(Photos courtesy of Amy Sheen)
The Jericho Jayhawks varsity girls volleyball team just capped off an outstanding year, taking home the Conference A-4 title. The Jayhawks went undefeated in conference play, showing their raw ability on the court.
Led by head coach David Herbert the squad improved from an 8-6 record a year ago, and it’s largely thanks to one leader on the court.
Amy Sheen, the team’s MVP, led the way for the Jayhawks in 2019. She was one of the leaders in Nassau County in digs, with 255 on the year. To top it off, she was second in the county with an impressive 62 aces.
“Going into the season, we knew we had a really great team,” Sheen said. “My close friends, we’ve all been playing together since the seventh grade. I’ve also had the pleasure of playing on a club team with some of them. We’ve had this relationship and bond as a team. We knew it would be a tight core entering this season. It was a matter of capitalizing. We took it game-by-game, not taking it for granted. When we faced tougher teams, we were able to come out on top.”
Sheen, a two-year captain, was elevated as a leader in her junior year. She took ownership of the role right away.
“It’s not so much about you doing well and performing well,” she said. “It’s thinking about other people and you need to be able to push other people forward.”
Come Sheen’s senior season, she learned plenty as a leader, both on and off the court. She knew it was time to step up, and her teammates would be looking up to her for advice.
“I’ve achieved a little more confidence,” she said. “Volleyball is a very mental sport, where you have to really believe in yourself and your teammates. As I got older, I learned to be more confident. It’s very intimidating to go into the playoffs because we’re going against great teams. It’s important to keep a positive mindset. It’s not if we can play our best. It’s more of: can we believe that we deserve to be in this?”
Last year, Sheen was an All-Conference player, and her statistics prove she is eager to do even more on the court.
“I think college volleyball would be great, whether it’s on a club team or some other way to keep it in my life because it’s such a big part of me,” Sheen said of her future. “I definitely want to take action to continue playing the sport and not give up on.”
