The Becker Bulldog girls volleyball team has a new head coach.
Kristina Sloan has taken over the reins left by ex-coach Taylor Essen, who left to become science teacher at North Branch High School in July.
Sloan, 31, comes in with no head coaching experience under her belt but was recently assistant varsity coach at Roncalli High School in Aberdeen, S.D. for two years.
Sloan, a certified consultant for Techware, is married and she and her husband, Mitch have two children.
Plenty of changes have occurred with the volleyball program since Essen’s departure including a new JV Coach in Greg Lynch (eighth grade coach last year) and Racqel Barthel will be coaching the B-Squad team. Sloan is still looking for a ninth grade coach.
Sloan, a graduate of Saul Rapids High School, says one of her biggest influences in her life is from her coach, Paul Meyer.
“The thing that I really liked and learned from him as a coach was his honesty and attention to detail on the court,” she says. “He told it like it was, if you were slacking and being lazy, he let you know but at the same time he would say it in a manner that got you working harder.”
That’s how Sloan looks to approach her tenure as coach with a fine, young group of polished athletes.
Returning to the lineup this year are senior veterans Alexa Hanowski, Samantha Angell, Kalie Jergens, McKenzie Swanson and Kalley Anderson. Sloan will look to the five-some as the team leaders on a squad looking to stay relevant despite having a new coach and system to follow.
The Bulldogs finished the 2014 season with a 14-13 record and were bounced from the Section 8AAA playoffs last October by Big Lake. The team will miss all-stars Sam Haugen and Megan Albertson.
Last year, Haugen and Angell made the All-Conference team, with Alexa Hanowski and Kalie Jergens earning All-Conference Honorable mention. Haugen was voted the team’s MVP and Albertson the most improved.
The defensive award went to junior Alexa Hanowski.
Highlights of the 2014 season include tough, but very competitive losses to Monticello and Rogers. The girls played well after their opening day loss to Rogers in August when they won eight games and lost just five from Sept. 1-15. The team went on a three-game win streak in early October when they beat Foley, Greenway and Hinckley-Finlayson to improve to 12-10.
Sloan will be examining each player during the short weeks leading up to their first games and expects team participation, positive attitudes and players being coachable as the deciding factors on who starts on the floor and who starts on the bench.
“I have a love for volleyball and I want to teach these girls the same thing,” she says.
Sloan has named Anderson, Angell and Hanowski as team captains and she hopes their knowledge of the game and their experiences will enable her to ease into the job exponentially.
The team consists of: Carly Baumgartner, Brinley Zoller, Daisy Kent, Hope Amundson, Alexa Hanowski, Sam Angell, Jessica Gruber, Kalie Jergens, Kalley Anderson, Brynn Barthel and McKenzie Swanson.
Look for Angell to dominate at the serve and at the net. Jergens is great all around the court and Hanowski fields serves and sets up her teammates in a calm, yet feisty seriousness.
Up-and-comers Baumgartner, Kent and Barthel give the team good depth and should make rotations a seamless chore for Sloan.
The schedule is as follows: Sept. 1 at Rogers; Sept. 8 at home versus Monticello; Sept. 10 at Zimmerman; Sept. 12 at home versus Annandale and Wadena-Deer Creek; Sept. 15 at Milaca; Sept. 17 at Mora; Sept. 21 at Princeton; Sept. 22 at Big Lake; Sept. 24 at home versus Zimmerman; Sept. 29 at home versus Albany; Oct. 1 at Little Falls; Oct. 3 at Mora; Oct. 6 at home versus St. Cloud Cathedral; Oct. 9 at home versus Milaca; Oct. 13 at Foley; Oct. 22 at home versus Mora.
