Listen to this story:
Story by Kailey Hensley
Nome-Beltz Middle High School’s Lady Nanook volleyball teams are gearing up for the upcoming season. This year’s team will have a combination of new and old – there’ll be a whopping 11 seniors on the court led by a first-year head coach.
The new coach, Kastyn Lie, is familiar with the volleyball court. She first suited up in Nome-Beltz blue when she was in the seventh grade and played through high school. Her career continued into college, where she played club volleyball for three years.
And at most games over the last few years, she was courtside volunteer-coaching and cheering for her younger sister, Benny Lie, who will be a senior this season.
She said all that experience prepared her for her new role as head coach.
“I know all of the girls. I know how you can be with each other. I know the potential and how we can kind of work things out as a team,” Lie said. “So when it comes to actually playing and putting something together, I’m not nervous about that, I have full confidence in everybody's ability to make that happen.”
Off the court, the work is just getting started for Lie. As head coach, she’s also in charge of fundraising and organizing travel.
“I am like, ‘well shoot now we have to fundraise constantly, and I have to interact with people on the school side, the parent side, the player side as well’, Lie said. “It's all so much more in depth than when it was just a volunteer-like position”.
Lie will have a familiar face by her side. Six-year middle school head coach and high school JV coach, Krystal Hensley is back with the team. Her daughter, Kailey Hensley, will be a senior this year and her youngest, Aliyah Hensley, will be in the seventh grade.
Hensley said the volleyball program is well-positioned for success.
“I think we’re going to have two really great teams, a JV and varsity team that will both be very competitive. And with the number of girls we have, we're even looking at possibly a C-team. I'm pretty excited about that, because we've never had a C-team before,” Hensley said.
The volleyball team will travel across the state this year, starting with the North/South Tournament in Houston. They’ll also travel to Kotzebue, Fairbanks and Barrow. But Hensley said the new destinations excited her most.
“I'm just pretty excited about the schedule. There's several new places that we haven't gone to yet. I think the West Spiketacular one is a new one that we haven't gone to before,” Hensley said. “So yeah, pretty excited about the schedule.”
The team will also host Kotzebue, Dillingham and Redington at the Nome-Beltz gym. In mid-October, the program will bring back the Arctic Pinkies tournament, which helps raise funds for a local family in need.
Angela Omedelina is an incoming senior at Nome-Beltz and has played volleyball since middle school. She said the goal this season is to strengthen the team's mentality with each game.
“Mentally, we'll be more prepared when not only ourselves make mistakes, but others. I'd like to see us progress as a team and not get so hurt when we're two points down and just continue to play,” Omedelina said.
Omedelina said she looks forward to working with the underclassmen and her two coaches, both of whom played for the Nanooks.
“They know what it's like to attend Nome-Beltz and play sports, so I'm excited to see how they'll connect our families and with the team,” Omedelina said. “I'd say they're definitely going to be able to know when we're not doing well in school and be able to assist us in such a small town.”
Omedelina said she’s taking this season one day at a time. Her goal, she said, is to be able to look back in 40 years and remember all the little things.
The season starts with a game against alumni at the Nome-Beltz gym on August 22.
