Jennifer Golden is the elder statesmen among all the head coaches at Greenwood High School, and one of the most successful. In more than 20 years as the leader of the GHS volleyball program, her teams have won numerous conference championships, three state titles, and competed for several more championships by reaching the state finals. She has turned Greenwood into a perennial power in volleyball in Arkansas. But 2024 could be her most challenging season yet, for several reasons.

First, the Lady Bulldogs lost the majority of last year’s starting lineup to graduation, seven seniors in all, so they must replace those starters and try to rebuild a championship caliber squad. Second, there are two new conference members this season, Shiloh Christian and Farmington, both with strong volleyball programs, so the competition will be tougher. And finally, on a personal level, Coach Golden is undergoing back surgery this week just as volleyball season is getting underway.

She’s been struggling with back troubles for some time and hoped that minor surgery in July would fix the problem and allow her to return to her normal duties as a wife, mother, teacher, and coach. But when that procedure failed and the pain returned, she began preparing herself for major surgery followed by weeks of recovery, physical therapy, and coaching from a chair. The longtime GHS head coach will certainly rely heavily on her staff to get her through the season, including her husband Tim.

A scheduling change agreed to by conference coaches resulted in ninth grade and varsity matches being played in the same location on the same date starting this season. That required the hiring of a new volleyball coach – Tim Golden – to take over the ninth-grade program, allowing junior high coach Dianne Popp to concentrate solely on the seventh and eighth grade programs. Tim Golden has been a certified volleyball coach at Greenwood before and has served as team statistician and bus driver for the past several years. On the varsity level, Kim Lowe continues to serve as assistant coach.

“It’s been a really long process and pretty miserable,” said Golden of her back issue, admitting that she was bedridden for three weeks after an early departure from team camp in Branson (MO) in July. She has yet to return to the classroom but did attend Greenwood’s home benefit match against Rogers High School last Tuesday, albeit relegated to a chair. The Lady Bulldogs fell behind in that match, dropping the first two sets, 23-25 and 12-25, before rallying to take the next two sets, 25-17 and 25-15, before falling in the decisive fifth set, 10-15.

“I feel like if we were to play Rogers again, we would win,” said Golden of her Lady Bulldogs. “It was early season nerves, and once we settled down, we played a whole lot better. But sometimes it’s too little too late. They [Rogers] are not at the top of the 6A scale.” The GHS girls open their regular season slate this Monday at one of the better teams in Class 6A when they travel to Fayetteville to take on the Lady Purple Dogs. Greenwood then hosts 6A Springdale Har-Ber on Tuesday before taking part in a tournament at Bentonville next Saturday.

“I think we’re a team that will surprise some people once we settle down and find some consistency,” added the coach. “We had a few [people] at team camps say, ‘We thought you were going to be down.’ So I feel we can be a sleeper team this year once we level out our play and get consistent. I’ve seen glimpses of it, though we’re not there yet, but we will be.”

Her medical issues aside, Coach Golden plans to miss as little time as possible before getting back to the sideline, even if she won’t be at her physical best. She expects no less of herself than she asks of her players, to work hard and give their all on the court. With that in mind, Golden is aware of the challenges ahead for her 2024 squad. She shared those concerns in a recent interview with the Dog Pound about the prospects for the upcoming season.

This year’s team returns three starters from the 2023 Lady Bulldogs who reached the state title match, losing to Benton in five close sets. That means there are four starting spots that must be filled, but Golden believes she has the players to plug in those gaps and plenty of depth behind them. Most, if not all, of those new starters will be seniors who have put in their time, waiting in the wings for a starting opportunity, developing their skills and gaining experience since junior high.

The Lady Bulldogs have nine seniors listed on their roster, six juniors, and 17 sophomores, which includes both varsity and junior varsity players. But the coach revealed she has only four juniors and a couple sophomores who will travel with the varsity, so this year’s squad will rely heavily on its oldest veteran players. Asked to talk about her starting lineup and top reserves, Golden began with senior Anna Forbus, who did not play last season due to a shoulder injury but did play a lot as a sophomore reserve. Forbus is also one of the tallest players on the team at 5’11”.

“She’s going to be a key player for us this year,” said her coach. “She probably puts up our best block and she will probably play in the middle or on the right side, depending on what we need from her. I’m looking forward to having her back. Then we have Aspen Payton. She’s put in a lot of work, and this is her time. She’s waited, and she’s going to play outside hitter for me and most of the time she will probably play all the way around, front row and back row. She does a really good job and is one of those players who is calm on the court and gets things done. She’s going to be a big key player for us also.”

Next on Golden’s list of starting seniors was Brianna Wilson. “She’s in the same boat at Aspen. She’s bided her time and stuck with the program and process and now it’s her time to shine also. She will play on the right side or in the middle, like Anna, depending on what we need. She has worked so hard, and she really impressed me in the benefit match with how well she played. I’m really excited about Bri.

