Whitney Shaw begins her eighth season at the helm of Allen Community College’s women’s volleyball team. That’s on top of her five years as assistant coach and another two years when she took to the floor for her Red Devils from 2006 to 2007.
Last season, Shaw’s team finished the year at just a couple of games under a .500-record at 13-15 with an even 5-5 mark in conference play. She is looking at making that record even greater this season with the team she has assembled.
Some of the bigger victories obtained by last year’s team was a 3-1 win over Independence Community College as well as a 3-1 victory over Fort Scott Community College, both in conference action. The fall volleyball season normally runs from August through October with somewhere in the range of 25 to 30 matches.
“First off we want to have an average of a 3.5 GPA for us as a team,” said Shaw. “We want to have a winning season and I want to first of all make it to the regional tournament and second of all make it out of the first round.”
Shaw says the first few days of practice to begin the year are strictly focused on fundamentals. Then shortly after that the team moves on to their offensive and defensive systems and what they will be working with on each side. Near the start of games, the team is practicing full-on games in six versus six player work.
“We break it down and do fundamentals first. We go back to the basics and we learn passing, setting, serving, hitting, we do all of the basics first before we ever play as a team. Then we go over team defensive systems, team offensive systems, how I expect certain things. We really start from the ground up even though I expect they know how to pass. By day 14 we’re really clicking along and have a full six-on-six going.”
Competition is stiff in the Eastern Kansas Jayhawk division of NJCAA volleyball. Cowley County Community College reached the national championship last season. Shaw saw her girls lose in three sets against Cowley but put up a better fight than many other schools in the area.
“The top two teams are traditionally Johnson County Community College in Overland Park and Cowley County in Ark City.”
Shaw discussed her team’s strengths and weaknesses for the upcoming season. The backline will be the more experienced and veteran presence of the team while the front will need to work at gelling at first.
“We are a driven and disciplined team looking to break into the top of our conference. Our strength will be our serving, we’re going to have a lot of young hitters so I don’t think it’ll be a weakness but it will be something we have to get going on early because I only have three hitters that will be sophomores.”
Keeping the theme of international student-athletes at Allen going, Shaw explained that she has two international players this season, one hailing from Italy and one from Brazil.
“Then for the past six or seven years I’ve had Puerto Rican players, so they’re not international, but not in the states.”
Some of the leaders on this year’s team will include those international players. Shaw has also been able to get some transfers, including one from Texas but says that some of the best players are from in-state.
“We have a new Brazilian center, her name is Julia and she’s phenomenal. Talking to her, she should run for president, she’s a great leader, she’s really well spoken and she’s talented. We got a late commitment from a big right-side out of Atchinson, her name is Katie Harris, I expect her to be really good.”
Before taking the reins at ACC, Shaw was the assistant coach at Allen for five years under former head coach Jessica Peters. Shaw believes it is her experience in volleyball both playing and coaching that has helped her develop the knowledge and skills she needs to take on this important role.
Shaw played at Ottawa University in 2008 as a defensive specialist.She graduated from OU with her bachelor’s degree before entering the coaching ranks.
