Behind the success of Morgan County volleyball

MADISON, Ga. — The recent successes of the Morgan County Middle School and Morgan County High School volleyball teams have been exceptional — but also stunning, given the relatively young age of each program; how did these neophyte teams accomplish so much, so quickly?

The truth is that this rapid development is actually the result of some careful planning, matched with intense dedication — and much of that can be traced back to the efforts of one man: middle school volleyball coach Alan Shultz.

Coach Shultz was, in many ways, primed for his current role early on. Growing up in the Atlanta area, he took to sports at a young age, playing football, baseball, tennis and softball; he also swam, wrestled, and did a lot of fishing. After high school Shultz attended the University of Georgia, where he played on several intramural and fraternity teams — one of which was volleyball.

He later graduated from UGA with a degree in Agricultural Economics, and eventually found his way to Morgan County, where he first joined two partners in starting a tree farm, and later decided to move his young family after the birth of his second child, Carter. Alan and his wife, Gretta, have four children, three daughters and one son; all were raised in Morgan.

When his children were young, Alan would help coach area teams across a variety of sports, including his old favorites football, baseball, soccer and basketball. However, it was eldest daughter Taylor who reacquainted her father with volleyball some 15 years ago, when she announced she wanted to play on the high school team.

Her immersion in the sport soon attracted younger sister Bailey, who would accompany Taylor to the gym; she learned the sport early, and began her own volleyball career in the fifth grade. Today, Bailey plays for the North Greenville University volleyball team.

“Volleyball is a fun game to play and watch, but as a coach of the game, there is nothing Alan enjoys more than investing in our youth and building confidence and self-esteem in the girls,” Gretta said.

The familial trend continued with youngest daughter Ansley, who started her journey on the court as a sixth grader; now a senior at Morgan County High School, she co-captained the school’s 2021 varsity volleyball team.

The Shultz girls’ collective experience somewhat mirrors the history of the volleyball program itself. Morgan County High School formed its first volleyball team fifteen years ago, in 2006, under the direction of Pam “PT” Hooten, a math teacher at the school — and a close friend of the Shultz family.

At the time, most girls on the team had never played volleyball before; this was their introduction to the sport, and they struggled against more experienced squads. The early Spikedogs made it to the state playoffs a few times, but never advanced very far.

It became apparent to all involved that forming some kind of “feeder program” would be critical to the future success of volleyball in Morgan County. To this end, prior to helping coach varsity at the high school, Carrie McClain had worked to bring volleyball to the middle school; this resulted in Morgan County Middle School’s first volleyball team, created in 2015.

Disappointingly, the fledgling team was only able to engage in a handful of matches throughout the entire season. It was important to Alan Shultz that his daughters had a competitive team to play on during their high school years — and so, the following year, he stepped in as head coach of the middle school volleyball team, beginning the evolution that ultimately turned the program into what it is today.

Shultz knew that developing the fundamentals and (more importantly) confidence in girls at a younger age was the key to having a team of great players and a successful volleyball program. He espoused the view that volleyball is a “game of touches;” that is, in order to improve, players need to touch the volleyball a lot. That meant that participation in volleyball outside of school, in any capacity, was important. To that end he sought out the support of Morgan County’s teachers and parents, to help encourage his budding players to extend their interest and participation beyond the school gymnasium.

His efforts paid off.

The Morgan County Middle School volleyball team has become a force to be reckoned with in its own right, even beyond being the foundation for the school’s high school team. The first few years of the program were a struggle, but 2018 marked a turning point, with the team finishing 8-2 in the regular season and placing second in their region at the Athens Area Middle School Volleyball League (AAMSVL) Championship Tournament.

In 2019, the team once again finished their regular season 8-2, but this time they placed first in their region at the AAMSVL Championship Tournament. The momentum continued into 2020 and 2021, as the team went undefeated during their regular seasons both years, and twice again placed first in their region at the AAMSVL Championships, making them “three-peat” AAMSVL Regional Champs.

“The three most important lessons Coach Alan would always teach us were: One, be an athlete first, be a volleyball player second. Two, the most important point is the next point. And three, you can’t coach attitude or effort,” Abby Dennard, an MCMS eight grade volleyball player said.

Though Shultz acted as a catalyst in the rapid transformation, he consistently stresses the importance of having the support of the school’s staff and the players’ families in developing the program. But the team’s success is also a direct reflection of the constant dedication of Alan and the other middle school volleyball coaching staff, including faculty coach Ashley Potter, Ryan Folk, and Beth Dennard, as well as participants in previous years, including Tisha Cepuran, Carrie McClain, and faculty advisors Angela Stapleton and Karen Vanderheyden.

As planned, the huge success of the middle school program started crossing over into the high school as well; in 2020, the Morgan County Varsity Spikedogs made it all the way to the State Championship, where they finished in 2nd place. A majority of the seniors and juniors on that team were some of the first players to be coached by Alan in middle school.

In turn, there’s been an overall growth of volleyball interest in Morgan County, with a steady increase in the number of girls trying out for middle school volleyball each year. The number of girls trying out in 2021 was close to 80, almost double the previous year’s turnout. With the increase in interest, the number of girls on the middle school team has increased as well, growing from 18 players in 2016 to 24 players in 2021.

“Alan has given more to the game than anyone I know,” Folk said. “More importantly, he’s helped these girls find their compass and build self confidence. Having three girls of his own, he understands the struggles girls face at this age and wants to help them become independent young ladies as they journey through life. It’s been a pleasure coaching with him.”

And it’s clear that coach Shultz’s promotion of the “game of touches” concept also gained traction. Just five years ago, there were only a few girls in the volleyball program that also played club volleyball; today, there are only a few girls that don’t play club volleyball. A further indicator can be found in the fact that the Morgan County Recreation Department now hosts a semi-annual volleyball clinic, teaching fundamentals to girls and boys as young as 6 years old.

It’s evident that this explosion of local awareness in all things volleyball, and the subsequent achievements of local athletes in the sport, can largely be traced to the investment Alan Shultz has made in the county’s younger players. The resultant success has resonated far beyond the halls of the Morgan County Middle School; while he was creating champions, Shultz was also forging character, discipline, and self-respect in the young ladies under his charge — traits that will serve them well long after they’ve walked off the volleyball court (see sidebar).

It’s not certain when Alan Shultz will retire from coaching; the lure of the fishing pole calls to him, and he regularly entertains the idea of getting back into tournament bass fishing. But don’t be surprised if, sometime in the future, you attend a volleyball game in some distant gymnasium — and spy, in the stands, Coach Shultz, enthusiastically cheering on the athletes that he’s devoted so much of himself to cultivating.

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