Magnolia Lady Bulldog Volleyball: February 2007

Hello, Magnolia Lady Bulldog volleyball fans!! There have been a couple of announcements of recent awards for three of our Lady Bulldog student-athletes and the news is exciting!!:

First, PrepVolleyball announced their All-American picks for the 2006-2007 season and I wouldn't envy the person who had to compile and select the candidates. There are so many great players stretched over our beautiful country, and as it turned out - 39 states, including the first ever selections from Alaska and Mississippi, were well represented with this year's All American volleyball picks.

Senior editor John Tawa explained while agonizing over the selection process, narrowing the list of 400,000 volleyball athletes in the United States playing high school volleyball this fall .... to the Top 150 All American athletes: “To be a High School All American, you must have made a massive impact on your high school team. "Massive" is subjective, but at a minimum requires that you be the best player on your team and one of the top 35 players in your state regardless of class, except for volleyball hotbeds like California, Texas, Indiana and Illinois, where you must be among the 10 best HIGH SCHOOL players regardless of class.”

Ten is the exact number of Texans who were selected as All Americans with only 3 selected coming from the Houston area - and right at the top of the selections is Magnolia's very own Jr MB/OH Michele 'Boom Boom' Williams!! Incidentially, the breakdown by the 2006-2007 class ended up: Seniors 124; Juniors 22; Sophomores 3, Freshman 1.

Michele Williams, Magnolia

2006 PrepVolleyball High School All American

All Texas and All American Michele Williams shown here taming 2 Lady Mustangs.

This is one of two awards that Michele has just received. LoneStar Volleyball has also recently announced their LoneStar 2006-2007 All-Texas Team and Michele is a First Team selection for this prestigious squad, as well!

Scott White, senior editor for LoneStar Volleyball wrote about this year's 5th annual team, "Michele Williams who will most certainly play OH in college as has become her focus in club, was a popular choice because of her versatility. She is quickly emerging as one of the nation’s top young talents and only a paperwork mistake kept her from joining last year’s national youth team in their playoffs. A starter on her high school team since her freshman year and All Tournament at the state’s top two tournaments in 2006, she was a big reason Magnolia was the top team in Houston and will be one of the favorites to earn a state tournament berth next season. “She is one of the best players that I have coached in terms of agility and movement,” says Magnolia’s coach Terri Johnson. “That gives her the ability to be a force by attacking a variety of sets and locations.” Congratulations, Michele!!

In addition to Michele's selection, two special Lady Bulldog teammates were also honored with recognition for their outstanding play. White went on to say, "This year we had by far the largest number of responses in the history of selecting the All Texas team.... The team features a combination of size, athleticism and power....Our goal is to recognize the players who are on the top of their game right now. We wanted to know who, if they had to field a team tomorrow, this panel would put on the court to represent Texas against the world..."

These are 2 ladies who we would definitely want on our side:

LONESTAR 2006-2007 ALL TEXAS TEAM

HONORABLE MENTION

Alicia Shaffer, Magnolia,
OH, 2008