Star volleyball player Julia Angelo returns this High School season with a new head coach, a familiar teammate, and a vision for the future.

Since her freshman year, Julia Angelo (‘17) has been terrorizing the opposition with her frighteningly powerful spikes and consistently stellar defense.

Having spent her freshman and sophomore varsity years with former coach Tara Kuk, this year Angelo was dealt with a couple drastic changes.

New man Dexter Rogers took over head coaching duties for the Lady Canes’ varsity squad this season, and, so far, Angelo is a fan of the change. “He’s nice, but also really intense and can be intimidating at times,” the junior said.

Rogers’ immediate success to the team cannot be overlooked, however, as the Lady Canes enter the district playoffs as the number one seed, with a 5-0 district record and 16-2 overall.

Getting a new head coach wasn’t the only change Angelo was dealt with entering her junior season; her younger sister, Jessica Angelo, aimed to follow Julia’s legacy of making a bolstering impact to the varsity team her inaugural season.

“Sometimes we get into little fights and such because she’s annoying…but she’s also really funny,” Julia proclaims about younger sister Jessica. “The best thing is that we know each other so we know how to communicate [on the volleyball court],” Julia said.

The junior and freshman duo have an immensely high standard when it comes to playing volleyball, and that can create kerfuffles at times. “I have a short fuse for her,” Julia states.

This rigid mindset for nothing but success can also be tied to the junior’s appointment as one of three captains this season.

Angelo says that at times it can be quite stressful as she feels she has “a lot of responsibility” this season compared to the previous two years.

In late spring of her sophomore year, the volleyball prospect was being recruited by many Division 1 universities during her club season. After touring numerous schools both in and out-of-state, Angelo verbally committed to the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.

She claimed that the school was “unique and different” and said that she wanted to “try something new for college.”

Committing to a school early in their high school career can be detrimental to many students as some tend to lose focus and become contempt with their level of play. Angelo plans to trump this stereotype and says that it’s “exciting” but says she has “to keep getting better.

All of this dedication and strenuous work also comes with a bit of fun, however, as there’s a kind of camaraderie that comes with being on the high school team.

Angelo says that they have all kinds of pre-game rituals: “we dance and dance and dance,” the junior says. “Sometimes we harmonize to classic songs on the bus on the way to away games to calm us down. We’re also in the middle of creating a choreographed dance,” Angelo laughingly said.

The Division 1 athlete also proclaimed the need for more support at home games. Angelo frustratingly said that the best moment so far this season was “the one-time fans actually showed up to our game against East Lake.”

The Lady Canes should gain more support as they enter the district playoffs the week of October 19, at Seminole High School.