If you make too many mistakes playing for Southeast Bulloch head volleyball coach Stefanie Harrelson, you can expect to run sprints after practice, or even worse—burpees.
    Harrelson, along with the Lady Yellow Jacket players, have their eyes set on correcting previous mistakes in order to become a better team. If that means running after practice—so be it.
    SEB is currently 3-5 and working towards a return visit to the sweet 16. Harrelson said her team needs to improve on communicating out on the floor.
    “The biggest thing is communication and making sure we’re confident when we make plays and call the ball,” Harrelson said. “We have a lot of people who are sure, but they lack confidence and our communication breaks down and we make mistakes.”
    The Lady Yellow Jackets worked all week on communicating, just in time for their match today against Beach and Savannah High School.
    Next week will be a big test for SEB volleyball as the team will face Trinity Christian, Islands and Toombs County.
    “We have a ton of talent out here, its just sometimes we break down. We know what our weakness are and we know what we need to work on. We try to be constructive and have constant improvement,” Harrelson said. “We run drills and almost everything we do we call the ball. We call the ball all the time in practice. If they don’t do it, we start adding punishments and that makes them wake up really fast.”
    Harrelson said burpees is one of her most effective tools when it comes to making sure her girls are communicating with each other.
    “Oh they hate burpees,” said Harrelson, laughing. “They absolutely hate burpees and we do a ton of suicides.”
    Despite a lack of communication on the court, off the court the Lady Yellow Jackets have a close-knit group. Sarah Ledlow, the team’s starting libero, said the team chemistry continues to improve.
    “We’re like a big family. I love coming out here to practice and playing with these girls. We built chemistry over the summer playing in Southern Slammers and we’ve carried that chemistry over,” Ledlow said.
    Ledlow said the family atmosphere helps during tense matches.
    “If one of us makes a mistake we’re right there to help eachother. We say things like, ‘don’t worry about it you’re fine,’ or ‘you got this,” Ledlow said. “We just always try to pick each other up and encouraging each other. So far we’re doing a pretty good job.”
    Today’s road game against Beach and Savannah High School has a start time of 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. respectively.