surprising year

By Griffin Pritchard

The Selma Times-Journal

A pair of metallic, Oakley sunglasses sit atop a head full of bleached-blonde hair, the spoils of victory. This wouldn’t be significant except for the fact that Morgan volleyball coach Carrie Nichols had, up until Tuesday, bright red hair.

According to Nichols, the change in hair color was the result of a bet she made with her players.

That just shows how things can change over the course of a season. Nichols was brought in to coach a volleyball team to a moderately successful season. Instead, she took the team to the regional tournament and then to the state tournament, garnering a third place finish.

After all that she, Kyser Youngblood and Mallory Forte earned invitations to the AISA’s All-Star Volleyball Match at Kingwood Christian this past weekend.

Coaching the All-Star team was an exciting experience according to Nichols, whose team consisted of players from Morgan, Macon-East, Wilcox Academy, Ashford, Lowndes, Cornerstone Christian and Lee-Scott.

Their opponents were of the state championship variety. The West side was a stacked squad with players from Faith, Cottage Hill, Clarke Prep, Kingwood Christian, Marion, Sumter, Pickens, Southern and Tuscaloosa.

Nichols and Lee-Scott’s Denise Drew and the East squad went to five games with the West before falling in the fifth.

In her first year at the helm of the Morgan volleyball program, Nichols has set the standards high and looks to keep going higher.