New Coach, RC Alum, Focusing On ‘Intentionality’
With nine players returning, the Rockbridge County High School volleyball team looks for experience to lead the way.
The Wildcats do have a new coaching staff, with Graceon Whitesell as their new head coach. Whitesell, formerly Graceon Armstrong, is a 2020 RC graduate who played volleyball for the Wildcats and then briefly as a freshman at Bridgewater College. She then transferred to Mary Baldwin University and made the commute from Staunton to serve as an assistant coach for the Wildcats for two years.
After graduating from Mary Baldwin, Whitesell, 24, became an assistant coach for the Spotswood High School volleyball team in Penn Laird in the fall of 2024. She returned to Rockbridge County last year and became head coach of the Maury River Middle School volleyball team while teaching business classes in grades 9-12 at RC.
Whitesell, who was the Region 3C player of the year as a high school junior in 2018, replaces Gabe Wagner, who stepped down after two years of coaching the Wildcats to serve as an assistant coach for the men’s volleyball team at the University of Pacific in California in its first year of competition in 12 years.
As the Wildcats get ready to start the season next week, Whitesell is optimistic about what they can accomplish with their 13 players: seven seniors, two juniors and four sophomores. “Experience is definitely a strength,” she said. “My senior class wants to win, and they have come up with a team goal of making sure the team is first and their bond is first and really building the community around volleyball.”
“We use the word ‘intentionality’ a lot in practice, in having intentional practices and them being intentional with what they’re doing and what they’re saying,” added Whitesell. “The girls like for things to be very intentional and intense.”
The Wildcats graduated five seniors from last year’s team, which went 10-10 overall and 8-8 in their first year in the Shenandoah District to come up short of advancing to the Region 3C tournament. Leading the way was Mackenzie McCormick, an all-district second-team middle who is about to start her Division III volleyball career at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg. The Wildcats also graduated setter Maisen McKemy, liberos Ava Crocker and Hayley Higgins and outside hitter Jada Hamilton.
While the Wildcats will miss last year’s class of seniors, Whitesell is confident in this year’s class. “I’m leaning on this group of seniors to take hold of their destiny and their future and what they want the season to look like,” said Whitesell. “They’re amazing.”
Leading the hitters are junior Cesi Beidle and senior Geneva Snyder. Both are “definitely strong players,” said Whitesell, noting they can both play at the outside and right-side hitter positions.
Senior middle and outside hitter Emerson Duff is “also a strong player,” said Whitesell, as is senior right-side and middle hitter Tadara Cooper. The Wildcats also return senior right-side and middle hitter Madeline White.
Three seniors lead the back row, focusing on defense as liberos and defensive specialist: Adrianna Grue, Braelyn Polly and Savannah Whitmer.
While McKemy will be missed as the Wildcats’ starting setter, the Wildcats will look to returning junior Allison Licona-Asto and sophomore Emmilyn Kelly, moving up from the junior varsity squad, to fill her shoes.
The Wildcats welcome sophomore middle and outside hitter Addyson Pennington, who transferred from Rockbridge Christian Academy and brings experience from playing travel volleyball. “She really is exciting,” said Whitesell.
Also new to the varsity level are a pair of sophomores: middle and outside hitter Sylvia Bruno and setter and outside hitter Addison Clements.
On the coaching staff, the Wildcats welcome Kim Beidle, mother of Cesi, as an assistant coach. Beidle coached a volleyball club for 10 years in Houston, Texas and also coached high school volleyball there. Whitesell said she will be leaning on Beidle as a mentor. “She’s been amazing,” said Whitesell. “I can’t say enough about Kim.”
RC also welcomes Sydney Phillips, who will serve as the Wildcats’ head JV coach. Phillips graduated from Riverheads High School in 2021, playing volleyball there as an outside hitter, and then went on to play at Richard Bland College, a junior college in Petersburg, before playing beach and indoor volleyball for the University of Lynchburg. She was an assistant coach for E.C. Glass High School in Lynchburg last fall. Whitesell said Phillips “knows a lot about volleyball and has been around the sport for years.”
Grace Cauley, a 2022 RC graduate who was an alldistrict middle and outside hitter for the Wildcats before going to Radford University, joins the staff as a volunteer assistant coach. “It’s definitely nice to have an alumna on the staff,” said Whitesell.
In the Shenandoah District, Whitesell expects Class 2 state runner-up Fort Defiance to be the favorite, after going 26-1 last year, with the Indians’ only loss coming against Radford in the state championship match. Whitesell also expects Alleghany to be a tough opponent, considering “how scrappy they are.” Other top district competition should come from Waynesboro, Stuarts Draft and Staunton, Whitesell said, and she doesn’t expect any easy nights in the district. “The district seems pretty wide open this year,” she said.
Offensively, Whitesell said the Wildcats have been “working on something in practice that’s faster-paced. We are definitely running a tempoed offense that tends to be faster than what other teams run, as well as just focusing on serve receive and being in control of the things that we can control.”
After a home scrimmage this evening against Craig County and a jamboree on Saturday at Patrick County, the Wildcats will have their season opener in Buena Vista when they face local rival Parry Mc-Cluer on Tuesday. RC’s home opener will be the following Monday, Aug. 31, a nondistrict matchup against Turner Ashby. Both nights will start with JV action at 5:30 p.m. RC will then begin district action at Buffalo Gap on Tuesday, Sept. 1, starting with the JV match at 6 p.m.
Preparing for the upcoming season, Whitesell said, “I’m definitely looking forward to seeing a packed gym and everybody wearing blue and white. I love it when the gym’s loud. I hope we have a lot of fans that come out and support us.”
Editor’s Note: The photo of the RC volleyball varsity team was not available at press time. It will be published, with names of players and coaches, in an upcoming newspaper.
