North Pem VB seeking to keep trending up in 2024

North Pemiscot High School junior Mya Faires serves against Risco in a volleyball jamboree on Monday in Wardell.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

WARDELL – It’s been a journey back to respectability for the North Pemiscot High School volleyball program through the four-year tenure of Mustangs coach Brooke Hutchison.

In her first season on the job (2020), Hutchison led the program to eight victories and an MSHSAA Class 1 District 1 championship, but the Mustangs have been in rebuild mode ever since.

“We had some older, mature players,” Hutchison recalled of that championship group. “They were a well-seasoned group.

“Then, we kind of started over after that year.”

North Pemiscot has slowly climbed upward over the past three seasons, and in Monday’s jamboree with Caruthersville, South Pemiscot, and Risco, Hutchison’s kids showed potential.

“This year,” Hutchison explained, “we’re a young group. We have three freshmen (Maelyn Mcculloch, Emily Cecil, and Emma Wagley), three sophomores (Cheyanne Sawyer, Chloe-Jay King, and Emma Wrather), and two seniors (McKenna Cutright and Bailey Swims).

As a freshman, Sawyer was an All-Tri-County Conference Honorable Mention selection, as well as named to the Class 1 District 1 Tournament Second Team.

“But they are capable of big things. We look for big things to come from them.”

North Pemiscot also has five juniors in the program (Madison Allen, Mya Faries, Brea Stone, Makenna Bost, and Emily Tanner), so the present and the future look promising.

The Mustangs won three games in 2021, five in 2022, and last year climbed to six victories.

“This group has been together for quite some time,” Hutchison said.

She added that she and her athletes have “anxiously awaited” this season because of the positive momentum that the program currently has.

“We did some good things last year,” Hutchison said, “but there are definitely better things to come. They have a positive attitude and energy. That mindset makes all of the difference when it comes to hitting, setting, the defense across the board, it all starts there.”

Hutchison played volleyball at Gideon before graduating in 2012. While with the Bulldogs, that program won 71 games in her final three seasons.

“Gideon is a big volleyball school,” Hutchison said. “It’s kind of intimidating to come from there and try to do well somewhere else. But with these girls, to have an influence on their lives, it’s rewarding.”

The Mustangs will open their regular season on Thursday at Portageville at 6:30 p.m., before traveling to Senath-Hornersville at 5 p.m. on Friday.

North Pemiscot will host East Prairie on Sept. 9 at 5 p.m. for its initial home match of the 2024 season.