Lady Broncos hold tryouts for volleyball program

August 14, 2025

By Clay Whittington,

Belton Journal

No matter what happens this season, the worst is already over for Allison Waits.

Numerous athletes converged inside Lake Belton’s gymnasium Friday and Saturday for the Lady Broncos’ two-day volleyball tryout process, and every player had hopes of emerging with a spot on the varsity roster.

Some, however, were denied the opportunity, and for Lake Belton’s head coach, the determinations were devastating.

“It is quite honestly the worst day of this job,” Waits said. “It is so difficult to make those decisions and have those hard conversations, but at the end of the day, we have to do what is best for the program as a whole. I have to decide what is going to push us toward success.

“It wasn’t easy, but I do believe we did that.”

Now, the attention turns toward molding the chosen players into a cohesive powerhouse capable of claiming the District 16-5A championship — a feat the Lady Broncos fell two victories shy of achieving last season.

Lake Belton posted 30 wins for the third consecutive year in 2024 but were unable to hoist a third straight league title after being swept by Killeen Chaparral, dropping it into second place. Nevertheless, the Lady Broncos hoisted trophies, defeating Midlothian and Dallas White in straight sets to open their playoff run before being eliminated by Frisco Reedy in the third round.

Obviously, the objective is to improve on the showing, but doing so will be difficult.

Multiple key components graduated from the squad, including outside hitter Gabby Jones, setter Hannah Kasner, middle hitter MyKenna Johnston, defensive specialist Natalie Maldonado and libero Hanna Ward.

Waits believes talent remains, though.

“The chemistry on this team is already undeniable,” she said. “It is some of the best team chemistry I’ve ever been a part of, so right now, I go home after some very long days with a very full heart. Not every coach is able to say that.

“We lost some great talent, and we lost some great leaders, but we have a phenomenal senior class coming in this year. They are some really great kids.”

They are pretty good players as well.

Defending all-district setter of the year Madi Bingham, defending co-offensive player of the year Kaitlyn Hutchins, an outside hitter, and defending co-newcomer of the year Ava Wood, a junior middle hitter, are all returning. Bingham and Hutchins are each entering their senior season.

Furthermore, Keileigh Krueger, Thia Allison, Nia Grayson and Morgan Kukulski return for their senior campaigns along with fellow all-district representative in sophomore Abbi Jones.

The new-look Lady Broncos will have their first outing together Friday, when they travel for a scrimmage at Pflugerville Weiss. Then, on Saturday, Lake Belton scrimmages at Copperas Cove.

The Lady Broncos’ season opener is set for Tuesday — a mere 11 days after their first practice — at Killeen Harker Heights, which will be immediately followed by a trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for the ultra-competitive, three-day Duncanville ISD tournament.

District competition begins Sept. 23 at Belton.

Ultimately, Lake Belton hopes to claim the league title and produce another deep postseason run, but Waits’ focus is admittedly elsewhere for the first few weeks.

“Right now,” she said, “we are just having a crash course in all things related to volleyball IQ. We’re talking about the defenses we want to run and the offensive things we want to implement this year.

“We just need to make sure we are all on the same baseline. Then, we can build from there, but the girls have just been sponges, and we are starting much further along than we have in the past.”