsky, Mae Lowery and Mae Noerager are also looking to make an impact on the varsity squad.
Homewood is the clear favorite to win Class 6A, Area 9 this year over Parker, Minor and Jackson-Olin, but the Patriots have a stacked schedule otherwise.
After opening the season against John Carroll at Samford University’s Pete Hanna Center, the Patriots play the likes of Spain Park, Oak Mountain, Northridge, Hoover, Mountain Brook, Thompson and Vestavia Hills to go along with several top tournaments.
One of the matches Freedman is most excited about is a home match against Auburn on Sept. 22. The match is set to be played during the school day, with plenty of students and the pep band on hand to create a raucous environment.
“It’ll be a really good competitive match, but we’re going to be able to mimic that postseason environment, which will be good because we’re so young,” she said.