Volleyball News — DCHS Sports

Dodge City High School Hires New Head Volleyball Coach

April 9, 2024 By DCHS Sports

The Dodge City High School Athletic Department has announced the hiring of Bailey Zerger as the new Head Volleyball coach of the Lady Demons – pending Board of Education approval at the next scheduled meeting.

Bailey is a graduate of Sedgwick High School. She earned both her undergraduate degree and Master’s Degree in Social Work studying at Fort Hays State University.

Injuries cut her playing days short after being involved in Volleyball, Basketball, Softball, Cheerleading and Track in high school. During college, she served on the coaching staff at Hays-Thomas More Prep and assisted with various Club teams in the Hays area. She currently works at Dodge City High School as a Social Worker. Bailey completed her second season this fall with the Lady Demon Volleyball program as the Head JV coach.

“Bailey brings a lot of energy to our program and an understanding of the vision of the DCHS Athletic Department – in developing character in our athletes, and has already been making a difference with the students at Dodge High. Bailey has a good knowledge of the athletes in our program and is committed to make them better each and every day. We believe Bailey is going to be a great fit for the Lady Demon Volleyball program. She has grown as a coach and understands how to teach the game with passion and enthusiasm.” – Shawn Steiner – DCHS Activities Director

“I am excited for the opportunity to lead the Lady Demon Volleyball team! I have been fortunate to be a part of the program for the past two years and I know the potential of our current and future athletes. I look forward to working with the players, coaches, and administration to build a successful volleyball program at Dodge City High School.” – Bailey Zerger – Head Volleyball Coach, DCHS

Big Week in Demon Nation!

October 12, 2022 By DCHS Sports

Unless you have been living in seclusion – or Kansas City – there is a good chance you are aware that the Red Demons are traveling to Riverfront Stadium in Wichita to take on the Garden City Buffaloes on Saturday night in the 85th annual Hatchet Game. And while the game provides DCHS the opportunity to showcase Red Demon Football, The Pride of Southwest Kansas, and its outstanding cheer and dance squads, this week also shines a spotlight on every fall program.

Lady Demon Tennis

Last Friday, at the 6A KSHSAA Regional in Garden City, the Lady Demons finished third overall in the eight team tournament. The team had just wrapped up a busy week in which they finished third as a team at the Western Athletic Conference Meet, held at Preston Courts. Flaminia Lepri, who finished 2nd at WAC, avenged a previous loss earlier in the week to win the Regional singles title in three sets (2-6, 6- 2, 6-3). America Gamez finished in sixth place in singles to qualify for the 6A State Tournament as did the doubles team of Karen Lopez and Emily Estevane. Lopez and Estevane were also WAC runners-up in #2 doubles. All four qualifiers will compete this Friday in Wichita, the second year in a row that the 6A State Meet will be at Wichita Riverside Tennis Complex.

Lady Demon Golf

Ashlyn Armstrong continued her outstanding senior season on Monday finishing as the Regional runner-up shooting an 86 at Southwind Country Club in Garden City. The team also finished second with a 432 qualifying them for the 6A State Tournament next Monday at the Salina Municipal Golf Course. The top six teams and twelve individuals (not on top six teams) will qualify for Day two of the tournament. Armstrong earned First Team All-Conference for her regular season efforts, while Riley Kippes and Payton Dunn earned Second Team honors.

Volleyball

The Lady Demon volleyball program finished the regular season at Garden City last Thursday with a three- set loss to Ulysses and a hard fought loss to Garden City. Dodge City will be competing in the WAC Tournament this Saturday at Liberal. Hays is the defending WAC Champions with their only loss in last season’s tournament coming at the hands of the Lady Demons. Post-season seeding for volleyball will be next week at the conclusion of the conference tournament weekend.

Red Demon Cross Country

The Red Demon Cross Country team will compete in the WAC Championships this Thursday at Buffalo Dunes Golf Course in Garden City. Dodge City finished second last year at Mariah Hills and will be looking to dethrone defending champion Garden City.

The Red Demon Cross Country team is fresh off a winning performance at the Salina Invitational last Saturday. The Red Demons were led by David Ultreras who won the meet with a time of 16:20, followed by Danny Lamas who was second at 16:35. The Red Demons placed six runners in the Top 10 at Salina (Angel Vazquez, Brandon Juarez, Mathew Banuelos and Eddie Salinas).

