By Andy Morphew
The Duncan Banner

After a strong season with a young team last year, the Duncan Lady Demons volleyball team returned to the court with the same fire and desire that they had toward the end of last season.

Lard, who enters her seventh season as the Lady Demons volleyball coach, hosted practice this entire week to start preparing for the 2021 campaign.

With four days of official practice down, Lard expressed feeling thrilled with how the team has reacted and feels very strongly this team is excited for the upcoming season.

“It feels like almost we are picking up where we left off and those younger girls, they have grown physically and mentally,” Lard said. “We kind of went through a growth period last year that is kind of unprecedented and so I have seen them grow over the last of the year and it felt so good to get back into the gym. I was so excited and what I have seen and heard so far — I am pumped for this season.”

Duncan Volleyball hired a new assistant in Malia Martin who comes from Edmond where she was a State Champion. Martin just finished her career at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Lard and Martin worked with the group for this entire week while getting to know each other with Lard noticing right away that this hire will mean a lot to the success of the program.

“We have done so many new and different things already in practice and she brings a whole wealth of knowledge to the table,” Lard said. “When you have two coaches that ready and excited to get going, the sky is the limit. We are doing different things, we have new drills, so it looks different and feels different, but it is with the same time, it is the same people. It has been fun watching them get to know her and them getting to know her as their coach.”

Last year’s team went to the Class 5A Regionals with a nine game winning streak to end the regular season and for Lard, she believes the senior class and having a rotation used to each other is huge.

“You always want a group to set the tone and you always need a group that can show the younger girls the ropes and I feel like this has been this group for a couple of years now,” Lard said. “We rely on them to get us out of the funk we may be in and to have that leadership for at least two years now, you can’t underestimate what they bring to the table.”

With the coaches and players a couple of weeks away from the first scrimmages of the 2021 season, Lard said they will progress further to get ready for the first of the new season.

“This week was getting them back into the gym and I have seen a lot of them in the summer when we did weights and conditioning but we haven’t been all together as a group,” Lard said. “This week we were trying to get them into gym and get them back into shape, put some conditioning in. Like I said, it is a veteran group and when I said we kind of picked up where we left off, I feel like we got a good starting point. I feel like we are ahead this year than where we have been in the past and I feel like we are going to move at a good pace this year.”

The first scrimmage for the Lady Demons will take place at home Aug. 6 against Community Christian followed by another home scrimmage on Aug.10 against Cache before the season starts.

For full season recaps of Duncan Volleyball check out duncanbanner.com for up to date coverage.