EDWARDSVILLE - The Edwardsville School District Board of Education has promoted girls volleyball assistant coach Heather Ohlau to head coach, and she's ready to help the Tigers reach lofty and big goals for the 2020 season this spring.
Coach Ohlau will have returning a core group of four seniors to the roster, along with some dependable underclassmen, in what is expected to be one of the best teams in the St. Louis area this coming season.
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"I'm excited," Ohlau said in a recent interview. "I appreciate the opportunity to take my coaching experience to the next level, and I hope to provide the results that the district is looking for."
Ohlau served as an assistant to former coach Lisa Orlet, who stepped down after two seasons for personal reasons, and Ohlau feels she's learned much from Orlet.
"Absolutely," Ohlau said. "She is a very knowledgable coach, and the way she's able to break down the skills, and explain the skills is something that I've never been able to experience before, and the biggest thing I'll take away from Lisa is wanting and being able to provide a service to others, taking back the individual and wanting to explain what the team needs from each other."
The Tigers have only graduated three seniors in the past two seasons --- Corrine Timmermann in 2018, and both Maddie Isringhausen and Lexie Curtis in 2019 --- and returns a very experienced and talented senior class this year in outside hitter Alexia Harris, middle blocker and outside hitter Rihanna Huebner, middle blocker Storm Suhre and setter Morgan Tulacro. A group of juniors --- Emma Garner, Lexie Griffin, Syd Harris and Gabby Saye --- are also expected to make major contributions to the Tigers as well.
"We graduated three seniors, the core of our team is still intact," Ohlau said, "and the experience and talent will show this year. We have Rihanna, who's pretty solid in the middle position, and Morgan, who's looking at possibly being a presence in the front row."
The current Return to Play practice sessions went very well and Ohlau worked on specific things in each of the practices.
"Our time included conditioning and plyometric work outdoors, and volleyball skills indoors. We worked through a little bit of rustiness, because many of our girls being on club teams and missing the last part of their club seasons, and they haven't touched a ball in quite some time."
"I think everyone is transferring into the unknown," Ohlau said. "What we're doing right now is preparing for the season, and we'll adjust as things go along at the state level."
Ohlau's goals for the upcoming season are both simple, and at the same time very lofty, and there's a very good chance the Tigers might be able to reach those goals.
"Our expectations are to repeat as (Southwestern) conference champions," Ohlau said, "and make a postseason run to the second appearance at the state finals in program history."
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