New head girls volleyball coach Ashton (Kroeker) Brown is excited to take over the program this year. She is no stranger to the Heartland volleyball program since she first served as a volunteer reserve coach two years ago and was an assistant varsity coach last year.
Coach Brown is a 2013 Heartland graduate and was a three-sport athlete at Heartland, so she knows firsthand what it means to be a Huskie. She lives in Henderson with her husband Cody and daughter Thea, age three, who really loves to watch the games, said Coach Brown.
“There are a good amount of seniors and juniors coming back this year, and we only lost three starting seniors. We have a team with very strong varsity experience,” said Coach Brown.
Returning starters include senior setter Hayden Mierau, senior outside hitter Allie Boehr, and senior outside hitter Kaylee Goertzen.
“Since it’s my first year as head coach, I’d like to try some new things, and one of our goals is to improve our record from last year.” The Huskies ended their 2022 season at 14 -17.
Creating team unity is important to Coach Brown, and she looks forward to focusing on creating a unified varsity, junior varsity, and reserve team. “Supporting and encouraging each other and becoming a cohesive unit will be a goal this year,” she said.
There have been several opportunities for the team to practice volleyball this summer. Hastings College held a satellite volleyball camp in July at the Heartland gym. The varsity, junior varsity, and reserve teams all participated in a volleyball tournament in Seward earlier this summer.
“We’ve had a few open gyms for scrimmaging, and when the gym was closed for floor refinishing, we went out to the Lakeview Park sand volleyball court,” said Coach Brown.
Everything starts going the week before school starts on Monday, August 7th. The team will have conditioning in the morning and afternoon practices. No team scrimmage is scheduled this year, and their first match is at home on August 24th for a triangular against Oceola and Palmer.
Another former Heartland 2018 graduate, Kyra Dick, will begin her first year as an assistant coach. The Heartland roster is not complete yet, but Coach Brown expects there to be approximately 26 girls out for volleyball.
Attached is the Fall Sports schedule with all the volleyball matches.
