Assistant coach takes lead role for Evans High volleyball team

After one of the best volleyball seasons in the history of Evans High School, Lady Knights coach C.C. Armstrong will step down as head coach and pass the torch to her assistant.

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Lane Schuckers, who has served as an assistant volleyball coach at Evans for the past six years, will leave his position as a physical education teacher at Euchee Creek Elementary. He will become a P.E. coach at Evans High School in the fall and will take over the Lady Knights' volleyball program.

"It was one of those situations where I helped C.C. coach for the past few years, and I talked to Mr. Brigdon about it," Schuckers said, referring to Evans High School Principal Don Bridgon. "I told him I couldn't do it from the elementary school. An opening at the high school transpired, and it worked out."

Schuckers opened the gym for volleyball workouts Wednesday. It was the first time as a head coach he had a chance to watch a new generation of Lady Knight volleyball players take the floor, but it wasn't the first time he had met them.

"He's a really good coach. He's been helping us for a long time," Kaitlyn Fritz said at the workout. "He knows the fundamentals."

Fritz and teammate McKenzie Gray said they knew Schuckers already from his work as assistant coach at Evans. Gray said once they learned Armstrong would not be returning in the fall, their eyes turned to Schuckers.

"We wanted him last year," Gray said. "He's been coaching us since we've been here so we'll be fine."

Schuckers will take over a team that won a volleyball region championship for the first time in school history last season. That team, however, was full of seniors. Not a single starter will return to the squad this fall.

"At this point it's just a matter of getting everybody on the same page," he said. "I realize we're not going to be as good as last year, but there won't be a team that good again around here for a long time."

Schuckers also serves as Evans' swim coach and will continue in that position along with his new duties. The Evans swim team saw four seniors sign college commitments during the 2006-07 school year.