CHS volleyball to field young team this fall
By Danny C. Davis
The CHS girls volleyball team was introduced at Meet the Arrows earlier this month.
New Clinton High School volleyball coach Autumn Frost will be the first to admit that this fall’s girls volleyball team will be very young.
Frost, a native of the Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida, area, has a team with no seniors returning, two juniors back, three sophomores and one freshman returning to play varsity.
“We have two eighth-grade starters and a very strong seventh- and eighth-grade group, so we will be building for the future this fall,” said Frost, who played volleyball at Mississippi College and was also on the Choctaw girls track team.
Frost is in her third year at CHS, where she teaches economics and advanced world geography. Two years ago, Frost served as an assistant volleyball coach for the Lady Arrows and an assistant Lady Arrows basketball coach. Last year, she only served as an assistant for the Lady Arrows basketball team. But, this year, she will be the head volleyball coach and will assist in girls basketball later in the school year once again.
Frost will try to get the young volleyball Arrows back to having a winning season after the team went 7-25 last season and 13-15 in 2021.
Clinton had a good stretch of success before 2021, going 25-9 in 2018, 34-7 in 2019, and 13-7 in the COVID-shortened season of 2020.
CHS will compete in the new Class 7A and play in a tough district again with Tupelo, Starkville, Madison Central and Jackson Murrah all as district games, both at home and away.
At press time, the Lady Arrows were scheduled to open up the season on the road at Northwest Rankin on August 8.
Coach Frost will be looking to juniors Mary Preston Bruce and Maelin Cronin to provide leadership to the younger inexperienced players this fall.
“Those are two girls with a lot volleyball experience that we need to be our leaders this fall.”
“We had one hundred fifty girls try out in grades seven through twelve, so there is a lot of interest in playing volleyball here in Clinton,” said Frost. “We are working hard with our fifteen girls to build the program back. Our eighth graders are really going to be good when they get game time experience.”
Said Frost, “We have a super bright future ahead of us. This team gels well together. They work hard for each other and are very well disciplined. We’re young, but gritty. The only place to go from here is up.”
Assisting Frost will be assistant coach Emily Stringham.
