Greene County is preparing for its first high school volleyball competition of the season. Coach Chris Heisterkamp’s Rams will go to Dallas Center-Grimes High School on Aug. 22 to face DC-G, Mason City and Ballard (Huxley) in a quadrangular. There are 35 girls out for volleyball, but that wasn’t always the case. The numbers were far less when Heisterkamp became head coach and she placed an emphasis on getting more girls to play the sport at a younger age.

The coach talks about the Youth program. “We have quite a Winter program. We have something for fifth and sixth grade in the month of December and into mid-January. We’ve had enough girls show up to have three full teams to compete amongst ourselves, so some in-house competition, and we’re working toward traveling with them some for fifth and sixth grade. For seventh and eighth graders, we have full established AAU programs and they go January through mid-March, so we are busy!”

The number of girls out for high school volleyball could grow in 2024 as Gracie Cooklin and Kaylee Stalder are the only seniors out for the sport, and there are a number of girls expected on the eighth grade level this year.