After best 2-year run in history, Manatee volleyball takes new look into 2016

The early season barometer for Manatee High School is usually a mid-September trip to Tampa for the Berkeley Premier, a tournament at Berkeley Prep featuring some of the best teams from Florida.

Last year, it provided a preview of the Hurricanes’ Class 8A semifinal loss to Winter Springs. It’s a tournament teams begin preparing for a month in advance, so Manatee coach Tony Cothron has already filled out a roster for the tournament program. It was during this mundane task when a strange new reality sunk in for the third-year head coach of the Canes.

As Cothron moved through his roster, filling in names and grades, the second column caught him. He wasn’t writing the names of freshmen or sophomores as he did during each of his first two seasons when the Hurricanes had only a handful of upperclassmen.

“I was like, ‘Wow, almost every girl is a junior or senior,’” Cothron said. “After next year that’ll be like, Holy moly. Because none of these girls will be there.”

The Canes are replacing two of the best players in program history, but for now they have enough experience to avoid too much a step back. It’s impossible to ignore the hole left by middle blocker Jacqui Armer and outside hitter Haley Coulter, though. Armer, who is at Louisiana State, was one of the best blockers in the state and a two-time All-Area selection. Coulter was a two-team All-Area Player of the Year and is about to begin her first season at Tulsa.

So the first few practices without the two most important pieces to the best two-year run in Manatee history were bizarre. The Hurricanes elected new captains and went out to the court without the two veterans to keep everyone else in line like they did during the 2014 state title season or last year’s run to the final four.

“The first week of practice I was kind of like waiting, thinking they’re going to come in, and set up the net and tell us what to do,” said setter Gabby Coulter, Haley’s younger sister. “It’s just kind of weird having to fill in the leadership part of it.”

On the court, she’s had to get used to a slightly different alignment around her. JoJo Coulter, Gabby’s twin sister and a two-time All-Area selection, moved into her older sister’s role as the top outside hitter. Grayson Hall, an All-Area honorable mention last year, takes JoJo Coulter’s spot as the No. 2 outside hitter. Gabby Coulter isn’t having much of an issue setting to the sister she’s played nearly every game of her life with, but setting to Hall for the first time has been a larger change.

Before the season began, the new-look Canes sat down and talked. Even with the rest of the roster intact, they all acknowledged the departures would change things. To replace Armer, the Hurricanes would need former role players and reserves to become starters or contributors. To replace Haley Coulter, a promising group of younger hitters would have to become offensive centerpieces.

“I know that I have really big shoes to fill because of my older sister, so I’ve just been working hard,” JoJo Coulter said. “We’ve all sat down and we’ve talked about it, and we’re like, ‘Well, since we’ve lost them we’re just going to have to win.’”

This story was originally published August 23, 2016 at 10:37 PM with the headline "After best 2-year run in history, Manatee volleyball takes new look into 2016."