MANCHESTER, NH – Ed True is no spring chicken when it comes to New Hampshire high school girls volleyball. Having coached the Manchester Central varsity team for the last 25 years, he’s seen plenty of ups and downs.
And despite the Little Green’s current o-4 record – following a 3-0 home setback Wednesday to Campbell High School of Litchfield – True said he sees a squad on the rise.
“We’re a very, very young team,” he said. “You know, I lost all my varsity players last year, so it’s almost like starting from scratch.”
Indeed, the Little Green, have two freshman starting on varsity this season, including rising star Ella Giuliano.
“It’s a learning year,” said True, “but a promising one.”
After dropping down to Division II this season following many years competing at the state’s top level, True noted that interest was up this year, especially among freshmen, a reality that’s certainly promising for the program in the long run, but is leading to some growing pains in the interim.
“There’s a big learning curve, but they did a really nice job (against Campbell), and I told them that,” said True. “Just movement and getting to the ball, today was a giant step in the right direction, so hopefully we can keep that momentum going forward.”
True said he’s especially looking forward to getting a second shot at city rivals Manchester Memorial and Manchester West, who defeated the Little Green 3-0 and 3-1 in their first two games of the regular season on Sept. 4 and 6, respectively.
“After we already played them and performed pretty well (but lost to each team), we want to be able to have them come in here and turn the tides on them, so that’s our main goal and objective,” he said.
Central gets its rematch against West on Oct. 23 and then takes on Memorial again two days later.
Of course, having good competitive rivalries between Manchester teams is also good for the growth of the sport in the Queen City as a whole, added True.
“I’ve been lucky the last several years that my athletics coordinator has been able to get it so we’ve been playing those teams even when we weren’t all in the same division, so now it’s even easier now that Memorial has come down (to D-II) and we’ve come down to join West and be able to get those games together,” he said. “Those are the games we always get up for, those are the ones that are always good and tight, stressful games, regardless of record.”
First thing’s first, though, as Central looks to continue its progress with three-straight tests against foes currently sitting near the top of the D-II standings
True’s team welcomes 5-0 Milford to town on Monday for a 5:30 p.m. rematch of a 3-0 Sept. 12 road loss to the Spartans.
The Little Green then travel to 4-1 Kingswood for a 6 p.m. road clash on Friday, Sept. 27, and then close the month at home at 6 p.m. against a Coe-Brown Northwood squad that also currently sports a 4-1 record.
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