Article courtsey of Jon Johnson of Dothan Eagle on November 4, 2024
Just three seasons after Enterprise State Community College resurrected its volleyball program, Vanessa Howell has led the Boll Weevils to a state championship.
ESCC defeated the perennial state powerhouse Wallace-Hanceville for the ACCC title on Sunday at Sand Mountain Park in Albertville, going through the tournament unbeaten to win the crown.
"It's like the best feeling in the world to be able to hold that trophy and everything that you did was so worth it," Howell said Monday morning. "Really, I was so happy for the sophomore group that came back from last year.
"They are just absolute leaders and just competitors. These girls just got better and better and they really wanted it. They were amazing leaders to the freshmen group."
Enterprise will now host Jones County, the Mississippi state champion, for the Gulf South District championship on Saturday at 2 p.m. with the winner advancing to the NJCAA Division II National Tournament in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, later this month.
The Boll Weevils went through the state tourney unscathed by beating Snead State and Hanceville on Friday and then L.B. Wallace on Saturday in the semifinals. Hanceville then beat LBW in the losers' bracket to advance for a return match against ESCC with everything on the line.
Enterprise State then took care of Wallace-Hanceville 25-23, 25-17, 21-25, 25-23 to win the title.
A year ago, ESCC made it to the championship match before losing to Hanceville, thus the Boll Weevils got some revenge this time around.
"Of course, Wallace-Hanceville is a team that has won … I believe someone was saying for 14 years … they've won it for a very long time and hadn't been really challenged very much," Howell said. "We had a very sour taste in our mouths last year and this year we talked about it all year long.
"Any time we were doing something very hard in the spring, the girls would be the first ones to say, 'You know, the Hanceville players are doing this too … they're doing more than we are … we've got to pick it up.' It just became motivation the entire year.
"So, when we got up there, they were like, 'This is our year – we're just going to go for it.' The girls showed tremendous mental toughness."
"I do feel like we had the strongest team this year with the most talent. It was a matter of putting it together and believing we could do it and to trust each other in the process."
Howell was named the ESCC head coach in November of 2021 after the school announced it would restart the volleyball program beginning with the 2022 season. Before that, the school last had a team from 1995 until 2000. Howell previously led the Houston Academy program from 2015 until 2021.
Howell has quickly built the ESCC program into a champion.
"I kind of hit the ground running to find some good athletes … some good kids and competitive players that wanted to come in and start something new and something special," Howell said. "We ended up putting together ad good group and making it to the conference tournament (the first year).
"Then last year, they were very, very hungry. They were like, 'We are going all the way.' Honestly, I was trying to get players who are driven for success and want to win and willing to put forth all that it takes to win.
"It's not easy to be successful and there's a process with a lot of hard work that goes into it and I explained this to them even when they come on recruiting visits. I'm looking for players who want to go all the way and are going to put forth all the effort to be extremely successful, because that's what we want.
"We've been very blessed. I thank God in this every day. Every day I pray, 'God just give me the players that I'm supposed to have in this program,' and He has.
"This is just a phenomenal group. I mean, you wouldn't believe how driven they are and how sweet and have such great sportsmanship. They get along real well and just want it."
Howell has built much of the team around local players. Six of the 13 players on this year's roster are from the Wiregrass: Bella Hicks (Wicksburg), Zaliyah Kemmerlin (Geneva), Lillian Rhoades (Enterprise), Helen Williamson (Rehobeth), Emma Claire Long (G.W. Long) and Alivia Freeman (Enterprise).
"I love to recruit the local kids as much as possible," Howell said. "Of course, we've got to get the talent that we need and we've got some extremely talented local kids that are in the program now.
"It's so gratifying to see that they stayed here and they trusted in us that we could do something special."