Lady Cowboys start season with new coach at helm

MEEKER | The lady Cowboy varsity volleyball team’s first match will be in Walden against the North Park Wildcats and will mark the start of a new era with new head coach Greg Cravens leading the team, which returns seven with varsity experience.
Two-a-day practices started the week before school started and coach Cravens said everyone is “slowly getting to know each other,” and the seniors are helping with the transition.
“Getting a new coaching staff creates a huge learning curve for the team and the coaches,” coach Cravens said. “Hopefully we can work through that curve fairly quickly. I feel rushed to get them ready but they are well trained and we have seen some great things, in the short time we have been together.”
Coach Cravens said returning varsity player Avery Watt, along with fellow senior classmates Brittany Adams, Natalie Simonsen and Kiyoko Thelen, “are showing some good leadership for the program, as the girls transition to the new coaches.”
Twenty-one girls are out for the team, including returning varsity players: Watt, Sydnie Main, Krissie Luce, Kassie Luce, Lila Klinglesmith, Michaela Jones and Julia Dinwiddie. Krissie Luce, according to coach Cravens, ranks number 10 in 2A for digs for players returning in the state.
Coach Cravens has 17 years of high school volleyball coaching experience, including the last five at Custer County High School.
“I was lucky enough to win a state championship in 1997 at Eaton High School and a state runner up in 2010 at University High School,” coach Cravens, who has also coached club volleyball in northern Colorado, said.
Kyle Eckes, who played high school volleyball, as well as playing and coaching at the collegiate level, will assist Cravens this year with the coaching duties.