Snipes takes over LCM volleyball

Little Cypress Mauriceville has a new volleyball coach this year. Jonathan Snipes comes to LCM with lots of experience coaching at other area schools before moving here.

Snipes spent ten years at Hamshire-Fannett as an assistant coach, transferred to East Chambers where he was the head track coach for seven years, and moved his family to the Little Cypress Mauriceville school district in 2021. When the volleyball coaching position became open Snipes applied for it and got the job as the head volleyball coach at LCM this season.

The Lady Bears' volleyball program has been successful for many years and last season was no exception. Little Cypress Mauriceville went 10-2 in district to finish in second place. "They had a tough matchup in the first round against Splendora, and ended up unfortunately on the wrong side of that, but it happens to half of the teams that play in the first round of the post season," Snipes informed.

Last season the Lady Bears graduated seven seniors from the volleyball program. Snipes evaluated, "We're replacing one outside hitter, both right side players, replacing both center positions, and we're replacing about half of the back row. We're replacing a lot of touches, so it's going to take a little bit of time to find our groove and adjust to the varsity speed, but the girls are doing a great job so far."

There are some Lady Bears back for Coach Snipes to work with. Ava White is an outside hitter who played on the varsity most of last season, and should be a key returner for LCM probably having the most touches coming back.

In the middle will be Lindi Perry and Jazel Guilbeaux who were rotational last year. Snipes explained that either Perry or Guilbeaux would start while the other would be used as a substitute.

Two Lady Bears return on the back row in Lexi Tubbleville and Janniliz Nazario. Tubbleville sometimes played as the libero while Nazario rotated in on the back row. "The only two Lady Bears returning that I know for sure that had a lot of touches were Ava and Lexi," Snipes analyzed.

Little Cypress Mauriceville ran a 5-1 scheme last year, but Snipes plans to use a 6-2 this season. This will put more responsibility on the two setters according to the coach.

Addi Russell who was a backup setter last year will be a starting setter for Snipes. Jada Montagne will be the other setter. Snipes replied, "For both of them this really will be their first full season of being primary setters with all the touches and us relying on the two of them. They've done a great job so far."

New on the outside will be Paisley Angelle and on the right side will be Asia Woodson with Maya Meadows. "Of all our front row hitters I don't think there's going to be one that we have to rely on, and I don't think there's one that an opposing team can concentrate on. I think all six girls are very quality hitters and at any point any of them could catch fire to have a night that takes over the game," Snipes predicted.

Filling the back row with Tubbleville and Nazario are newcomers Eden Frenzel and Allee Palmer. They will all be getting good touches for the Lady Bears from the back row.

The strength for Little Cypress Mauriceville from what Coach Snipes has seen as the new season begins is the athletic ability of the Lady Bears. Snipes described, "You can't teach people how to be athletes, and I think they've been flying all over the court on defense showing that athletic ability."

"I think we need to grow in our consistency on high level play. Right now we have these moments of playing really high then we'll dip down for a little bit and then we'll get up high again. This is expected of a young team as part of growing up, and the sooner we can just get up to where we don't have those lulls where we're dropping down for five, six, seven points I think we'll maximize our ability a lot quicker," Snipes added.

Another facet of play that needs improvements for the Lady Bears is their swings. Snipes indicated, "We need to swing a lot more often than we are right now. We need to be more confident in our swings in placing the ball and that will come through practice. Like I said I think we have the athletes and we have the players. They have to trust themselves and ultimately they've got to allow themselves to make mistakes to learn how to be successful in those certain situations with those type of balls that are coming at them or being set to them."

The district in which Little Cypress Mauriceville plays volleyball includes several very good teams the Lady Bears will compete with for the district title starting with Bridge City which has won the district the past few years and returns a lot of girls. Vidor is absolutely loaded with seniors and those seniors can play.

Snipes gave his expectations. "You can't sleep on anybody. If you don't bring you're A-game you're going to go home with a loss. We don't want that. My expectations really are not anything about wins and losses, I think every year as a coach your job is to just do your best to maximize the ability of the kids you have and so that's my goal," Snipes concluded.