Morgan County, the reigning GHSA Class AA volleyball state champion, began its 2025 season this week.
The Spike Dogs aim to repeat and win back-to-back titles this season, but will do so with a new head coach.
Former head coach Kathleen Goodwin stepped down in February after leading the program to its second state title in four years. She was replaced by Alan Shultz, who was previously the head coach at the middle school.
Shultz and the players have been working together during the offseason to prepare for the opener on Aug. 7. He’s “excited” about this team, despite having to replace three key players who all went to play in college.
“It’s going to be a very strong squad,” Shultz said. “I mean, we lost three of the best front row players (Hayden Crumbley, Quinn Butler, and Chloe Burns) that our program’s ever had. They’re going to be playing college ball this fall, but we’ve still got a lot of talent returning. It’s going to be a lot of fun to watch.”
The first-year varsity head coach believes this team has the tools to succeed.
Shultz is very high on this senior class, with Abby Dennard, Camryn Scherer, Natalie Phillips, E’mariona Johnson, and Riley Mitchell returning. He coached four of them at the middle school level and knows them well.
“Abby will definitely be one of the leaders on the squad, and her game is very strong. I don’t know if there’s a better setter in the state this year in high school volleyball, but there aren’t many if there is. Abby’s a really good ball player and I’m anxious to get to watch her this year,” Morgan County’s head coach added. “We’ve also got Camryn at libero. She’s already shown the ability to be a leader on the team. And she’ll anchor that back row, but right beside her, we’ve got Riley, who will be one of the defensive specialists.
“And then on the front is Natalie. She is one of only a couple of players that I didn’t coach in middle school, but will be filling in at one of those front-row positions. She’ll be an outside hitter for us. And then in the middle, we’ve got Mari Johnson. Mari’s a heck of a middle. She was a starter on the squad last year, and she’s playing really well right now. So those are the five seniors, and they’ll definitely be leading the way.”
Shultz is also excited that a few younger players, including Graycen Cawthon, Brayden Burke, and Hailey Floyd, will contribute this year. He has a good rapport with most of them, having already coached them before.
Shultz said that already having a rapport with most of the players has made the transition to his new job easier.
“Two girls moved in – Natalie and Graycen moved in, but yeah, no, we’re all pretty familiar with each other,” Shultz said. “I got to know Natalie and Grayson this summer. So that is one of the advantages of getting some summer practices in for sure. We’re not laying down expectations as much as we are goals.
And, it’s certainly one of our goals to compete for a state title. What I don’t want to do is handcuff us with this mentality that if we don’t win a state championship, we’re a failure, because that’s not true. But we certainly feel like we have a good enough team to compete for another state title.”