Toast of the Coast: Socastee’s Rogers soaks it all in to become area’s top volleyball player

Right around the time Dale Rogers decided she was going to take volleyball serious, she was simultaneously surrounded by some of the top coaches in the area.

The Socastee junior said she has had “five, maybe six” coaches in the past two-and-a-half years between high school and club teams. From each, she’s picked up different pointers, ways to make her game what it is. The Toast of the Coast Volleyball Player of the Year has soaked up every bit of it she can.

“If a coach says something to me and I don’t understand, I can go to another coach,” Rogers said. “I get different styles, see something that works. It helps me a lot. Those coaches have college experience. They’re helping me learn what they’ve gone through.”

All that knowledge and countless hours on the court have forced Rogers’ game to blossom. She went from a player who a few years back was unable to serve it over the net to a player who now converts more than 80 percent of her serves.

What once was a player who couldn’t strike with power is now one hitting at better than 52 percent.

It added up to make her the centerpiece of a Socastee program that returned to the state’s largest class, won the Region VI-AAAA title and advanced to the third round of the Class AAAA playoffs.

“She went above and beyond,” first-year Braves coach Kristi Garrett said. “She went to camps. She went to everything she could to improve herself. She wants to play volleyball in college. Everybody plays club and gets a little better. She took it upon herself to get to where she is now. She plans on doing it again.”

Garrett said she could see the potential in her outside hitter a year ago, but that Rogers didn’t start to fulfill it until this fall. That timing couldn’t have been better.

While the overall difficulty of the region schedules may have dropped some, the fact remained that a tough Carolina Forest team had won the title five years in a row.

“When we beat Carolina Forest, it was like we won the state title,” Garrett said. “That’s how much it meant to us to be able to win that.”

The two schools will resume their region rivalry next year, too, and they’ll likely be considered the favorites to finish atop the standings. Rogers plans to do her part to make sure that happens.

She intends to spend another offseason refining her game. To her, all that time on the court with those coaches has done nothing to dissuade her.

“I’ve never really had that,” she said, referring to a need for a break. “I always want to get back in practice. Even if I’m injured, I try to find a way to get back on the court so I don’t lose something.”

This story was originally published December 20, 2014 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Toast of the Coast: Socastee’s Rogers soaks it all in to become area’s top volleyball player."