The boys varsity volleyball team is looking to have another strong season after last year’s third-place finish in their league. The team is led by captains Thomas Beye and John Garrelts who are both juniors. In order to obtain season goals, many players have set personal goals for themselves which will keep them on track this season.

“Our team goal is to go over .500 and have a winning season,” junior Jacob Dulaney said. “My personal goal is to start at least one game.”

The boys varsity team has 12 members including freshman Avery Ward. This team, however, has no senior leadership and only two returning varsity players after having 8 seniors graduate last year. To replace the Senior Night game the Knights plan to have a Senior citizen night inviting in local senior citizens to the game to honor them.

“[I am looking forward to] Growing as a team,” Beye said. “We are a fairly new team with a lot of new players on varsity so we’ll be getting a lot better this year.”

The Knights home opener is Thursday, March 22, against the Fort Zumwalt North Panthers. The Knights have been putting in the work at practice in hopes of performing as well as they did last season. At practice, teamwork is a big focus as many of the players on the team have not yet played together.

“We work on everything. We work on passing, we work on setting, we work on teamwork, it’s the whole nine yards. It’s a team sport, one skill does not win or lose a game,” assistant varsity coach Michelle Oppenborn said. “One person does not win or lose a game. So it’s a matter of everyone working on everything together, so you become a group that trusts each other and knows what each other’s roles are and they can go in and do their job.”