MELROSE VOLLEYBALL “PURSUING EXCELLENCE”
When it comes to Class A volleyball, Melrose has been the most consistent program in the bunch over the past decade. Melrose has reached the final each of the last seven years. “It’s always a good thing to have that pressure and have that target because it makes us play our best every single game,” said senior Graci Odom. “Every practice we have to come in ready to go because we’re never going to get a back game (from the opponent).”
“Teams definitely prepare a little harder than they do for other teams maybe because we’ve had that success year after year,” sad head coach Casey Jackson. “We just talk about embracing that because we’re going to get everyone’s best effort, so we want to give our best effort every time we’re on the court as well.”
Melrose returns three starters from last year’s group, including standout senior Graci Odom. “She wants to challenge herself every single day,” Jackson described Odom. “Ever since she was in seventh grade has asked ‘How do I get better? What do I need to do fix certain things?’ and often times I don’t have an answer for her because she’s doing such a great job anyway. She’s always challenging herself to be better and she’s never going to get outworked.”
“I see myself as having to be a leader, having to pull us all up and pull myself up, every girl on the team, everyone on the bench, pulling them up from being a two to a five and then a five to a six, so that we are all playing at our highest potential because if we’re all working our hardest that’s all we can do,” said Odom.
Melrose lost to Gateway Christian in last year’s final, but they try to look at it as a teachable moment. “In teachable moments, we talk about things we can improve upon from last season to the next,” said Jackson. “Every year we start with a new group of kids so we try not to look back too much, but we definitely want to remember and learn.”
“We do want to get past it and not think about it, but we do want to look back and learn from it, all of the things we could have done better,” said Odom. “We want to push those mistakes in the rearview mirror so that when we go to state we have a clean slate, ready to fight for another blue trophy.”
The players have two themes for this season. “We have a couple of them,” said Odom. “We have ‘Pursuing Excellence’ and pursuit, always going for every ball and always being there for each other. We also have ‘Being on Board’ which is every person on the team has to be on board, going in the same direction so that everything flows and we all have the same vision and goal.”
“I just want to leave a legacy for the juniors, sophomores, freshman, anybody coming up, that you can do it. Put everything into it and it will be worth it.”