“Ella Dickinson returns as a starter from last year,” the coach continued. “She played on the right side last year, but this year will probably play a little more on the outside. She has a lot of experience because she played as a sophomore also. She has a big, heavy arm that I’m excited about. Another returning starter is [senior] Lexi Wieser, a back row player last year, but she will be my libero this year. She’s quick, she reads [the court] and sees the ball well and puts up a good pass just about every time. She’s a force on the back row and I’m excited to have her returning back there.”

The final returning starter from last season is another senior, Loren Eckart, who also stands at 5’11” like Anna Forbus. “Loren was my starting setter last year, my only setter, but she’s had a rough off season. Back in February she tore her ACL [knee] playing club volleyball, but got it fixed and has worked [hard] rehabbing and she got her medical release at the beginning of August. She was a difference-maker when she was on the court, and now she’s back, but we’re not overworking her. We are super excited to have her back but not sure we’re going to play her fulltime as a setter because we don’t want to wear her out and reinjure her. In the meantime, I’ve had a couple other setters step up and are ready.

Rylee Daniel is another senior who has trusted the process, waited her turn, and is probably going to play opposite Loren as our other setter, and she does a really good job on the court. Addison Kittell is also a senior very much in the same boat at Rylee. She plays back row and will get playing time this year, if not a starting position, because she has put in the work also and done a great job in the off season,” said the coach. Peyten Kaminshine is the final senior who will be looked to for leadership and encouragement while playing on the junior varsity squad. “Peyten is a great kid and will be a great cheerleader for us from the bench,” said her coach.

Four juniors are expected to see considerable playing time on the varsity squad, according to Coach Golden, starting with Anna Grace Dedmon. “She is going to play the middle for us this year, and she is an athlete. She can jump out of the gym. She was actually a gymnast for several years and decided to play volleyball, and we’re glad she did. She’s going to be big for us. She’s been working on her blocking, and it showed in this match with Rogers,” said her coach.

“Alyssa Lovell will probably see a whole lot of playing time on the back row. She will rotate in and get some left back play. She does a good job in serve/receive and on defense, so she will be a key player on the back row [as a defensive specialist]. Raylee Wagoner is a junior setter who will see some playing time this year. She does a really good job, and the girls seem to connect with her well. She will be in there quite a bit. And Lily Johnson is a front row player who will either play outside or right side. She’s not a huge, forceful hitter, but she places the ball really well and does a good job setting up a block,” said the coach.

Golden admitted that she didn’t have any breakout sophomores this season, but there are two tenth graders who will travel with the varsity for the experience. “They are going to be players in the future, but they aren’t quite there yet,” said the coach, who also expressed concern that the junior varsity schedule will be somewhat limited this season due to the change in scheduling mentioned earlier. In recent years Greenwood has fielded two JV squads which promotes greater development among younger players. Some of those matches will have to be reduced this year. “We’re losing that second JV match, and I hate that,” said Golden.

“We’re on the shorter side this year,” admitted the coach when asked about overall team size. Her tallest players are 5’11” and 5’9”, but several of her starters are good leapers, including Anna Forbus, Ella Dickinson, and Anna Grace Dedmon. “We work on jumping a lot,” added Golden, referring to their work in the weight room.

As for winning the 5A West conference this season, it appears to be a four or five team race between Harrison, last year’s champion, and Greenwood, which finished second in 2023, along with Shiloh Christian, Farmington, and Van Buren. Harrison graduated their biggest, best player and will not be the team they were last year, said Golden. Shiloh has been to the 4A finals each of the past two years and may be the team to beat in league play. Farmington is also moving up from 4A and is expected to be good as well, while Van Buren will be hosting the state tournament. Usually when a team does that, they are expecting to be pretty good themselves, said the coach.

“It will be interesting,” she said. “It will be a different year because we have so many teams that are highly competitive.” She agreed that one of those teams will probably be left out of the playoffs that deserves to go, because only four teams can qualify from each conference. While her Lady Bulldogs likely won’t dominate the league this season as in past years, Coach Golden is still confident they will compete well and have a great shot to return to the postseason once again. And once there, anything can happen.

In closing the interview, Golden expressed her gratitude for assistant coach Kimberly Lowe in taking over the duties of head coach this summer and for the foreseeable future until Golden returns from surgery. “She’s been a lifesaver,” said her friend and head coach. “She’s been a rock star. She’s done just about everything, and she’s been with me for 18 or 19 years. She knows exactly how I like things and she’s going to do her best to make sure that’s the way things are. At no point did I have any worries about how they were being coached or what was going on in the program with me not being there. It’s a blessing to have her, and Coach Popp has helped out also.”