Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The word adversity gets used often by coaches this time of year.

Coaches at all levels preach the importance of dealing with and overcoming the adversity that can come in athletics.

Tricia Carty admits she has talked to her team often about adversity during past seasons.

Before City High hits the court for its season opener on Tuesday evening against Cedar Rapids Kennedy the Little Hawks have already faced adversity that Carty could have never imagined.

“Adversity is a common thing we talk about in the coaching world but this is a totally different type of adversity,” Carty said. “These are a lot of things that we rarely deal with. It’s not the common things we think of as adversity in athletics like an injury. This isn’t that and I think it’s changed the perspective of some of our kids.”

Like every team in Iowa and across the nation City High is dealing with the new normal of playing sports during a pandemic.

The Little Hawks are playing in masks, trying to stay six feet apart as much as possible as they follow the COVID-19 regulations and guidelines.

COVID-19 precautions are just a part of the adversity for City High which is still dealing with the July 6 death of middle hitter Emma Nugent.

On top of everything else City High was forced to alter practice times and split practices between several locations throughout the preseason due to construction at the school and the derecho that hit the area on August 10 knocking out power to many in the area for several days.

“It’s hard coming in and playing right now when we have no air conditioning and we are in an active construction zone so we can’t access everything every day and then we have COVID coming off of the loss of a teammate,” Carty said. “It’s a lot but they aren’t complaining and they are still working really, really, really hard. I have a lot of respect for them and I feel so fortunate to be able to have this group of kids who I think are learning a lot about themselves.”

Despite all the adversity that was thrown at City High over the past few months Carty has never seen her team waver.

A word Carty has used often this season is resiliency.

In fact, the word came up so much in meetings so often over the past few weeks it has become a focus word of the season for Carty and the Little Hawks.

“We talk a lot about resiliency, that’s sort of our word for the year,” Carty said. “How we can we take what happens and learn from it and always try to bounce back and get better? It has been a lot of lessons in being flexible and focusing on the big stuff that’s really important because it’s a lot on a daily basis.”

When Carty gets an opportunity to actually focus on the volleyball aspect of the season she likes what she sees from a City High team that lost five full-time starters from last year’s 17-15 squad.

Senior Maya Morales is an all-conference caliber player at libero that led the Little Hawks with 4.1 digs per set last season.

Junior setter Makayla Ribble has two years of varsity experience and senior hitter Joslyn Becker and Alia Vanderhoef combined for 168 kills last season.

“It’s a totally different team this year and a different blend of kids so it’s a lot of fun,” Carty said. “I think we are going to see a lot of growth as we keep going. We have a lot of new pieces and some young kids and they are just going to keep getting better and better and gain more confidence in what they are doing.”

Before playing a single set this season Carty has watched her team grow an appreciation for any chance to get on the court.

“They know that it can change at any second so we need to make the most of the opportunities that we are given,” Carty said. “They are really being grateful for those opportunities every day and taking advantage of any opportunity to play that we do have.”

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