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AIPROPX ReportYahoo Sports · 43m ago
Accountability, discipline drives Kernel volleyball under new coach
Aug. 24—MITCHELL — When the Mitchell High School players and coaches gathered to start a new volleyball season recently, new head coach Amy Tyler had a simple question for her team.
"What do you expect of us as coaches?"
Tyler said the players' answer was simple: "They all said to hold us accountable."
That's the tone that's been set in a new era for Kernel volleyball, the first in program history without legendary coach Deb Thill, who retired after 35 years. Instead, the Kernels are led by an experienced coach in Tyler, plus the bulk of the Kernels' assistant coaches are also back on the bench.
It comes as the Kernels have a good share of returners from a 16-11 season and a Class AA state tournament appearance a year ago but have to replace key seniors in the heart of their lineup.
"The captains chose the motto, "Driven by discipline," and they really want to do things correctly and efficiently, and they want to sweat a little bit," Tyler said. "It's been fun watching them work as hard as they have been working so far."
Even as someone who has past experience working with the Mitchell players, Tyler said the summer practices were successful and informative.
"I'm really glad we had the summer we did because attendance was great," Tyler said. "The girls were here every week just working hard. I got to see a lot of their tendencies this summer. Fitting the puzzle together is a little bit easier, understanding what each player is bringing to the table."
The Kernels' Class AA state tournament appearance in 2025 was MHS' first in eight seasons. That success gave the program a good taste of postseason volleyball once again, particularly the home win in the SoDak 16 over Spearfish that sent the Kernels into the state bracket.
"That's been kind of an ongoing conversation with a lot of the girls, that the SoDak 16 atmosphere and the competition of that game was really rewarding," Tyler said. "And then getting to the state tournament was a great experience for the whole team. They're really, really hungry. I think that's why they wanted to be held accountable because they want to get back to that stage."
"It sets the tone for this season," senior hitter Charleigh Collins said. "We know what we want to be this season, and we know we lost a lot of really good players. We have returners that know what the expectation is, and now it's up to us as seniors to lead the rest of them to that goal."
The Kernels will need to replace seniors Addie Siemsen and Kenna Soulek at the setter and libero positions. To do that, the Kernels will call on junior Londyn Hajek to slide over to take on the libero spot, while the Kernels expect to have sophomore Sloan Stoebner lead the setting role. Defensive specialist Cassidy Korzan is expected to lead the back row as a senior, as well.
"We've been working really, really hard on passing," Tyler said. "We need to be able to control the ball in order to control the game. And so all summer long we've done a lot of ball handling. Now that we're getting into the swing of things, we need to take it a step further and start working on our offense and speeding that up."
"We know it will be important," Hajek said on the passing topic. "I feel like our serve-receive is what helped us get to where we were last year, and without having Addie, that will be hard because she was really, really good at getting every ball on point. So having that pass on point is going to be crucial to getting our hitters set up and getting our setters going."
In terms of hitters, the Kernels will be led by freshman Nia Talley and seniors Collins and Ivory Fenski. The Kernels expect sophomore Ashley Haring and freshman CeCe Morgan to take on larger roles as hitters this season.
Tyler previously coached for 16 years leading the Wagner program, which included a pair of Class A state championships in 2008 and 2009. She has a career coaching record of 433-93 and is one of four coaches in South Dakota volleyball history with at least 400 wins and a career winning percentage of .800 or better.
Korzan said she's known coach Tyler since she was her teacher in the eighth grade and has appreciated her perspective and how she coaches the game.
"We have new rules, new expectations to push us to be even better players. I think it's really beneficial and it's a fresh way of doing things," Korzan said. "We're looking forward to going to practice and playing games."
Mitchell will host Sturgis at 5 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 28, in the season opener at the MHS Gym. On Aug. 29, they will travel to the Huron Invitational to face Class B powers Chester and Northwestern, plus Class A stalwart Dell Rapids and Class AA foe Spearfish. The Kernels' first Eastern South Dakota Conference match comes on Sept. 1 at four-time reigning state champion Harrisburg.
AccountabilityKernelMITCHELLMitchell High SchoolAmy TylerTylerThat'sDeb ThillInsteadKernelsClass AADriven
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