Lauren Peresich will lead Kosciusko into its inaugural volleyball season when the Lady Whippets open the year at home on Aug. 15 against Noxapater.
Peresich is entering her third year on staff at Kosciusko and she is also the girls tennis coach. Having played volleyball during her high school days at Southaven, Peresich is thrilled to take the Lady Whippets on their new venture.
“I’m really excited that Kosciusko is getting this team,” Peresich said. “I played in high school and I loved it from the moment that I touched the first ball. One positive thing is it’s going to give Kosciusko another girls sports that they can get a scholarship in. There’s not slow-pitch (softball) in college, but there is volleyball in college.”
Thirty players from grades seven through 12 currently fill the Kosciusko roster. While Peresich is still configuring a season roster, she said players have been captivated by the sports this summer, and its reception has been well-received.
“They love it,” she said. “Just from summer and workouts and stuff like that, they just absolutely adore learning the game and coming together maybe with some people they would have never met if it wasn’t for the sport. I’m excited about that.”
The Lady Whippets will play 13 matches this year and they will face each opponent twice with the exception of Nanih Waiya. In addition to Noxapater and Nanih Waiya, Kosciusko has matches against Lanier (Aug. 29 and Sept. 19), Louisville (Sept. 3 and Sept. 17), Winston Academy (Sept. 5 and Oct. 10), Yazoo City (Sept. 10 and Sept. 26) and Columbus (Sept. 12 and Oct. 3).
Although the roster is not fully set, Peresich said she expects seniors Josie Meggs, Laken Milner and Tameelah Gladney to play large roles this season.
“Those three have just kind of taken the younger ones — even though they didn’t know anything about volleyball, either — they’ve taken everyone under their wing and are very positive leaders for the team,” she said. “Those three are going to do very, very well.”
The Lady Whippets will also receive a boost from sophomore Amiyah Greer, freshman Kaitlyn Broyles and junior Kelly Hood.
“They have learned really quickly on how to play the sport and be leaders and things like that,” Peresich said.
Peresich said the response from the Kosciusko community regarding volleyball has been outstanding, and the players have been motivated by that support.
“I’ve had random people just tell me they’re so excited to have a volleyball team, and we’ve had a couple of requests to do some community service projects,” Peresich said. “We’re really excited to get the sport known and get people out to support. Apparently, the girls are so excited because they think the whole town is coming to the first game because everyone keeps telling them they’re coming. We hope we get that gym packed the first game.”
Volleyball might be new to Kosciusko, but Peresich believes a number of players who crossed over from different sports will give the team a competitive advantage that will only get better as they grow more accustomed to the sport.
“I have a lot of girls who have stepped up who are very athletic, and that’s really all that I can ask for because nobody knew how to play,” Peresich said. “They just had to have some kind of athletic ability, and these girls just used what talents that already had from the other sports to kind of channel it into this sport.”
