Winter Haven focusing on winning district title as Coach Dylan Sechrest builds program

It's not uncommon for volleyball players to show a lot of emotion after a big kill, block or ace serve. What's not as common, however, is to see the head coach being just as demonstrative.

Not at Winter Haven, however. Third-year head coach Dylan Sechrest is often leading the cheering when his players come up with big plays on the court, and that certainly has been a common occurrence this season.

Just past the midway point of the season, the Blue Devils are the top volleyball team in Polk County. They improved to 12-4 with their victory over George Jenkins on Tuesday to remain undefeated against Polk opponents. 

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The Blue Devils have lost just two sets to a county opponent all season and defeated Lakeland in straight sets earlier in the season. The teams will meet one more time this season and could end up meeting a third time for the Class 6A, District 11 title. The Dreadnaughts are coached by Sechrest's sister, Dayna.

Winter Haven had a string of 10 consecutive winning seasons come to an end the year prior to Sechrest taking over, and he has led Winter Haven to records of 19-8 and 14-6.  Last week, Winter Haven entered the top 10 in the MaxPreps Class 6A rankings at No. 9 for the first time under Sechrest.

"It's a process," Sechrest said. "We've been just focusing on program, not first team, program. The second-team kids play against the first-team kids every single day, and it's their opportunity to get better. We always tell them, there's no way to get better than playing against those girls. We've been embracing the idea of program. We're not going to have up and down years at Winter Haven. We're going to win every year. We're going to put the work in. We're going create a system that kids want to play for and get everybody ready. It's a program."

Sechrest makes no apology for the way he supports his players from the bench.

"It's not necessarily as popular for a coach, maybe, although there are some coaches in volleyball who are very, very demonstrative," Sechrest said. "But volleyball is supposed to be an extremely energetic sport."

And he only cheers positive plays from his players.

"I don't take pride in cheering for other teams' errors, but I do take pride when one of my kids who has been working her tail off does something well," he said. "I tell my kids that the reason I should be able to yell at you is because I cheer for you. You know I'm your biggest supporter because when you do good, I cheer."

His players feed off that energy, especially right-side hitter Carissa Michel, the Blue Devils' top player. Michel leads Winter Haven in kills (152) and is second in digs (138) and third in aces (19).

"Heck yeah, we definitely feed off that," Michel said. "They (teammates) see that I feed off of him because it's my energy. I feed off his energy. As long as I'm turned up, my teammates will be turned up."

Michel switched this season from being an outside hitter to a right-side hitter and has thrived. She was a little wary of the move at first.

"As long as I'm getting the kills, I'm OK," said Michel, who was a first-team, all-county selection. "As long as we're winning, I'm OK with it."

The Blue Devils are a mix of veterans and younger players who are new or have bigger roles this season, and most of the top players are underclassmen.

Winter Haven went to a volleyball camp at Florida State before the season, and the camp made a big impact on how the team plays and how the players have bonded.

"At the beginning of the season, I was shocked," junior setter Tori Martin said. "I was wow, this is going to be a really good team, and we proved that we are a really good team."

Martin runs the offense as the only setter in the 5-1 offense. Last year, the team began in a 6-2 with Martin sharing the role with Becca Mack before the Blue Devils switched to the 5-1 offense.

"Tori's been doing great," Sechrest said. "She's doing an awesome job. She loves running the offense and loves running 5-1. She's obsessed with running 5-1. She's doing a great job. She works hard. I'm very hard on Tori. I expect a very high level for her. She's an extremely athletic kid, but her volleyball skills have come a long way. Tori puts in more work, probably, than anyone on my team."

Jeslian Vazquez, who is second on the team in kills with 88, was out of Tuesday's match with a sprained ankle. She is expected to be out another week.

"She's a captain, so she helps with leading," Michel said. "I'm used to hearing her voice all the time and I'm used to her being on the outside."

Freshman outside hitter Rylee Tanner is third with 82 kills. Sophomore middle hitter Luci Lippelgoos is having a breakout season with 71 kills after having just 19 last year, and she barely has touched her potential.

The 6-foot Lippelgoos, who also has 64 total blocks including 33 stuff blocks, played club volleyball for High Performance and made Team Florida as one of the three middle hitters.

"I look for Luci to be one of those kids throughout these next three years that everyone says, 'Oh, we've got to deal with her,'" Sechrest said.

Lippelgoos teams with Haines City transfer Brandi Gilberry in the middle. Gilberry has 41 kills and 45 total blocks. Martin's ability to get all her hitters involved in the attack has been important.

"Tori really knows how to set against the flow," Michel said. "If the pass is too tight to the net, she'll dump it or set middle and run a quick push. She knows how to communicate with her teammates."

The only other senior with a major role is Dimaliz Vazquez Figueroa, who also transferred from Haines City. She took over as the libero and anchors the defense.

"It didn't take long for us to see that Dee was going to be the starting libero," Sechrest said. "She's solid on the back row. Her serve-receive is great."

The Blue Devils, who are currently No. 11 in Class 6A, take pride in both the ranking and being undefeated in the county, but it's not where there focus is.

"This isn't our goal to win regular-season games," Sechrest said. "Our goal is to winning a game (district championship) coming up in October. The kids don't care about anything but winning a district championship."

Roy Fuoco can be reached at roy.fuoco@theledger.com or at 863-802-7526. Follow him on Twitter: @RoyFuoco.