Photo by Sarah Finnegan.
Caroline Raybon (14) hits the ball during a state tournament match last fall. Raybon is aiming to be the Bucs' primary outside hitter this fall.
The Hoover High School volleyball team has a high ceiling this fall.
The Bucs have state tournament and state championship aspirations. They have a handful of seniors with experience in big moments, paired with some young talent with a world of potential.
A key piece to making it all come together is senior outside hitter Caroline Raybon. She started on the right side as a junior and is ready to take on a more prominent role this fall. She remembers watching her sister Ashlyn star for the Bucs and has long dreamed of the day she could do the same.
“I’ve been fighting for the outside position since I got here,” Raybon said. “It’s what I’ve always wanted. My sister was here four years before me, so I’ve watched it.”
Raybon will get her chance to be the powerful outside the Bucs need if she can get healthy and remain that way for the home stretch of the season. After suffering a knee injury in the spring during her club season, Raybon admits she came back too quickly and turned her ankle on the opposite leg just two days into fall practice with the high school team.
“Obviously, it was hard to hurt myself again the second day back, but I think it was for the best because I wasn’t ready yet,” she said.
The word “stubborn” could be used to describe Raybon’s drive to get back on the court, despite her trainers’ urging to take it slowly. But there’s a reason for that. At the time of her injury in March, Raybon said she was “playing the best volleyball I’d ever played.”
“I’ve just always played for fun and then probably last year, my junior year, I started realizing this is something I really love and that I’d gotten good at,” Raybon said. “I had never expected myself to have that much confidence and that much power.”
Hoover head coach Chris Camper said Raybon has begun to maximize her potential in the Bucs’ system due to her commitment to becoming a great all-around player.
“She’s not just a big hitter,” he said. “She has worked on ball control, defense, serve receive. … She had grown to be one of the better volleyball players in the state of Alabama at the time she got hurt.”
Camper also said getting Raybon back at full strength would be “game-changing.”
“If you put a healthy Caroline in the lineup, you’re well-rounded and more balanced,” he said.
Even with the recent success of the Hoover volleyball program, a state title has somehow eluded the Bucs. Raybon is part of a senior class that has been to the state tournament each of their past three years in high school. Between herself, the other seniors and the rest of the team, the desire to capture one of those state titles will not be lacking.
“You want to get out there and win so bad,” Raybon said. “That’s [what] we have with this team, is just a lot of fire. We want it so bad.”
Camper knows how much Raybon can help the Bucs and how much she wants to win, but her health comes first. “We also love her enough to not push her because we don’t want a long-lasting injury and we don’t want her to get hurt,” he said. “It’s about getting her strength and speed back.”
Hoover will wrap up the regular season in October, with the postseason beginning with the Class 7A, Area 5 tournament Oct. 23.
