News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Monterey volleyball captains and seniors Ryley McCoy and Galy Hernandez are nearing the end of their playing career, but they hope to delay the inevitable for as long as possible.
Members of the team since 9th grade, McCoy and Hernandez agreed and said their senior season has been their favorite. McCoy said this season was different due to a change in leadership with Todd Daugherty taking over as head coach.
“This program has very high hopes for it with this coach,” McCoy said. “And he’s doing very good with us because since our freshman year we’ve had four different coaches, so we’ve been all over the place. And he finally came in and gave us some hope and it’s been nice. I think the girls that get to have him one plus years are very lucky.”
For the first time in their high school career, McCoy and Hernandez are thinking about competing for a district title with Hernandez saying she wants to experience that win with her teammates. McCoy however has her eyes on the history books.
“With winning districts or even going to the finals, we could progress to regions and make it further than any team in Monterey has,” McCoy said. “So it’d be definitely nice to make history.”
McCoy said that this year’s team chemistry is stronger and those bonds have helped them on off-script plays. She said Daugherty’s love of the game that he brought with him has rubbed off on the whole team.
“I think this season, we’re having a lot more fun with games,” McCoy said. “It’s not a dreaded ‘oh, we gotta go play this team that we don’t know what’s going to happen’. But this year we go in with a good mindset and have a very good outlook towards the end of the game and have been able to pull away a lot of wins this season.”
This season with a record of 12-13, the Wildcats have already won as many games as the team played in their entire 2023 season that saw them go winless. Hernandez said they team has improved in every aspect of the game, but it’s the Wildcats spirit that has changed the outlook of the program.
“The energy is much improved from last year and this year,” Hernandez said. “And when energy comes in the court and outside the court we all click in the moment and that gives us wins. So, I think it’s mostly the energy that’s improved and that’s a really huge difference from last year.”
