The Putnam County High School volleyball program has already started preparing for its new season this fall. After the tryout process, the program began to work this summer on the physical conditioning of the players.
Once the school year ended, work began in the open gym, where the players had the opportunity to share time on the court.
PCHS volleyball will have two new assistants to support head coach Francisco Aguirre Arancibia. Amaya Banks and Rakeena Griffin have joined the PCHS coaching staff and intend to teach volleyball fundamentals to both the junior varsity and varsity teams.
Banks is a seasoned graduate of Putnam County volleyball. She had heard about volleyball but wasn’t familiar with the game until her love and passion for volleyball developed when she was in the 10th grade. She played the game for the remainder of her high school years and during that time learned everything she could about the game while developing her skills.
Banks graduated from Kennesaw State University in May 2022 and currently is a 7th-grade science teacher at Putnam County Middle School.
Her expectations for the upcoming JV season are for her players to work hard and learn the game.
She strongly believes hard work is a key part of a person’s success; therefore, she hopes to cultivate and nurture an intrinsic desire for hard work in the JV team.
Banks also expects to develop her players’ skills and aid in developing their knowledge of the game.
Her expectations for the entire PCHS volleyball program are to have successful seasons from here on out and to produce hardworking, respectful, and responsible young women.
As part of their preparations, the Putnam County JV and varsity volleyball squads played a scrimmage June 14 against current region champions Davidson Fine Arts. It proved to be a dynamic match in which the coaches were able to analyze each players’ strengths and weaknesses, while also applying the necessary substitutions to give all players the opportunity to compete.
“There is a lot of work to be done but there is a lot of potential to work on each of the players.
Communication work must be carried out, more teamwork, trusting each other, and more dedication to practice,” Arancibia said. “This scrimmage process helped us to prepare the work in the last weeks of the preseason. It also helped some players to feel the pressure of the game and gain knowledge of movement on the court.”
In the end, both Putnam teams lost their games, but each gained experience, which currently is the most important thing for the season that begins Aug. 8 at home in Eatonton.