Alma Bryant High School’s volleyball team is heading into postseason play behind the steady hands of senior setter Parris Collier, whose rise through the program traces back nearly seven years to a middle school gym in Grand Bay.
The Hurricanes improved to 11-8 on the season with a win over Theodore, a victory that helped set the stage for the start of area tournament play. Alma Bryant coach Cassandra Stewart said the team’s postseason push has been fueled in large part by the leadership Collier has shown on and off the court in recent weeks.
Stewart’s history with Collier dates back to when Collier was a sixth-grader working as a team manager for Grand Bay Middle School’s volleyball squad, which Stewart coached at the time. Collier’s older sister, Liberty, played on that team, and Parris often tagged along, soaking up the game from the sideline before eventually picking up a jersey of her own.
“I’ve been into volleyball since I was in the fifth grade because my sister played and she played under Coach Stewart as well,” Collier said. “I saw that it was a really fun game and Coach Stewart was really involved with her players, and it just made me want to start playing. So I talked to my parents about it and they put me into club ball, so when I was old enough to be on the team I would already have the knowledge of it.”
Collier said watching her sister play in their yard sealed her love for the sport after other athletic pursuits failed to hold her interest.
“As soon as I saw my sister playing, I would play in the yard with her, and I instantly fell in love with it,” Collier said. “I had tried other sports and I just couldn’t get into anything. But as soon as I started playing volleyball I knew it was the sport for me.”
Collier began her playing career as an outside hitter, but it did not take long for Stewart to recognize a different kind of potential in her game. Stewart moved Collier to setter, a position that requires court awareness, quick decision-making and the ability to get the best out of every hitter on the floor.
“When I first started playing, I was an outside hitter,” Collier said. “Then I started playing for Coach Stewart and she saw that I had the potential to be a setter, which really changed the game for me because I just started loving it so much more just because of the position I was playing.”
Stewart, who coached Collier through middle school before the two reunited when Stewart took over the Alma Bryant program, said she noticed the young player’s instincts for the ball early on.
“I’ve known her for a long time,” Stewart said. “From the very beginning I’ve coached her and I noticed early on that she had great hands and she wanted to do well. Anything that she could do to get her hands on the ball all the time, that’s what she did. Her sister, who is two years older than her, played and she and her sister were always playing, in the yard or wherever.”
Stewart added that Collier has taken her game to another level over the past month as the Hurricanes have prepared for the postseason.
“The last three or four weeks she has stepped up and become a different player,” Stewart said. “I guess it’s kind of hit her that it’s her court and she runs it like she wants to. She encourages everybody when she’s on the court and she has a lot of positive things to say, on the court and off the court.”
With her prep career nearing its end, Collier is already weighing options to continue playing volleyball in college, and said she is considering Coastal Alabama Community College East in Brewton as well as Bishop State Community College. For now, her focus remains on helping Alma Bryant make a deep postseason run when area tournament play begins.
Asked what has meant the most to her throughout her volleyball career, Collier pointed not to wins or accolades but to the relationships she has built with teammates over the years.
“Honestly, just making special bonds with people I don’t think I would be able to make outside of the team,” she said. “Every team that I’ve ever been on, I’ve gotten along with everybody on the team. Right now, as a senior, one of my best friends is a freshman, and I wouldn’t know her if it wasn’t for volleyball.”