With the new season just around the corner, the Renegade volleyball team is working hard.
New head coach Julie Ryan said she has high hopes for the coming season.
“They are really coming together well,” Ryan said. “Their hard work will pay off.”
Bakersfield has many opportunities for players to harness their talents and improve with the various club teams and good high school coaching.
The players for this year’s team have come from many different high schools all over the county and into Southern California.
Many of the players come from club teams that have had great success in state wide competition.
Sophomore Kim Harper won two valley championships at Garces High School and was starting outside hitter for Dominican University, Cal Pac conference champions.
“She has the kind of experience that brings leadership to the team,” Ryan said.
Freshman setter Heather Tape turned down a soccer scholarship from California State University, Bakersfield, to play volleyball at BC.
Tape was the No. 1 setter for Stockdale High School and the Kern River Volleyball Cub.
Her club team took seventh at nationals. Tape, a three-time Southwest Yosemite League champion, has a lot to bring to the team.
Freshman Lindsay Westendorff, who red-shirted for CSUB last year, transferred to BC this fall.
Freshman Stacey Segeberg, of Phelan, Calif., is hearing impaired.
The team has adapted to the communication barrier well, Ryan said. Segeberg is a talented player, she said.
Along with the new players, the team’s new coach has experienced her own success in the sport.
Ryan played professional volleyball in a San Diego United States Professional Volleyball league in 1996 and 1997.
During the past four years Ryan has coached both at the club and collegiate levels.
“She works us hard in practice, especially during conditioning,” said freshman outside hitter Cora Crisler.
While Ryan is new to the league, she has heard many things about the top teams.
She anticipates College of the Canyons to be the ‘Gades’ toughest match.
“These are tough girls,” Ryan said. “They are not afraid of competition.”
Ryan works the women hard at practice to get them ready for the tough matches that they will play this season.
Conditioning is used to build strength and endurance in the players so that they may compete at a higher level. She said she is looking forward to the season and has high hopes for the players development.
“I want the girls to take something good away, whatever it is,” she said.