Kayla Weixelman is not a stranger to the top players around the Crossroads region.
As a club coach in the area, she’s worked with players from Shiner, Weimar, Flatonia, Victoria, Columbus, and Tidehaven.
Now in her first year as a high school head coach, Weixelman is excited about the potential she sees every day in her own gym and to see the growth that will happen when her Maidens face that top talent.
“I am very excited for the season,” said Weixelman, who spent last season as an assistant to head coach and girls coordinator Malina Andel. “I know that there’s a ton of potential and athletic ability that I’m wanting to elicit that full potential of. We’re young, and we have a lot of buyin, and that buy-in is what’s going to be the difference. I can already see it.”
The predistrict schedule includes Danbury, Yorktown and Brazos, which all lost in bi-district last year, in addition to whomever they face in the Rice Consolidated Tournament and their own Ganado Tournament.
Then there’s district play. The Maidens battled last season against arguably the toughest Class 2A district in the state and finished 4-32 overall.
Shiner lost in the Div. II state semifinals and Weimar advanced to the Div. II area round. Schulenburg went three rounds deep in the Div. I playoffs, while runner-up Flatonia lost in the Div. I regional finals. The Texas Girls Coaches Association has Shiner ranked No. 4 and Schulenburg No. 10 in its preseason poll.
The Maidens aren’t backing down, Weixelman said.
“We have a variety of competition level throughout our preseason,” she said. “I think that it will be good for our girls to experience that variety. I’m expecting some wins and I’m expecting some challenges, and I always want the girls through any loss to have a lesson learned so there’s never a loss.
“So we’re always learning, and we’re always growing from the result of however the game may go. We have some challenges but that is by design. We are trying to push this program to excel.”
Another aspect of that growth is understanding that she’s only the latest coach to lead the program.
“I had a different coach all four years (of high school) so I know what some of these girls have experienced with coaching switches,” said Weixelman, who graduated from Industrial in 2016 and went on to play five and a half seasons at the University of Houston. “I understand the challenges that come with that, but I wanted to give them a sense of stability and reassure them that I was going to come back another year and kind of give them the ability to grow in a program. I understand what that’s like when there’s staff switches and they have different ways to run things.”
Players are excited to begin the season.
Senior libero Avery Torres said she felt that the team was starting in a better spot than it was last August.
“We’re more developed than we were in the past,” Torres said. “We’re on a higher level than we were at the beginning of last year.”
Senior middle back Kyla Stancik agreed, adding that the team chemistry was better.
“I feel like our chemistry is really good with the team,” Stancik said. “We all get along. We have a really good bond.”
“We’re more coachable, too,” Cali Beard, a senior right-side hitter noted.
Although they’ve got tough opponents ahead, the Maidens are optimistic about moving the program in the right direction.
“I feel like we’re going to have a more successful season than we have in the past,” Torres said. “Everybody is more developed and has an open mind than players we’ve had in the past.”
That seems to be showing up in the team’s improved chemistry and talking on court, Torres said.
“Our team chemistry and our communication among the team are stronger than it has been in the past,” Torres said.
That’s also showing up well below the varsity level, Weixelman said. For the first time in years, Ganado had lots of summer league volleyball participation.
“That’s the first time we’ve had that in years, so that’s very exciting,” she said. “We actually had six youth teams, as well, beneath high school, so we’re very excited for where the program is headed, especially with the younger grades. There’s a big turnout.”
