Brown helps 'set' East Duplin's path in volleyball | Sports

“I started in the middle of the season when Murray Ingram's father was helping coach the team, and he called my father and said, 'We've got an opening and we're missing a guy.' '' Brown recalled. “So he asked, 'Do you want to come over?'” I was like, “Sure, I'm here.” ”

“It was scary,” Brown said. “But I loved it from the beginning. It was just fun.”

Fast forward to 2017, Brown is a junior setter at East Duplin, and Ingram is still a teammate, now with the Panthers. Considered to be an important component of a team and program that is traditionally one of the best in the region.

“She's fast. She's got good hands. She's good at moving around and getting to the ball,” coach Liz Turner said. She said, “I feel like as she matures and grows and gains more confidence each year and practice by practice, she's getting a little bit better than the year before or the practice before that or the game before that. .

“And I think the girls that are around her this year are really going to help her and they work together really well. They have this summer. I think that's going to be a big attribute for her. I think she feels really comfortable with the girls playing next to her. It's just a good group.”

Turner specifically urges Brown to be more assertive and a vocal leader, something that doesn't necessarily come naturally for the soft-spoken player.

“She always says to me, 'Rachel, you have to talk.' You have to speak louder. You have to step up,” Brown said at a recent performance at Croatan High School. He spoke before the summer league session. “I think she’s starting to sink in and I want to give her everything she has for that.”

But Brown, 16, agreed it wasn't easy.

“It's hard for me to be a leader because I've always been on the quiet side, but I can be a leader if I need to,” she said.

Brown said he is just one of several players trying to lead the Panthers, who open the season Aug. 15 at home against Dixon.

“I’m not the only one trying to be a leader,” she said. “We are young, but I wouldn't say we are inexperienced. We play very well together, we get along very well and I feel we work well together.”

Brown said she has worked to become more of a leader, as well as a better setter.

“Last year I had a really hard time on set. I came up with it, but this year I'm going to try and do it without thinking too much. I feel like it's going to make me better overall,” she said. “I'm not trying not to mess it up, you could say. I'm capable. I'm just overthinking it.”

Coach Turner said last year was a season of “growth” for Brown.

“But it was definitely a good season,” the coach added.

But don't get me wrong. Brown loves being a setter.

“I like it because every play comes to you,” she said. “You set where the offense is going to attack, so you have a lot of control over what happens.”

With that in mind, she agrees that there is pressure to play as a setter.

“No matter where the ball is, you have to go there, unless it’s like on the other side of the court,” she said. “It’s your job to get close to the ball and prepare the batter to get the points he needs.”

And hitters are often the divas of the sport.

“They have the ball where they want it. They want it here,” Brown said with a smile. “They each have their own positions. Sometimes there is confusion, but we will resolve it through discussion.

“But I don't want to do anything else.”

Brown said having what she calls “setter's hands” is essential to playing the position.

“You also need to be loud,” she said. She said, “Since she's leading the offense, she has to be the loudest voice on the court.''

Oddly enough, Brown also plays a middle fielder on a softball team in another sport that requires a loud voice, and her job is to direct traffic in the outfield.

“Yeah, you're the outfield leader and the offensive leader in volleyball. You have to really shout,” she said.

Additionally, Brown said each sport helps improve the other.

“Volleyball has allowed me to be more aggressive,” she said. “So a lot of the guys who play volleyball play softball, so they're with the girls. That really brought the team together. So it makes us more comfortable playing together.”