Erin Kooser

Panther’s Tale

The ultimate goal for any sports team is to achieve the highest title in the postseason, but for this year’s Derby volleyball team, making progress each week is an accomplishment in itself.

The Panthers are looking to come together and rebuild after seven players graduated last year.

Senior Nia Bishop knows that her final year is going to be focused on the reconstruction of this young volleyball team. Coach Shelby Kraus hopes that by the end of the season, they can look back and see how much they have grown as a team.

Bishop is the lone starting senior, and Kraus understands the freshmen are new to the speed of a varsity match. Kraus will rely on the upperclassmen to lead the team into adapting to the fast environment.

“I feel like the seniors and the juniors, they’re really trying to help the freshmen adapt to the speed of the game.” Kraus said.

This progress won’t be built easily. It’s going to take hard work every single week with the help from strong leadership to guide the younger girls.

Kraus knows the Panthers are talented but said this year is about, “mastering those skills and then building chemistry with each other.”

The Panthers will adapt, rebuild and always learn. In past years Nia said that other seniors have been relaxed and not pushed the team to always work as hard, but she has learned that in order to get the team going, she must always be up.

“I am really outgoing and I like to make sure everybody is up all the time, and I really feel like me being like ‘let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!’ every second has really been helping everyone get comfortable,” Bishop said of playing such a fast-paced sport.

Nia also said that she has taken to heart the lessons on responsibility and leadership from Kraus.

“Kraus has really pushed me to be responsible and be a leader,” said Bishop, who plans to play at Pittsburg State. “I feel like that has (had) a big impact on me, and (me) being the No. 1 leader (this year) is really going to help me for college ball.”
With all these goals in mind to rebuild a great team, Derby is still excited to see what this team can accomplish over this transition kind of season.