Challenges paying off

Southeast Whitfield’s volleyball team has a worse overall record than at least four lower-ranked teams.

But maybe it’s the 7-0 Area 7-4A record that matters, because the group is proving its strength.

All four of the area’s playoff teams won in non-threatening fashion last week and advanced to the second round of the Class 4A state playoffs. Aside from Southeast and Dalton holding home court, Heritage-Catoosa and Northwest Whitfield pulled off seed-based upsets to give the area a sweep of Area 8’s crew.

Did Southeast coach Jake Dickey expect this? Maybe, since he has witnessed this region’s quality rise since he started coaching the Lady Raiders seven years ago.

Also, he doesn’t stop with just the four still playing.

“We’ve got those four and even Gilmer was real competitive this year,” Dickey said. “I think when you have four or five teams with a chance to win it, it steps up the level a little bit.”

But the focus is on Southeast, Dalton, Heritage and Northwest to make it 8-for-8 on Tuesday. Southeast, ranked second in the class by the Ga.PrepCountry.com coaches poll, faces 10th-ranked Jonesboro. Dalton travels to fifth-ranked Woodland-Henry. Heritage plays at top-ranked Sandy Creek. Northwest is on the road again, matched with fourth-ranked Columbus. All matchups begin at 5:30 p.m. except for the Lady Bruins, who start at 5 p.m.

The Lady Raiders are 32-10 overall, and Jonesboro is 32-7. South Effingham, Veterans and Woodland all have less losses and more than 30 wins, equaling a better overall winning percentage than Southeast.

But when you have played three of the other remaining teams — and beaten them each time — it speaks volumes to just how tough your area is.

“The better competition you do equals better play when you play harder teams in the playoffs,” Dickey said. “I hope that helps us, too, in the next round against Jonesboro.”

None of the class’ other six areas saw all four reach the round of 16, which means the Lady Raiders, Catamounts, Generals and Bruins make up 25 percent of the remaining field.

The next highest is no one. The other six areas split with two teams winning and two going home until next August.

“It’s certainly not the strongest,” Dalton coach Joey Wills said, “but we’re certainly gaining ground on those Atlanta schools. And we do that without the advantages of middle school programs.”

Local middle schools don’t have volleyball programs while others in the state, including the team Dalton (23-15) beat in the first round, do. This means local high schools are a couple steps behind to start — and this run is impressive.

“When we played Centennial, they played year round with club teams and none of them started as freshman,” Wills said. “We have girls who start as freshmen.”

The eighth-ranked Lady Generals (29-12) have a coach who knows how far the area has come.

“Ridgeland was usually good every year,” said John Gaston, who started coaching at Heritage this year but held head coaching jobs and assistant jobs in Catoosa County dating back to the 1990s. “LaFayette or Northwest would have a good team sometimes, but you could count on Ridgeland to be good. Then everyone was kind of weak.

“I think last year or the year before, we had four teams in the top 10 (Southeast, Ringgold, Dalton and Heritage). Volleyball in Northwest Georgia has come a long way.”

Wills believes “the rivalries” among the schools — Southeast versus Dalton, Northwest versus Heritage and others — have increased the area’s stock statewide because everyone is pushing the others.

“We want to get better so we can beat them,” Wills said, “and since everyone is getting better is makes the entire area better.”

But Southeast, Dalton and Heritage were supposed to be at the top. The Lady Raiders won an area championship last year and advanced to the second round of the Class 3A state playoffs. Dalton also made it as far in 2011, and Heritage has been ranked in the top 10 for much of the season.

But the Lady Bruins are somewhat of a surprise. Jennifer Quinn, in only her second year leading Northwest’s volleyball program, has her team in the playoffs for the first time since 2009.

Last year Northwest competed a classification above many other programs and finished with a disappointing record. This year the team is 18-21 but looks completely different from two months ago.

“We played them early in the season and they just did not look good at all,” Gaston said. “We played them a little later and they were a little better. Then we played them again and were lucky to get out with our lives. All the coaches started talking about how good of a job Jennifer (Quinn) has done. They turned from an easy win into one who you really don’t want to play.

“That may be one of the best coaching jobs that you’ll see, what she’s done this year.”

Quinn also talked about the disadvantage of not having girls with middle school or club-team experience, an anomaly compared to other areas of the state. It came up in the first-round win against Johnson-Gainesville.

“When we played Johnson the coach came up to me and asked me, ‘How many of your girls play club?’ I said, ‘None play club because basketball is so big in our area.’ She was surprised with the quality of our team,” Quinn said.

Even the other classification is proving it is above the rest. Area 4-3A saw all four of its teams — Sonoraville, Cartersville, North Murray and Ringgold — advance to the second round. Only 12 teams remain in 3A, with one-third coming from the Northwest Georgia area.

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Challenges paying off

Northwest Georgia area volleyball is earning respect

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