Patriots retool around new leadership after historic run

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Homewood

The Homewood High School volleyball team spent last season proving it belonged, closing out a 25-20 campaign with the program's first state tournament trip since 2021. Now the Patriots have to prove it again, almost from scratch.

Homewood won three straight matches at the North Super Regional to reach the Birmingham CrossPlex, then fell to Saraland in three sets in the state tournament's opening round, a 25-20, 25-21, 27-25 result that ended an up-and-down year in which the Patriots also knocked off 7A power McGill-Toolen. But the group that produced that run is largely gone.

"We graduated every single person on our team that hit a ball over the net last year, except for [a couple]," head coach Grace Burgess said. "We are young, experience wise, but we're not young age wise."

Burgess said the makeup of this year's roster has drawn plenty of outside speculation about what Homewood will look like without last year's attackers. She’s pretty optimistic, to say the least.

"I think they have no idea what's coming," she said.

Four seniors were voted captains by their teammates this preseason. MK Braswell (defensive specialist), Addison Wood (libero), Mollie Brown (setter) and Kamryn Coleman (setter/opposite) will lead the group, a mix Burgess said she has come to rely on entirely.

"I can't imagine sitting up here with anybody else this year," Burgess said at the preseason OTM Media Day. "They're like my bridge from the locker room to my office."

Coleman enters the year fresh off first-team All-South Metro Team honors, racking up 826 assists, 125 kills and 109 aces a season ago. Wood earned honorable mention recognition at libero. Braswell said the captains have worked to build trust with a younger group early in the process.

"I think a big part of it was respect in the beginning," Braswell said. "When we gave that respect to [our teammates], they returned that to us."

Wood described a team identity built around defense first.

"I think we're a team that thrives off of our defense," Wood said. "And in order to unlock our scoring and rallies, we just need to have faster tempo."

Jane Serotsky returns in the middle after last year's graduating class took much of the team's size with it, while Kailyn Mory is stepping into an expanded role after playing primarily as a defensive specialist a year ago.

"Being selfless is the biggest key to that," Wood said of the 18-player roster's approach to earning playing time and staying unified. Brown said the size of the group has brought the team closer together than she expected.

"It's just fun, having a big team, and we're thankful," Brown said.

Burgess was candid that the early season could be rocky as her attackers gain experience.

But she added that the group's frontcourt fundamentals, developed by players who have been in the program for three years, give her confidence for the stretch run.

"I think it's going to be gnarly," Burgess said. "I can't wait to see where we are at the end."

Lottie Hill, Rily Sims, Ella Frances Allen, Iris Gibson, Stella Juarez, Cassie Rezek, Jane Siegel, Lilyanna Wallis, Anna Bentley Aycock, Corinne Erickson, Lundy Willcox and Ann Parker Henderson are also on the varsity roster.

The Patriots open the season Thursday against Hoover and Gulf Shores before working through a schedule that includes Vestavia Hills, Chelsea and Mountain Brook, plus tournament stops at the Finley Center and at home in October. They play in an area with Parker, Mountain Brook and Ramsay. The state tournament returns to the CrossPlex Oct. 27-29, with the Patriots hoping for a return trip.