Lady Toppers Seniors, Coach Donna Dulle,
open volleyball season Tuesday
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[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.
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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."
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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]
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