Rule the Court in Your Next Backyard Volleyball Game.
Hunter Drews knows volleyball.
Growing up the daughter of a coach, the first-year Geneseo women’s volleyball head coach literally had a front-row seat for how to achieve at a high level in a sport most people play either in their backyards or on a beach.
“I pretty much grew up in a ball cart,” said Drews, whose mother, Danielle, was the head women’s volleyball coach at SUNY Oswego during a seven-year stint that included two SUNYAC Coach of the Year citations and the Lakers’ only NCAA Tournament appearance. “Some of my earliest memories are of bus rides with my mom and her teams during road trips. I loved watching her do her thing, and when I started playing, she always did a good job of separating the coach and parent roles. She was never the screamer in the stands telling me what to fix, even though she could have and, I’m sure, wanted to, many times.”
Those early lessons steered the younger Drews to a standout playing career in high school and Trinity College in Connecticut, in which she started every match of her intercollegiate tenure. While graduating magna cum laude with honors as a double-major in American studies and psychology, the two-time team captain’s passion for volleyball drove her down a familiar path.
She served as assistant coach for the Knights during a resurgent 2016 campaign that included the team’s first post-season appearance in five years. Last summer, Drews was tapped to become head coach.
“The first time I visited Geneseo, it just felt right,” she says.
The Basics
Coach Hunter Drews and Grace Cergol ’19 teach us how to spike a volleyball like a Knights expert, no matter who is on the other side of the net.
- Use some elbow grease. Get ready to strike with your elbow back, so you can gain maximum power.
- Put the top down. Hit on top of the ball to crush it down.
- Look forward. See where you want to hit the ball on the other side of the net.
- Take to the sky. Get some air!
- Swing away. Follow through on your arm swing to finish it off, just like making a good free-throw shot.
