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Brittani Steger’s coaching career began with a glittering record of 16-1 overall and 9-0 in the Central Piedmont Conference in the 2019 Davie JV volleyball season. She enters her second season with an 11-match winning streak.

Although six of her players from 2019 (Peyton Justice, Kimball Little, Sadie Eddinger, Molly Bures, Kiah Mathis and Emily Garner) are on the varsity, Steger’s outlook for 2020-21 is sunny.

“All three of us (including varsity coach Amber Brandon and assistant Marnic Lewis) think the JV has great potential,” Steger said. “It’s just a matter of them coming together as a team and working hard.”

There are two returners from last year’s JV – Gracie Wilson and Camden Hurst. They are the only sophomores on the team and they figure to play prominent roles.

“Hopefully they’ll step into those leadership roles and get everybody together,” Steger said. “I’m looking for (Wilson) to be a wall up there (on the front row), making blocks and making plays. She’s 6-foot or maybe a little taller. She’s very coachable.

“(Hurst) is a very versatile player, which is great because I feel like I can put her at any position on the front row. I’m trying to get her more comfortable in an outside role this year. She had to play more middle last year, but hopefully we’ll get her into more of that outside role. She’s also very coachable.”

Steger needs others to blossom. She’s confident the freshman group will be solid. Those 10 girls are Melia Privett, Jordan Kistner, Hailey Johnson, Macey Smith, Mikaylah Hutton, Sophia Brady, Reily York, Caroline Lakey, Taylor Smith and Lauren O’Connor.

“Mikaylah is going to be either middle or right side,” she said. “She’s over 6-foot as well. I think she’s going to be a good hitter on front row. She’ll hit outside, middle or right side. She’s very versatile as well. She seems very passionate and wants to learn the game, so I think she’ll be a great addition.

“Hailey is going to be our libero. She’s very talkative and I can definitely tell she loves to pass the ball. She is going to work hard on back row.

“Caroline has been standing out. She’s probably going to play right side, and she’ll also pass for us some on the back row.

“Lauren is going to be one of our setters, so we’re definitely trying to get her into the role of communicating with everyone. (With M. Smith also playing setter), we’ll probably run a 6-2.”

Then she added: “I see a lot of good potential in the 10 freshmen. Once we get them all in sync, communicating and working as a team, I think we’ll be successful.”