The Haines High School volleyball team, under the direction of first-year coach Gina Randles-Comstock, will travel to its first tournament of the season next week in Wrangell.
To prepare for that competition, the Glacier Bears on Saturday, Oct. 11, will scrimmage at Skagway and participate in workshops there to hone their skills.
“I’ve already seen lots of improvement,” Randles-Comstock said. “Their fundamentals are excellent.”
She and returnee Judy Erekson will coach the Glacier Bears, with Randles-Comstock unable to travel to many of the games due to her work schedule.
The Glacier Bears graduated Coral Bauer, Libby Jacobson, Adalee Lari and Jamie Messerschmidt from last year’s team that finished 2-2 at the regional tournament in Klawock.
Haines will host this year’s regional Dec. 5-6, with volunteers needed for line judging, keeping statistics, preparing food, housing students, and other tasks to pull off the event.
“It’s going to be a really great year and I’m just sort of getting tossed into hosting regionals, but I’m excited,” Randles-Comstock said.
Team captains are junior Bailey Stuart and sophomores Jordan Stigen and Olivia Wing. The young Glacier Bears have no seniors competing this fall, as senior Celia Bower, an all-tournament performer in 2013, is out for the season with a knee injury. Nine girls are on the team.
Randles-Comstock, 25, played high school volleyball for state tournament qualifying teams in Talkeetna. She also organized a team in Thailand as an exchange student there, but Randles-Comstock was introduced to the sport, and “really started falling in love with it,” during elementary and middle school in Haines.
She said the opportunity to coach the Glacier Bears following the departure of Liana Shull matched up well with her background and current course of study through the University of Alaska Anchorage.
“Going to school to be a teacher, I wanted to get a job in the school and to work with the kids,” she said.
The Glacier Bears will host Skagway in November, and additional home matches might be added, Randles-Comstock said.