When Frederica Academy volleyball coach Brittany Griffin took over the Knights program three years ago, she wasn’t exactly starting from scratch, but she also wasn’t inheriting a team with a lot of experienced volleyball players, either. Yes, there was a volleyball team at Frederica; it just didn’t generate much interest. The reason for that, Griffin explained, was simple: Frederica sits in a “pocket” of sorts, where volleyball is overshadowed by another sport.
“Volleyball is very popular to the south of us, in Jacksonville and below, and to the north of us in Savannah and above,” Griffin said.
That leaves Frederica in an area where soccer has been the dominant and more popular sport, but Griffin knew that there was an interest in volleyball – she just had to go find it.
“My first year at Frederica, I really had no expectations of what kind of team I was going to get,” Griffin said. “I decided to put together a camp, to see how much interest there was, and to see how much height we had. I saw some of the girls that were going to be coming to Frederica, and I determined that we didn’t necessarily have a lot of volleyball players, but what we had was just a bunch of athletes, which is a good thing.”.
That at least gave her an idea of what kind of team she would have and what she could build around. The new coach also realized that in addition to the overall lack of experience, she would be facing other challenges. There was also travel soccer, which many local girls played, and that season was happening at the same time as Frederica’s volleyball season.
Despite these obstacles, Griffin was eager to get started building the Frederica volleyball program. The Lady Knights began with 16 or 17 players in her first season and won just four matches, finishing 4-10. They retained that same number of players heading into the next season, when they won six matches, finishing 6-10. This past season, the third with Griffin at the helm, Frederica nearly tripled its win total of last season, finishing 16-8 overall.
They lost to an experienced Strong Rock Christian School team in the play-in game, but it’s clear to everyone that the Frederica volleyball program has taken major steps under coach Griffin over these last three seasons, and that they are certainly headed in the right direction.
“We have spent the last three years of building the team here and showing the girls that they are good at volleyball, and if they are committed, then we can continue to grow ,” Griffin said. “As the girls have grown into the sport over these past three seasons, they began to realize that they can compete with the more experienced teams. They really came around to that belief system and confidence this season, and they now believe in themselves.”
Coach Griffin is now preparing for the 2023 season, when Frederica will return nine seniors from this year’s roster of 18 players. Griffin has a no-cut policy, meaning if a Frederica student wants to be a part of the team, they are in. The Lady Knights are in a three-team region with St Andrews and state powerhouse Valwood.
Griffin said her Frederica volleyball team will seek out mostly public school opponents, which should make the Knights that much tougher as the regular season rolls toward the playoffs.
“I feel like we had a great season, and we want to continue to get better and grow as a team, and playing the tougher teams will help us do that,” she said.
Griffin and her Frederica Lady Knights will kick off the 2023 season next August.