Lady Demon Cross Country

The Lady Demons also finished as WAC runner-up last year and will be looking to continue their past success at the Western Athletic Conference meet. The Lady Demons are coming off a third place finish at the Salina Invitational.

Top performers for Dodge City were Alex Gere – 8th (20:50) and Teressa Martinez – 15th (21:10). The KSHSAA 6A Regional Cross Country Meet will be hosted by Wichita East next Saturday in Augusta at Four Mile Creek Resort. This course was the site of the 6A State Championship meets the past two years. The top three teams will qualify to the 6A State Meet at Rim Rock Farm, home course to the Kansas University Cross Country team.

Red Demon Soccer

Championships begin in October for the Red Demon Soccer program. With a possible seven home games (if you include playoffs), the schedule is full of opportunities for the Red Demons to begin their march to the 6A Final Four, to be held at Stryker Stadium in Wichita the first weekend of November.

The spotlight could not shine any brighter on the Red Demon Soccer program as they defeated Great Bend on Tuesday night to secure their eighth WAC title in the past nine seasons. Dodge City has won 30-straight WAC contests, dating back to 2019. The number-one ranked Red Demons are currently undefeated at 13-0 and face the number-three team in 5A, Blue Valley Southwest, on Friday night in Kansas City. The two programs combined have won a state championship every year since 2016. Dodge City has won two state titles (2016, 2020) while BVSW has four state titles (2017, 2018, 2019, 2021). The Red Demons will play Shawnee Mission South on Saturday before returning home to play Liberal in the regular season finale. The first round of Regional Playoffs will begin on October 25 at Memorial Stadium.

Lady Demons Battle Redskins at Field House

September 23, 2022 By DCHS Sports

The Lady Demon volleyball program welcomed the top team in the WAC – Liberal (17-5) – to the DCHS Field House on Thursday night for a best of five match against the Lady Redskins.

Dodge City (3-15) struggled to string together points all night against the senior-led Redskins. While the Demons avoided long scoring droughts for most of the night, the Lady Skins seemed content to keep the ball in play before setting up their big hitters for kills. Jaden Rabe, the only senior to see action on the night for Dodge City, attempted to keep the Demons in the contest with scoring serves throughout the three games, but in the end Liberal proved to be too skilled and experienced to overcome.

“We have a lot of young kids playing and gaining valuable experience. Our senior class is small, so we know our focus has to be on improvement and staying positive.” – Ashley Podschun, DCHS Head Volleyball Coach

The Lady Demons will get another shot at Liberal on Tuesday night when they host both the Redskins and Garden City at the DCHS Field House for the final home matches of the season.

Red Demons hire new Head Volleyball Coach

March 29, 2018 By DCHS Sports

The Dodge City High School Athletic Department has announced the hiring of Ashley Podschun as the new Head Volleyball coach of the Red Demons, pending Board of Education approval at the next scheduled meeting.

Ashley is a graduate of Chaparral High School as well as DC3 and Washburn University. She currently works in the district at Dodge City High School as a Health Science teacher and coach. Ashley is currently in her second season as the Head Softball Coach of the Lady Demons and she served as the Junior Varsity Coach this fall for the Lady Demon Volleyball team.

At Chaparral High School, Ashley played volleyball for the legendary coach Gina Clark. She was a three year letter winner and three year starter for the Lady Roadrunners. She was all-league player her senior year, as well as Class 3A Honorable Mention selection her junior and senior seasons. The Lady Roadrunners were Sub-State Runner-ups in her sophomore, junior and senior years, losing to the eventual 3A State Finalist (Conway Springs) her junior and senior years. Ashley had offers to play college volleyball, but chose to play softball at the collegiate level at Dodge City Community College – playing for Coach Howie Smith. Ashley finished her collegiate playing career at Washburn University.

Ashley earned her BS in Athletic Training, with a minor in Biology from Washburn. Upon completion of her playing career at Washburn, Ashley served as a Graduate Assistant in the Ichabod Softball program. Before accepting a teaching and coaching position at DCHS, Ashley was the Assistant Athletic Trainer at Dodge City Community College.

