Western Albemarle volleyball’s Ron Pack has performed a lot of tasks as an assistant for the Warriors, but at least one thing hasn’t come up.
“I feel confident running practices but as far as filling out a lineup sheet technically I don’t know how to do that,” Pack said. “(Former coach) Lance (Rogers) told me a couple of years ago that they’d switched it up, that you fill it out in service order versus positions. There’s lots of administrative things that I’ve never dealt with before.”
He’ll need to figure it out pretty fast as Pack takes over the head role after serving as an assistant to Rogers for seven seasons and Jena McFadden in 2011.
McFadden is headed to Texas for a new job, and Western athletic director Steve Heon worked quickly on short notice to get Pack to switch over to he head coach seat just before the start of tryouts.
Pack, who works at UVa as a systems analyst, told Heon he’d make it work if he could still complete his commitment to teaching a computer class and taking an August trip to move his daughter and former Warrior Kristen Pack into college.
“I’m the kind of guy that once I make a commitment I honor it,” Pack said.
With those terms in place, Pack took the job and the task of leading a Western squad replacing a slew of key seniors like Randolph-Macon bound tandem Katie Rossberg and Riley Martin and standout libero Marin Crowder. Martin owns every setting record at Western Albemarle.
“ We’ve got six seniors with plenty of experience,” Pack said. “Lauren Riefsteck (the apparent starter at setter) comes in without much match experience. That’s going to be one of my main concerns is to develop that rhythm between a new setter and our existing hitters.”
With Pack, who’s played a lot of adult league volleyball himself, running the show, the Warriors should benefit from a similar game plan and approach to Rogers, who Pack learned a great deal about coaching from. The Warriors are the defending district regular season and tournament champions, and having someone familiar with the way the program runs in charge should ease the transition.
The Warriors open up with a scrimmage against Albemarle Thursday August 16 before starting regular season play August 21 against R.E. Lee.
