Lady Golden Bears win the 3A state volleyball championship .... Pages

Alcorn Central High School – 2021 Class 3A State Volleyball Champions

Photo by Randy J. Williams

Alcorn Central volleyball program makes history

Lady Golden Bears win the 3A state championship

By TANNER MARLAR

For Crossroads Magazine

When the Alcorn Central High School volleyball team set out on their 2021 campaign, the Lady Bears knew they were in with a shot of finishing the season hoisting a state championship trophy.

The previous season, the Lady Bears made one of the deepest playoff runs in school history, but ultimately ended up letting the championship slip away in a postseason defeat.

The team went into the offseason hungry and ready to prove themselves. Head coach

Eric Lancaster made some changes to the play-style after seeing what didn’t work during their post-season defeats, and set about resuming the quest for that elusive championship. They had returned most of their production, including senior Mia Griffin, and had all set about to accomplish one singular goal – win it all.

They did just that, and hoisted their first golden ball in program history this past season at the state championship tournament in Clinton.

Lancaster spoke about what that meant to him, his players, the program and the fanbase as a whole.

“I had never one a state championship, and I’ve kind of wondered what it would feel like, and when we did get that final point, all I wanted to do was just sit back and watch the girls,” Lancaster said. “I didn’t run out onto the court, I didn’t go hug them, I just wanted to watch them celebrate ... just, the feeling of getting that escort back into town, it was really, really fun. That’s one way to sum it up – it was fun. The girls had a blast.”

It almost wasn’t to be, though. Right when the Lady Bears were neck deep in division play, near disaster struck. The team had to be quarantined due to a spike in positive COVID-19 tests and had to miss a straight week of divisional games. Those that couldn’t be rescheduled resulted in the Lady Bears forfeiting the contests.

Lancaster’s confidence in his team never wavered, though, as before a team practice he pulled his team captains into his office and told them that he had one message.

Lancaster still remembers the exact time, 3:12p.m. on Sept. 13, 2021. Right then and there Lancaster told his girls they would not lose another volleyball game. He told them they would be state champions, and they would finish the season without losing another game.

“The only thing that can beat y’all this year is COVID and yourselves, and COVID already tried,” Lancaster told his team after practice. Continued on page 43

Alcorn Central volleyball players celebrate their 2021 state 3A championship – the first for volleyball in school history and the first for Alcorn County.

Photo by Randy J. Williams