Andrews Volleyball and Softball on solid foundation
Joy Weisner begins her fourth year at Andrews High School and her third as the head coach of both the volleyball and softball teams.
By Neill Kirkpatrick
Special to the HSSR
Andrews – Joy Weisner will begin her fourth year at Andrews High School and her third as the head coach of both the volleyball and softball teams after taking both teams to the class AA playoffs this past year she has set the foundation for each program to continue to be successful.
Between them, Volleyball and Softball have made 10 state championship game appearances coming away with five state championships. In fact, Andrews won the first two class AA softball state championships in 1980 and 81. Their last state championships was in softball in 2018. Coach Weisner is looking to get her teams back to that level.
“We finished 3rd in our region for volleyball and won the region in softball. We are getting stronger and faster. We have the mindset of getting better every day and we are working towards that, so I feel like we have the potential to go further in the playoffs for both volleyball and softball this coming year. We have been young the past couple of years so we have gained valuable experience on the court and on the diamond,” coach said.
Coach continued, “The foundation for both programs is pretty much the same. We work hard, have good sportsmanship, athletes with good coachable attitudes. We instill these things in the athletes early on, and I have been fortunate to have athletes who want to work and get better.”
The one thing about being at a small school is a lot of the same players play both sports so they get used to coaches styles and expectations, which coach says is the easy part of coaching.
“The main difference in the sports is strategy and pace of the game. Volleyball plays at a quicker pace while softball may be slower but you have to be quick,” said coach.
Of course, you also have to have good assistant coaches as well for your programs to continue to grow. In volleyball Zanavia Deas will begin her first season as assistant coach. She has coached the JV the past two seasons.
Coach said, "Zanavia brings experience in teaching fundamentals and offensive strategies that will give our hitters more opportunities to become more explosive on the front row.”
Varsity softball assistants coaches Art Strong and Nora Penn have been with coach Weisner since she took over the softball program. They both bring knowledge of the game and the teaching of fundamentals to our program. Coach Strong has over 30 years of experience while Coach Penn is a former college softball player.
