Long-term Hastings Middle School Volleyball Head Coach Mandy Buderus made the jump to the high school level and looks to take on the ‘Powerhouse Programs’ in the Eastern Midland Conference.
Buderus has reunited with many of her former middle school volleyball players and looks to build on the fundamentals developed in 8th grade.
“I think my favorite part has just been being around the girls and watching their excitement. They work so hard and they want to do really well,” Buderus said. “And just watching them come together as a team and seeing a lot of great leaders emerge has been my favorite part.”
The new head coach believes the Tigers’ biggest obstacle this year is going to be their difficult schedule. To prepare for these challenges, Buderus has spent time focusing on all areas of the program.
“We’ve talked a lot about growth with our team. We did a team unity supper at the middle school garden and we were able to talk about how we’re building our team and taking care of our team like we would a garden,” Buderus said. “And there’s things that we need to give attention to and help grow as a group and get rid of the distractions and the negative things, and the girls were really good about identifying the things that they needed and the things that they didn’t want to have interfere with our goals this year.”
The Hastings High School Volleyball Team strives to accomplish things on and off the court.
Buderus would say the team values academics, and she has told her players to come to the coaches if they need help academically.
“We want them to represent the program in all areas of their life: in the classroom and in the community,” Buderus said.
Buderus has embraced the saying ‘slow and steady wins the race’ and encourages the team to focus on one game and drill at a time.
“We have worked a lot on improving our fundamentals, but especially the block, because we do have some height coming to our lineup this year,” Buderus said. “And every day in practice, we do some station work where we pull them into the setters work and the defensive specialist work, and then the hitters work, so I hope that people will be able to see that.”
The team has worked to prepare for the competitive schedule ahead by stepping up wherever they are needed.
“They’re working hard. A lot of them have opportunities to step into really important roles that they haven’t had in the past, and it shows in practice,” Buderus said. “They really are playing with a nothing to lose attitude, and they’re going to give a lot of effort. My biggest goal for them is that they can play for each other.”
The Tigers started the season with a jamboree win against Arcadia-Loup City in four sets.
“Our first game was awesome because the girls really showed that they could stay strong, play from behind, and finish the set that we did lose,” Buderus said. “We learned some things from that, which is one of our goals is to always learn from our failures and grow as a team. And I think that we made some errors, but also we had fixed some things.”
Buderus feels ready to work with her old team again and help them achieve their goals.
“I was really excited about the opportunity to work with these girls again at the high school level, and I’m most looking forward to watching them grow and overcome obstacles together as a team,” Buderus said.
