McAdams and Ethel are among numerous Mississippi schools that will begin playing volleyball in the fall and both stayed in house for a coach. Volleyball will replace slow-pitch softball as a fall sport for girls because the Mississippi High School Activities Association discontinued slow-pitch due to a decreasing number of schools fielding teams.
Carl Hathorn will be the coach at McAdams and Chris Schuster at Ethel. Neither has coached the sport before, but both are excited about the challenge that lies ahead.
“I'm looking forward to it,” Hathorn said. “I’m excited to get a new program started.”
Schuster said “I grew up around it. I’m from Nebraska.”
Hathorn has been the McAdams athletic director and boys basketball coach, two positions that will be assumed by Kenyon Ross. Schuster moves from slow-pitch to volleyball and will continue to coach Ethel baseball.
With new programs, both coaches will be starting from scratch, made more difficult by the closing of schools. “My hope was that when we got back from spring break that we would have a tryout,” Hathorn said. “But because of the Coronavirus issue we were not able to get together.”
He does not know what he will have when the season begins.
Schuster is optimistic because 30 to 35 girls have signed up. “They’ve never played before so we are going to have to ease into it and see how it goes. My little girl plays so that will give me an opportunity to coach her.” His daughter Shelby will be a sophomore in the fall.
McAdams and Ethel have scheduled home-and-home matches, but that is all McAdams has scheduled. Hathorn will contact other coaches to fill out the schedule.
Ethel is further advanced with 20 matches scheduled. The Lady Tigers will compete in a district with Nanih Waiya and Noxapater.
Some of the teams on the schedule have established programs, including Nanih Waiya and Choctaw County, which reached the second round of the playoffs the past two years.
“We’re going to be behind the 8-ball for sure. But it will be fun,” Schuster said.
