Lady Toppers Seniors, Coach Donna Dulle, open volleyball season Tuesday

[September 01, 2015]  MOUNT PULASKI —  Lady Toppers seniors along with a reenergized Coach Donna Dulle look to lead the Mount Pulaski Volleyball Team to success this year.

Seasoned Coach Donna Dulle rests her hands on her two senior leaders, Lilly Pickett and Maddy Davis. Much of the team's success this season will certainly rest on the shoulders of these two ladies. Pickett is a 5'11" middle hitter and Davis is a 6'3" middle hitter. Davis recently verbally committed to Division 1 Louisiana Tech University, while Pickett is also interested in playing college volleyball.

First up though, the ladies look to lead their team farther than last season when the Lady Toppers bowed out in the sectional championship. "I would love to make it to state," said Davis.

Longtime coach Donna Dulle, who has two state championship banners hanging in the gym among countless other state finishes, is in a perfect situation to guide the team in the direction of Redbird Arena. Dulle is rested and relaxed going into this season and for good reason. You see she retired from teaching Physical Education at the end of the school year in May, but luckily for her players, she was able to stay on as the volleyball coach. Dulle's retirement started off pretty well last May and has been non-stop fun ever since. A crowd of family, friends and current and former players packed the Mount Pulaski High School cafeteria one evening and managed to pull off a surprise "Vegas-themed" retirement party that left the legendary coach speechless for a short while. That was okay because several speakers took to the podium to tell stories, while Dulle sat front and center with her granddaughter, Anna, just smiling. When Dulle finally got a chance to speak, she was truly grateful for the support of the community and went around the entire room recognizing and thanking the folks in the crowd. Not to take anything away from volleyball and the success she achieved on the court, but if you were in that cafeteria that night you most certainly had to come away with the feeling that this woman truly touched the lives of many students throughout her 34 year teaching career, most of whom never even played volleyball. First and foremost she followed her passion in life to teach and she did it very well, all the while having a lot of fun along with way.

Fun is also something she had a lot of this summer while preparing for the upcoming volleyball season, the start of her 35th year coaching. Laughing, she said, "I went on four vacations. I did. I went to Vegas, Orlando, Branson with the team to get ready for the school season, and I went to Lake Tahoe." In Orlando, she watched her players Maddy Davis, Abigail Fitzpatrick and Paige Stewart play at nationals. Of the Branson experience, Dulle said enthusiastically, "We just had a wonderful team bonding experience. The bus broke down twice on us and Bethany (the assistant coach and Dulle's daughter) had the kids doing skits at McDonald's at two o'clock in the morning just to keep them occupied. The girls weren't even mad about the bus breaking down. They were having too much fun." Dulle also appeared to have fun in Vegas, as evident by her sly smile, but you know the saying. She did, however, elaborate excitedly on Lake Tahoe, "Oh it's beautiful. We had a big house. It was awesome. We had this house with six bedrooms, five bathrooms and two kitchens. It was just awesome." Safe to say, the retirement life is agreeing with this woman. Despite being busy this summer, one can tell that retirement, along with those vacations, has allowed Dulle the opportunity to be reenergized for the upcoming volleyball season. With her attention now focused on the team, she hopes this year's squad will follow this slogan, "To start unknown and finish unforgettable."

The Lady Toppers 2015 volleyball season gets underway tonight (Tuesday) at Williamsville with the JV game starting at 6:00 p.m. The Lady Toppers home opener will be Thursday night against Athens, with the JV game scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m.
 
 The 2015 Lady Toppers Volleyball Team
 
 Kenzie Lock
 Olivia Knoedler
 Tosha Boyer
 Abigail Fitzpatrick
 Lilly Pickett
 Jade Stewart
 Alexandra Beckers
 Callie Anderson
 Morgan May
 Madison Thomas
 Maddy Davis
 Skylar Hayes
 Kait Jason
 Alyssa Harris
 Emilee Burge
 Haley Stogner

[Teena Lowery]