New volleyball coach looks to make Wareham’s program competitive
Coach Allyson Collette, left, and assistant coaches Sierra Canastra and Bill Oliver celebrate the Wareham volleyball team’s first win. Photos courtesy: Da’Kodah Girardin
Senior captain Fredi Gakidis serves the ball. Gakidis went on to score a 14-point serve streak to help the Vikings beat Seekonk 3-0 on Wednesday, Sept. 7.
Volleyball players hype each other up before their match on Wednesday, Sept. 7.
Volleyball players celebrate their first win.
Coach Allyson Collette, left, and assistant coaches Sierra Canastra and Bill Oliver celebrate the Wareham volleyball team’s first win. Photos courtesy: Da’Kodah Girardin
Senior captain Fredi Gakidis serves the ball. Gakidis went on to score a 14-point serve streak to help the Vikings beat Seekonk 3-0 on Wednesday, Sept. 7.
Volleyball players hype each other up before their match on Wednesday, Sept. 7.
Volleyball players celebrate their first win.
Wareham High School’s varsity volleyball team won their first match in two seasons on Sept.7.
Now seven games into the year, the team boasts three wins against “some tough opponents,” said Allyson Collette, Wareham High School’s new head volleyball coach.
In the team’s first two matchups this season, the Wareham Vikings won a set against a highly competitive Greater New Bedford team and beat Seekonk in their second showdown.
“It was really exciting,” said Collette after the team’s first win. “They rushed the court after.”
She began as head volleyball coach at Wareham High School weeks ago after she served as junior varsity coach at Old Rochester Regional High School for the past five years.
Collette, who lives and teaches in Fairhaven, said she’s always wanted to be head coach, so when she saw the Wareham opening, things just clicked.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” she said.
The new coach spoke to the already marked difference between this season and Wareham’s past few years when match victories were nonexistent.
The team has a lot of good players, she said, with different backgrounds and familiarities with the game.
The one thing all the players have in common?
“They’re all just really excited,” Collette said. “The attitudes of the team — that’s something you can’t coach.”
Looking ahead to the rest of the season, Colette said the team is looking to be competitive with teams they might not have been tough against in the past. It’s not necessarily about having a perfect record, she said — it’s about playing well and putting up a strong fight, especially against smaller schools in conference games.
Wareham was handed a tough 3-0 loss by the team from Old Rochester Regional High School during a game on Sept. 12 but came back strong with a 3-0 win against Bristol County Agricultural High School on Sept. 16 and another 3-0 win against Westport High School on Sept. 20.
Although the team has lost a number of games this season, Collette said “some of the teams we've lost against were pretty good teams,” adding that the Vikings have “done well for the teams we’ve gone against.”
The Vikings will be facing Bourne High School in a home game on Monday, Sept. 26.
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