By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Volleyball sidelines will have different looks this year in Alamance County after a significant coaching overhaul in the sport.
Pam Tart is the new volleyball coach at longtime power Southern Alamance.
Tart has coached at Raleigh Sanderson, Goldsboro, and New Bern.
- Western Alamance will be coached by Meagan Nadeau, who has a range of volleyball experiences.
Most recently, she was teaching for two years at Western Middle School. High school athletics director Sean Quinn approached her about filling the opening.
“It took a five-minute conversation, and I said, ‘OK, I’ll take it,’ ” Nadeau said. “It’s kind of like in my blood. All I needed was somebody to ask.”
Nadeau, then Meagan Tucker, played volleyball at Northwest Guilford and Guilford College. Her coaching background includes time as head coach at High Point Central and an assistant coach at Southwest Guilford. She spent 2014 on the Western Alamance staff.
She was an assistant to longtime Northwest Guilford coach Darlene Joyner for her alma mater’s 2015 team, which played in the Class 4-A state final. She was set to succeed Joyner, but she became pregnant and put that off.
Nadeau will teach exceptional children at the Alamance Virtual School.
- At Williams, Larkin Herring is the new volleyball coach, taking a spot previously held by Kelly Cook.
The theme of new coaches in the Central 3-A Conference extends beyond the county borders. Orange alum Hope Heverly is the new coach for the Panthers.
- Cummings will be back on the court after scrapping its season last year because of a lack of players. Athletics director Cherie Pettiford is the coach.
Pettiford said she has 16 players.
“We have some good freshmen coming in,” she said. “They’re very eager to get started with the season.”
The Cavaliers have three seniors and one junior, so Pettiford said she helps there’s a good foundation of youth in the program.
Other coaching changes for fall sports include:
- Mike Pennington, the boys’ golf coach at Western Alamance, will be coaching two girls’ golf teams. He’ll be the coach of the Western and Williams teams, with the girls competing during the fall season.
- Southern Alamance’s new boys’ soccer coach is David Amaya.
- Graham’s new boys’ soccer coach Tony Echeverria Pineda wasn’t on board until last week, so the Red Devils didn’t have workouts scheduled until the end of the week.
- At Western, Cala Bailey is the new girls’ tennis coach.
