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Dexter's Nichols to take VB talents to Mineral Area
Dexter High School senior athlete Kate Nichols dropped 32 points in her first basketball game of this season on Monday, as she led the Bearcats to a 58-55 victory over Kennett in the opening round of the SEMO Conference Girls Basketball Tournament, so she still has plenty of extraordinary feats to unleash in the red-and-black before she graduates in a handful of months. However, she does have one eye on the future, as she recently signed to play volleyball next fall for Mineral Area College in Park Hills.
“They have a winning culture,” Nichols said of the Cardinals. “They go to the national tournament (NJCAA) almost every year.”
Winning is something that Nichols has grown accustomed to at Dexter, and according to her coaches, she doesn’t have much patience for the opposite.
“Kate is just a hard-nosed competitor,” veteran Bearcat girls basketball coach Eric Sitze said. “She wants to win. She plays hard for us every night.
“She leads by example every night. She is just one of those competitive kids that I hope everyone else feeds off of.”
On the volleyball court, Nichols helped Dexter win 80 games over the past four seasons.
“Kate demands the ball,” second-year Dexter volleyball coach Haylee Orf said during this season of Nichols’ presence on the court. “She is a great leader. She can pretty much hit the ball outside the pole, in the middle of the court, or wherever you put it.
“She’ll find a way to get it down.”
Nichols was recently named to the All-Stoddard County Athletic Association squad, as well as the All-SEMO Conference North Division Team after tallying 466 kills this season.
What made Nichols’ success even more impressive this past volleyball season was that Orf had helped her transition to a new spot on the floor, which is probably where she’ll end up with Mineral Area.
“With her playing middle back,” Orf explained, “her defense has become incredible from the standpoint of being a setter for a couple of years.
“We wanted to keep an attacker back there. We try to get them in the net and dig out (balls) in the net. Kate has been a great second.”
“Second” refers to Nichols’ responsibility for taking that “second out of system ball,” according to Orf.
“She has good hands and is able to push it to the front (line),” Orf said. “She is doing amazing with that. It is working out well for her and I think it is absolutely working out well for our team.”
Mineral Area won 20 games this fall, which was the third consecutive season in which the program achieved at least that many wins.
“(Cardinal coach Tim Copeland) is a great coach,” Nichols said. “I liked the vision that he had for me to make me a better player.
“Just overall, it just seemed like a great place for me.”