The Kristen Grimes coaching era for Brownwood Lady Lions volleyball officially got underway Friday, as preseason practices for the 2025 campaign began.
Grimes takes over a Lady Lions program that posted a 13-23 overall record a season ago, more victories than the previous two campaigns combined. A total of 50 girls reported to the first day of practice at Brownwood Middle School.
“They all came in very eager and very willing to do what we’re asking them to do,” Grimes said. “They seem like they’re ready to go. We had a lot of girls at summer skills all summer, and we’re pushing the skills really hard. We also had a run test this morning and most of the kids passed it because they were at summer workouts.”
Grimes said the run test consisted of, “down and backs on the basketball court in under 11 seconds. They have about a 30-40 second rest between each one, and we did 20 of them. It was something they haven’t seen before and I was pleasantly surprised at how well they did with it, because it was something new.”
Among the key returnees for the Lady Lions are all-district performers Aniah Hines, a first-team selection in 2024, along with honorable mention recipients Hannah Deen and Icess Hall – all seniors.
“We have a great senior class,” Grimes said. “They all passed the run test and they’re bringing the energy and the leadership and finding their voice on the court. That’s really good because it’s giving the rest of the program something to look up to and work towards as well. They’re all going to be impact players, we’re just trying to figure out where everyone will fit and how it will look.”
The Lady Lions will scrimmage at San Angelo Central on Friday, Aug 8 at 8 a.m. prior to opening the season at Early on Tuesday, Aug 12. Grimes reiterated some of her goals she wants the Lady Lions to master between now and opening day.
“We want to be a ball control team so we really focused on that most of the day today, but we have a long way to go,” Grimes said. “We’re trying to build something here from the ground up and for me, that’s passing and ball control. They all know that and they’re all on board. We also want to be an aggressive serving team, not just put the ball in play. We want to score points on serving and we talked about that being the first line of attack.”
Following the season opener at Early, the Lady Lions host Lampasas in the Aug. 19 home debut, and begin District 6-4A action Sept. 23 at Graham.
