Salmon River Central Volleyball All Northern Selections

There are four girls that were selected to the All-Team Northern first and second teams for the sport of Volleyball at Salmon River. First team includes Nicole Smoke, Keisha Cook, and Leslie “Lilly” Loran. The second team All-Northern selection from Salmon River was Kahsennakohe David. There were also two more awards given in addition to the girls’ volleyball team that should be mentioned; congratulations to Nicole Smoke for receiving the East Division Most Valuable Player Award and for the team Sportsmanship Award. The Salmon River Volleyball team went undefeated for the 2011 season and the only game lost was in the State semi-finals. Congratulations to Coach Nicole Deshaies for an excellent job and being named Coach of the Year for Section X.

A visit with Keisha, Nicole and Leslie over lunch to discuss the season was long past due, regretfully, Kahsennakohe couldn’t join us. We discussed college plans for the girls and Keisha said, “I’d like to get into SUNY Cortland and to definitely play Volleyball.”

Leslie’s goal is to either attend Queens in Kingston or McGill in Montreal. She would like to play intramurals during her Freshman Year and as a Junior and Senior year play for the school team. These two girls are high school seniors now and will miss their teammates who they have played together with since grade 7.

Nicole has already started to think about what college she would like to attend in a couple of years and she is thinking of Morrisville. It is so nice to hear about the goals that our students have. Having played together for so many years adds to the success of their team. They have come a long way this season and came so close to capturing that New York State Championship honor.

When asked who was the leading player, Leslie said, “For each game there was a different standout player.” Each girl has her strength and while they played together for so long, each knew who should have the ball.

“Sometimes it depended on what team we were playing to,” added Keisha. The girls all felt that their team had a lot of communication to have success throughout a game. It was evident during the Regional games when Salmon would get louder they took a lead but as soon as they let up and got quiet, the opponent would catch up and pass, commented Leslie. “The chatter was so important and it kept us in the games all the time”, she said.

With the Class C win, the team proceeded to the Regional match. This year Salmon River played against Massena for the Section X Over-All Championship, which was mostly for the bragging rights. The last time Salmon River went that far was in 2001, only two years after the team was formed.

Salmon River advanced directly to the Over-All Section X game since they were in the higher seed, but Chateaugay and Massena had to compete with each other.

When asked about what they credit the team’s success to Leslie said, “I had watched my sister play for a long time and learned.”

All three girls agreed that their coach Deshaies is one of the most dedicated coaches at Salmon River. They had enjoyed playing with the group of girls because there was so much “heart” with the team. They certainly have enjoyed every game there was and were so happy to be a part of the team and their success, even though the New York State Championship wasn’t in the cards this time.

“There are girls that are so good at certain things and it’s hard to pick one-spot for them,” added Leslie. “Kahsennakohe David was so awesome especially in our last two games.” The girls also agreed that David is quite a digger, she could cover many areas of the court and was fast to get there.

They did mention all the games heading into the finals and some of the girls have been so sick. It was certainly a letdown if they couldn’t play due to the flu bug season.

Best of luck to each of you as you continue your love for your sport, volleyball. Be happy that you were coached by one of the nicest and most caring teachers at Salmon River Mrs. Deshaies.