Youthful Iowa City Liberty volleyball team gets started

NORTH LIBERTY — There's a buzz in the gymnasium, and not just the kind you get from a few coats of fresh paint.

Everything is fresh here. Brand new. A blank slate. And that's why Randy Dolson hopped aboard.

'To be the first coach at a new school, lay a foundation ... that's exciting stuff,' he said as Iowa City Liberty began the first volleyball practice of its first season of existence.

Fall practice began for Iowa high school football, volleyball, cross country and girls' swimming teams Monday. At Liberty, a school that will officially open its doors for the first time later this month, it started at 7 a.m.

'I'm kind of nervous. But I think we'll do well,' said LeeAnn Potter, a sophomore outside hitter. 'We're all in this together.'

About 50 girls will be part of this get-off-the-ground season. They'll be split into four teams — varsity, sophomore/JV and two freshman squads.

All but a couple of the players are sophomores and freshmen, part of the transition from Iowa City West.

So the Lightning will be young. And they'll be short.

'We'll be scrappy, but around the Mississippi Valley Conference, there's a lot of height,' Dolson said. 'We don't have a lot of that yet.

'The word for our staff is 'patience.' We're not going to get too worked up about much. But we're probably going to ask them to grow up faster than we should.'

Liberty will compete as an independent this season, then will join the MVC next year.

Like many of his players, Dolson comes to Liberty from West, which he guided to three state tournaments.

A former coach at the University of Dubuque and Drake University, Dolson has a high school record of 280-101 in 10 seasons at West and Dubuque Hempstead — nine of which ended at state.

He'll be joined on the varsity staff by his wife, Peggy, and former Cedar Rapids Kennedy all-stater Allie Hutcheson.

'Now I live five minutes away from school instead of 25,' said Randy Dolson, who will serve as the school's Success Center leader and a multi-tiered support system coordinator.

'And I'm not going to lie — I love the air conditioning and the new facilities.'

As a freshman, Potter played on West's sophomore team. So did middle hitter Maya Kerschen.

'Right now, we want to create a community and work hard,' Kerschen said. 'Long term, I definitely want to go to state before I graduate.'

The Lightning won't be young and short for long. Dolson is excited about the skill and athleticism of the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade classes that will inhabit the gym in the near future.

And he's not writing off this season.

'These kids are going to improve a lot, and our schedule is going to allow us to compete,' he said. 'Whether that means we win two or three matches or 10, that remains to be seen.

'We want to control what we can control. We can control tempo, attitude and effort.'

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