At the beginning of summer, the Bob Jones volleyball team had no idea if they would have a season or not. They were stuck at home having zoom meetings just to stay in touch with each other.

 “It was hard to try and stay positive when we were all at home and couldn’t get in the gym together. Also, it was scary not knowing if our girls would have a season or not, especially thinking about it for my seniors,” Head Coach Cassie Mullinax said.

When the team was finally allowed back in the gym on June 10th, they practiced hard for a little more than two months straight. They came in every day ready to work, even though their season was still an unknown.

“This pandemic has made me realize that my season is in jeopardy… It has motivated me in a way to give my best effort on the court because I don’t know when my last game will be. It has also made me realize that I don’t want to be done playing volleyball yet,” senior Joy Robinson said.

The varsity team this year is pretty young due to losing five seniors last year of whom all played. They had to replace a libero, three outside hitters, and one of the setters. However, that hasn’t stopped them from carrying on the BJVB expectation of being a family. 

” My favorite thing about this season so far is the friendships and bonds that we have made with each other. We have become closer and more of a unit due to all of the challenges we have had to face already this year… I feel like we are improving so much every day,” Robinson said.

The team hosted Grissom and Huntsville on August 20th for the season opener. They were so excited to finally be able to play games again and left that night starting their season 2-0.

Since then they have played many games, having some great victories while also suffering some tough losses. They have beaten some very good teams including Athens, Spain Park, Hartselle, and Buckhorn. This year has been somewhat of a rollercoaster for the team though, they haven’t quite found their groove yet. 

“Our team is full of hard workers and leaders. We have had some great practices recently, but we have been struggling with staying consistent and beating teams that we should beat,” Coach Mullinax said.

The team’s record as of right now is 17-14. They have lost two games each against Hoover, Jasper, and Sparkman. On a more positive note, our team has beaten James Clemens, Austin, and Florence which has secured us to being in first place in our area! We will host the Area Tournament, once again, on October 15th. The varsity team has about a month left of games if nothing gets canceled due to Corona. Hopefully, they will make it state again like they have the past five years.