Ashley understands the vision of the DCHS Athletic Department – to develop character in all of our athletes, and is committed to making a difference at Dodge High. We have been very impressed with Ashley’s knowledge of the game this fall and how she was coaching our student-athletes on and off the court. We believe Ashley is going to be a great fit for the Lady Demon Volleyball program. She has grown as a coach and understands how to teach the game with, passion and enthusiasm.” – Shawn Steiner – DCHS Activities Director

Ashley was an extraordinary hard worker and very coachable. Those qualities are also what makes her a terrific coach. Not only does she understand what it takes to be a champion as an athlete, but the dedication, time commitment, and relationship building skills you have to have to be a championship coach as well. Dodge City is fortunate to have hired such a high-caliber coach for their program. She will work to continually improve the program while also helping the athletes be the best they can be.” –Gina Clark – Former Anthony-Harper-Chaparral Volleyball Coach

Red Demons’ season ends in sub-state finals

October 26, 2017 By DCHS Sports

Volleyball team falls to Garden City, finishes with record of 9-27

By: Shelton Burch

Courtesy of Dodge Globe Sports Editor

The Dodge City Red Demons volleyball team finished its season with a loss Saturday night, falling to Garden City in two sets by scores 25-9, 25-12.

Dodge City had beaten Haysville Campus High School by scores 25-21 and 25-21 to advance to play Garden City in the finals of the sub-state tournament. Overall the team finished 9-27.

The team held its season

celebration Monday night, officially capping the team’s year.

Red Demons head varsity coach Amy Fleener said next year’s team could be really good.

“I think we’re gonna be really strong,” Fleener said. “One of the things from last year to this year I was really looking for us to do was learn how to compete and handle adversity, and we didn’t push through and finish matches quite as well as I wanted us to this year, but I did see a lot of improvement in the way that we fought and the way that we desired to win.”

The win over Campus in this season’s sub-state tournament could prove to be a key moment in the team learning to finish,

and is something the team can build off of going into next season, Fleener said.

“They finally figured it out,” Fleener said. “They figured out how to hold onto the lead and push through and win a match.”

The Red Demons played well in both sets against Campus, Fleener said, but the scores of 25-21 in both sets showed the match was close and certainly not a foregone conclusion.

Key to that victory and the team’s efforts this season were juniors who, if they return, could help the team with their

experience. In the team’s home dual against Liberal, six of the 14 players listed on the varsity roster were juniors who could return as seniors next year.

That would give this team a huge jump in seniors after the team played with just two this season.

Senior leadership, however, may not be the team’s only strength next season. Against Liberal, Dodge City played three sophomores and two freshman.

And those are hardly the only strong young players in the program, Fleener said.

“That freshman-sophomore group is loaded, and I am super-excited about the competition and the athleticism that they’re gonna bring to the beginning of the season next year,” Fleener said.

Fleener gave credit to junior varsity coach Ashley Podschun for her role in teaching the players the skills necessary to be ready to make the jump to varsity, something she said every one of them is capable of doing.

“All of em that played JV are legitimate contenders for Varsity spots next year,” Fleener said. “There’s just an incredible amount

of talent and they had a lot of fun this year, they played hard, coach (Podschun) my JV coach just did a fabulous job of teaching them the game and breaking down the individual skill elements.”

Fleener said it takes about three years for a coach to get their system and culture infused into a volleyball program. Next year will be that year.

“I think we’re sitting in a really good position,” Fleener said.

With the potential move up to varsity for some of the junior varsity athletes, members of the freshman team will have an opportunity to move up in to those opening JV slots. Fleener said she doesn’t see it as very likely any will make the jump straight to varsity though, because there are so many players ahead of them who have been training in the system longer.

“They made tremendous gains from the beginning of the season to the end,” Fleener said. “Their learning- curve’s just a little bigger, and unfortunately the numbers in front of them are so big that in a different year, maybe, but just because (of) the numbers in the JV group and the returning Varsity group, that’s gonna be a daunting task for them.”

Fleener’s favorite moments

this season included beating Liberal High School in a five-set match, and beating Campus in the sub-state for a win in the sub-state round, which has been an uncommon thing, she said.

“Just watching the girls celebrate, in pure joy, when that 25th-point dropped: Those are why you do what you do (as a coach),” Fleener said.

Now, the team will look to build on this year’s efforts, hopefully toward a state championship. Fleener said she has some goals for next season.

“I want us to be an above-.500 team, and I want us to take the next step in the offense and run the quicker-pace offense,” Fleener said. “We started to this year, I mean we got some more, faster paced things in, but not as consistently as I would like us to and I think we can.”

Lastly, Fleener said she wants the team to take the next step in the process they started to learn this year: Finishing.

“ We lost several matches that were in the 20’s,” Fleener said. “I want us to go ahead and learn how to finish those, instead of the opponent finishing us.”