MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / August 22, 2000

RESERVE – When Toni Miano took over the Riverside volleyball team this summer, she took the Lady Rebels back to the basics.

The Lady Rebels did not even touch a volleyball for three weeks. Instead,Miano had the players work on their balance and their agility. She worked withRiverside strength coach Tim Taffi on developing a weight and conditioning program based on the one at the University of North Carolina. And theyworked on the mental part of the game, reading offenses and defenses and learning volleyball terminology.

Miano inherits a Riverside team that made three straight appearances in the state tournament under coach Gina Centanni.

That includes the 1999 season, one in which the Lady Rebels went 13-16 and won the District 6-IV championship. Riverside fell to Episcopal of Baton Rougein the bi-district round.

Miano also inherits a team she is quite familiar with. Miano, who played collegevolleyball at UNO, coached many of the girls when they were in the seventh and eighth grade three years ago.

“We’re really grateful she’s here,” senior Amy Hymel said.

Riverside returns 11 players from the 1999 team, including three – Cassie St. Amant, Kellie Louque and Heidi Richard – who started in the statetournament. That number also includes seven seniors – St. Amant, Louque,Richard, Hymel, Adrienne Albares, Jessica Watts and Jennifer Keating. Hymelsaid that experience will help the team in 2000.

“We’ve learned a lot from what we’ve done in the past,” Hymel said. “Weworked on the mistakes we made this year and fixed almost everything from last year.”The Lady Rebels did have to overcome a number of injuries last season. Oneof the first things Miano did when she came on board was institute a nutrition program and had the girls start lifting weights. So far, the LadyRebels have been injury-free.

Miano also put in more plays and more movement. The team also learned newserves, including the float serve, as well as breaking that serve.

“It’s more intense now,” Albares said of the practice routine.

Miano said learning the mental part of the game will really help the team.

“We’re learning to play smart this year,” Miano said. “They are readingoffenses and defenses and can adjust to what the other team is doing. We’renot looking for power, we’re looking for playing smart.”Another thing that will help the team is that many of the members have been playing together since they were 9 and 10-years old.

“We’re getting along better as a team,” Hymel said. “We’re getting closer.”The team has also been able to adjust faster to Miano’s new system.

“In seventh and eighth grade, they were playing high school ball,” Miano said.

“They were playing on the freshman team. “They were playing offense anddefense. Now, they just are stepping it up a notch.”The schedule will again be competitive with games against St. ThomasAquinas, Reserve Christian, Thibodaux, St. Charles Catholic, Mandeville,Chalmette, John Curtis, Grace King, H.L. Bourgeois and Ridgewood, all statetournament teams last season. The Lady Rebels also play two games a weekthroughout the season.

“We have high expectations this season,” Miano, the first coach at Riverside under the new LHSAA allowing for non-faculty coaches, said. “We expect togo further in state.”

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