While area football teams began practice this past for their season openers, W.S. Neal and T.R. Miller’s volleyballs are also busy practicing for their openers Thursday, Aug. 23. W.S. Neal will travel to Excel while T.R. Miller will travel to Flomaton.

W.S. Neal:
The W.S. Neal Lady Eagle volleyball team recently concluded their first full week of volleyball practice for the 2012 season.
While the season is still a couple of weeks away, second-year head coach Jeff Haney has said his girls have stepped up from the transition of summer workouts to the fall practice schedule.
“Thursday Aug. 2 was the first official day for us,” Haney said. “We had summer workouts and a couple of tournaments in Flomaton and in Jay that we took part in. Those gave us a really good idea of where we stood and what we needed to improve on. We started working on those things and started some heavy conditioning last week to kind of make sure they were in shape for practice. The girls have really stepped up.”
Seeing the girls step up in recent practices was a change from day one Haney said.
“The first day was rough,” he said. “But ever since then the girls have stepped up and are kind of enjoying it. We are working on those things that gave us trouble in the summer tournaments, but the girls are working hard and they are trying to get better. We have three seniors and they are a core group and they are good leaders for our team. It is just one of those things where we are trying to replace those starters from last year. We have a lot of young people in our freshmen and sophomores.”
As for practice, Haney has had to do some adjustments to his schedule.
“We are separating our JV and varsity practice schedules right now,” he said. “I tried last year to do them together and it did not work out. After trying last year and it not working out, I tried it again this year and it did not work out. It is just a discrepancy between their levels of abilities. We need to work on some things at the varsity level that the JV is not close to being ready for and vice-versa. The JV may need a lot of fundamental stuff that the varsity already knows. It is just easier for us to separate the practices and have the JV go first at 3 p.m. and the varsity go at 4 p.m.”
The Lady Eagles of East Brewton will have their first game against Excel on Aug. 23. “Excel is in their second year of a volleyball program so we are looking to get off on the right foot,” Haney said. “Hopefully we can do some things right that will give us a little momentum going into some bigger games this year.”
Here is W.S. Neal’s 2012 schedule:
•Thursday, Aug. 23, Excel, Away, 4 p.m., JV, V
• Monday, Aug. 27, Flomaton, Away, 4 p.m., MS, JV, V
• Tuesday, Aug. 28, Escambia County, Away, 4:30 p.m. Varsity
• Thursday, Aug. 30, T.R. Miller, Home, 4 p.m., MS, JV, V
• Tuesday, Sept. 4, Pleasant Home, Away, 4 p.m., MS, JV, V
• Thursday, Sept. 6, Jay, Away, 4 p.m., V
• Monday, Sept. 10, Bayside, Away, 4:30 p.m., JV, V
• Tuesday, Sept. 11, Excel, Home, 4 p.m., JV, V
• Thursday, Sept. 13, Pleasant Home, Home, 3:30 p.m., MS, JV, V
• Tuesday, Sept. 18, Flomaton, Home-WSN Middle School, 4 p.m., MS, JV
• Tuesday, Sept. 25, Tri-match vs. Flomaton and Jay, Home, Varsity
-WSN vs. FHS, 4 p.m., FHS-Jay, 5 p.m., WSN-Jay, 6 p.m.
• Thursday, Sept. 27, T.R. Miller, Away, 4 p.m., MS, JV, V
• Tuesday, Oct. 2, Escambia County, Home, 4 p.m., Varsity
• Thursday, Oct. 4, Cottage Hill, Home, 4 p.m., JV, V
• Tuesday, Oct. 9, Monroe County, Home, 4:30 p.m., Varsity
• Thursday, Oct. 11, Monroe County, Away, 4:30 p.m., Varsity
• Saturday, Oct. 13, Escambia County Tournament, JDCC, TBA, Varsity
• Oct. 18-20, Area Tournament, TBA, TBA, Varsity

T.R. Miller:
While the first official day of volleyball practice across the state was Thursday, Aug. 2, the T.R. Miller Lady Tiger volleyball team began their practice for the 2012 season Tuesday, Aug. 7.
T.R. Miller went from 7 to 9 a.m. Tuesday and will go from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. the remainder of their practices with Fridays being an off day.
“So far I like our enthusiasm,” T.R. Miller head coach Greg White said. “Everyone was here on time. I have three kids gone to church camp so everyone that is supposed to be here is here. Church camp was scheduled before this so I made an exception to that.”
White said the girls on this year’s team are working hard.
“We are fast-paced at what we are doing so there is not a lot of standing around,” he said. “The girls are buying in to it and I like that. So far, everything is good. Right now we have 25 kids in grades nine through 12 so we have a lot of bodies out here and that is a good problem to have. I just need my seniors to step up and be leaders for us and my younger girls to follow their lead and we will see where we go from there.”
During the first few days of practice, White said his plans are to just get his team back into a volleyball state of mind.
“We do a lot of drills in the first three days and then we get into a lot of our team things,” he said. “So the first three days are just a lot of nonstop and quick drill work. After that we will start branching off into some team stuff and some position things. Right now, it is pretty much just getting after it and getting back into volleyball mode.”
Here is the complete 2012 schedule for T.R. Miller:
• Thursday, Aug. 23, Flomaton, Away, MS- 4 p.m., JV-5 p.m./V-6 p.m.
• Tuesday, Aug. 28, Andalusia and Excel, Home, 4 p.m. Andalusia/6 p.m. Excel (tri-match)
• Thursday, Aug. 30, W.S. Neal, Away, MS- 4 p.m., JV-5 p.m./ V-6 p.m.
• Thursday, Sept. 6, Monroe County, Home, JV-4 p.m./V-5 p.m.
• Monday, Sept. 10, Cottage Hill, Home, JV- 4:30 p.m., V-5:30 p.m.
• Tuesday, Sept. 11, Pleasant Home, Away, MS-4 p.m./ JV-5 p.m./ Varsity-6 p.m.
• Thursday, Sept. 13, Flomaton, Home, MS-4 p.m., JV- 5 p.m., V-6 p.m.
• Monday, Sept. 17, Bayside Academy, Home, JV-4:30 p.m./ V-5:30 p.m.
• Tuesday, Sept. 18, Central-Allentown, Home-BMS, Middle School only 4 and 5 p.m.
• Monday, Sept. 24, Cottage Hill, Away, JV-4:30 p.m./ V-5:30 p.m.
• Tuesday, Sept. 25, Pleasant Home, Home, MS- 4 p.m., JV-5 p.m./V-6 p.m.
• Thursday, Sept. 27, W.S. Neal, Home, MS- 4 p.m., JV-5 p.m./V-6 p.m.
• Monday, Oct. 1, Bayside Academy, Away, JV-4:30 p.m., V-5:30 p.m.
• Tuesday, Oct. 2, Andalusia, Geneva and Northview, Away (Andalusia) 4 p.m. Andalusia/ 5 p.m. Geneva/ 6 p.m. Northview
• Thursday, Oct. 4, Monroe County, Away, JV-4 p.m./ V- 5 p.m.
• Tuesday, Oct. 9, Excel, Home, JV-4 p.m., V-5 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct. 13, Escambia County Tournament, JDCC, TBA, Varsity only
• Thursday, Oct. 18, Area tournament, TBA, TBA
• TBA, Regional tournament, TBA
• TBA, Elite 8 State tournament, Birmingham, TBA