The whiteboard at the front of the W.F. West gymnasium topped with “Welcome to the 2023 Volleyball Season!!” wasn’t the only feature of the Bearcats’ first practice that featured first-day-of-school vibes.
With over 40 new names and faces to learn in a hurry — and plenty of them belonging to players new to the program — first-year head coach Tiffany Alvardo asked her two assistant coaches for one key feature of the Bearcats’ practice apparel: nametags.
“It’s just a lot of planning, a lot of anticipating for things to come up and address them as needed,” Alvarado said.
Alvarado, who spent five years coaching at Shelton prior to coming to Chehalis, hit the ground running Monday as two-a-day tryouts began. She said the plan was to have at least the varsity squad defined by the end of Tuesday’s second session.
“The more reps we can get as a team, the better we’re going to look,” Alvarado said. “Getting that situated early is good.”
Whatever the Bearcats look like going into the 2023 season, it’s going to be a fair bit different than the group that went 10-10 and finished a game short of a bid to the 2A state tournament.
That team featured seven seniors — including first-team all-leaguers Savannah Hawkins and Morgan Rogerson. This year, Alvarado comes in with just two players with any varsity experience returning in Chloe Chloupek and Presley Mishler.
One of the highest priorities early on will be finding Hawkins’ replacement at setter. Junior Mady Alexander and sophomore Jaden Jensen are both trying to make the jump up after playing on the JV team last fall, and Alvarado will need both to adapt to varsity speed quickly if the Bearcats are to run her preferred 6-2 system.
“Ideally I’d love to have a 6-2 with two setters coming out of the back, but that really depends on what my setters look like,” Alvarado said. “A 5-1 works just as well, but the more hitters, the more we can have an attacking game, the better.”
W.F. West is scheduled to open the season with a southern swing, at Washougal on Sept. 5 and 1A Castle Rock Sept. 6. The Bearcats will get their home opener Sept. 11 against 3A Kelso, then open up 2A EvCo play the next day at Shelton.
