Lady Hawks finding balance in program

DONNELLSON — Amy Cook will have a balance of the present and the future with Central Lee’s volleyball team this year.
Cook has four seniors who have been together for a while, and a talented group of freshmen coming in, and that has her thinking positive thoughts about this season in a Southeast Iowa Super Conference that is loaded with talent.
“I’m super excited about this year,” Cook said. “We’re going to be good. But our whole conference — I know we say this every year, but it's so true — we have a hard conference. So I feel like when you play the best, it makes you better.”
Central Lee brings back three of its statistical leaders from last season, all of them seniors. Kenna Sandoval had a team-high 431 assists. Taylor Jones led the team with 224 kills and was second with 93 blocks. Jayden Mueller had a team-high 480 digs. Those three, along with fellow senior Aubrey Weber, make up the core of the Hawks’ leadership.
“All four are great leaders,” Cook said. “Each in their different way, of course, but they're great with the younger girls, getting them out of their comfort zone.”
But Cook is starting to see a youth movement as well, especially with her freshmen.

“I think in our younger grades, further even down, we do have a lot of talent,” she said. “I do think what's starting to show is how we really tried  to build those youth programs. And so those girls are starting to come up, and I think that's starting to show off.
“We're strong. We had a scrimmage yesterday, and they did such a great job. Of course, the more time you're together, the better it's going to be. Right now, I’m excited about this group.”
Cook said there are 30 players within the program.
“Right now, our biggest thing is just being together and working together. Just for instance, the scrimmage we had yesterday. I know we've had only four or five days of practice, but just getting them working together, you could see it in the scrimmage, how much they improved just in that  little bit of time. Even in just those three games that we played yesterday.”
It’s a chemistry Cook is appreciating.
“They're a close group,” she said. “They joke around with each other. That's something that's, I want to say, a little different than years past. I think our chemistry is strong, and they want each other to see they're not just playing for themselves, where I feel like we've got that shift from the ‘Me, me, me’ mentality. And so they're playing for each other rather than themselves.”