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Chattanooga: GPS targets state repeat

By: Jaime Lackey
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Besides the ones they earned for last year’s state volleyball championship, the eight returning GPS players have 16 other state championship rings among them.

And with a team full of outstanding athletes who have competed at the highest levels in multiple sports, the Bruisers know they have a chance to earn another one at the end of the fall season.

“When it’s game point in the state championship match, you want a girl who’ll be relaxed and focused on the job she needs to do in order to win,” GPS coach Paul Brock said. “That’s definitely an advantage for us, to have had these girls in those high-pressure games. It’s just another game for them.”

Seniors Megan Givens and Whitney Hammond committed this summer to continue their softball careers at the University of Tennessee after helping GPS defend its state title last spring, but their athleticism and experience make them equally at home on the volleyball court.

“I’ve been on two state (softball) championship teams, and just being in that situation, I feel like it mentally prepares you,” Givens said. “You know what you’re going to get into and you don’t have to be nervous, because you know what to expect.”

Givens recorded more than 1,000 digs as the Bruisers’ libero last season and is widely considered one of the state’s best at the position this year. Hammond was an all-state tournament selection at outside hitter in 2007, and GPS will use her speed and jumping ability even more this year as she plays all the way around.

“Whether it’s reaching that extra bit to get the ball, or laying out to pass it, we’re willing to do the extra work to get one point,” Hammond said. “And that one point may end up winning the game. I think we just understand the importance of being athletic.”

Jasmine Brown, a 2008 300-meter hurdles state champion who helped GPS earn a team state title the previous track season, is the Bruisers’ most highly recruited volleyball player and could be considered their top overall athlete. The setter/outside hitter achieved high school All-America status as a junior, and her all-around play has drawn the attention of Division I college coaches.

Fellow senior Heather Parman, a 6-foot outside hitter who is sharing setting duties this season, will also have the option to play volleyball in college, as will 6-foot-2 senior middle blocker Danna Myatt.

“Whitney, Heather and Jasmine are all extremely powerful hitters and athletes,” Brock said. “All three would be D-I (volleyball) players if they wanted to be. Danna anchoring the middle is a very big key to our defense, and she’s an offensive weapon too. We have so many weapons for gaining points and stopping other teams that it’s scary.”

That’s not to say the Bruisers don’t have plenty of work ahead of them. They must replace state-tournament MVP Hannah Shadrick, along with two other seniors from last year’s team, and learn to deal with their newfound role as state-title favorites.

Father Ryan held that position last year until GPS pulled off a stunning upset in the double-elimination state final, and the Bruisers don’t want to find themselves on the other end of that scenario this season.

“We were the underdogs last year, and I want to keep that mindset,” Myatt said. “I don’t want us to get overconfident and think that we’re just going to stroll into state, because that’s not going to happen. We’ve got to work for it.”

Brock, who is on pace for his 600th win this season, has built the Bruisers into one of the state’s premier volleyball teams, but last year’s championship was just the second in the program’s history. GPS won its first title in 2000 but came up short in the 2003 and 2005 state finals.

“After winning state last year, a reasonable goal is to win state again,” Brock said. “I don’t want them to feel that it’s failure if we don’t, because there’s plenty of success that you find throughout the year, but no GPS team has ever repeated in volleyball. That’s something to drive them, to make them want to be that team, and these girls are goal-driven.”

And there’s no doubt about what their goal is for this season.

“We talk about getting to state and winning state again, but we know that it doesn’t come without a lot of work,” Brown said. “ We’re kind of just taking it game by game — not saying we’re going to win state, but saying we have to win this game in order to get to state. But that’s a big goal of ours.”

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