Photo by Samantha Davis The Yellow Medicine East volleyball team consists of (back row, left to right) Aubree Enstad, Hanna Bjorndal, Abigale Bones, Bailey Mortenson, Bayli Sneller, Alana Almich, Abbie Winter, (front row) Ashley Luepke, Lexi Stengel, Kourtney Peterson, Ella Cherveny, Klaira Shackelford and Everra Leenerts. The Sting is led by new head coach Arei Stokes and assistants Amanda Stengel and Anayansi Flores.

GRANITE FALLS — With an urgent desire to seek success, the Yellow Medicine East volleyball team is looking to turn the page on a stretch of tough seasons with a young roster and new leadership. The Sting will focus on creating positive team culture and debuting a fresh start as they aim to break through with their first winning season since 2018.

Arei Stokes will now lead the helm with assistants Amanda Stengel and Anayansi Flores. She takes over from Alexis Peters.

“It’s something new for the girls, it’s new for me. They get such a fresh start, I get a fresh start,” Stokes said. “I’m not someone that’s necessarily from the area, so there’s no perceived notions … It’s just, let’s go play volleyball. Let’s go show somebody that we’re not what Yellow Medicine has been, what YME volleyball is, let’s go change it.”

Stokes is originally from Bertha and played varsity volleyball for six years at Bertha-Hewitt High School, joining the team as a seventh grader. She then went to play basketball at the University of Jamestown, but helped out the volleyball coaching staff after she graduated. Stokes also has officiated volleyball for a decade, and has refereed several junior college and Division II and III games.

“We’re going to be coming up with something that people aren’t used to,” Stokes said. “I’m excited.”

The Sting return seniors Klaira Shackelford and Ashley Luepke to lead the group of juniors and underclassmen. Captains are Shackelford, Lexi Stengel and Bayli Sneller.

Stengel will be the starting setter, taking over the role from the since-graduated Riley Streich, who finished last season with 341 set assists. While Stengel lacks varsity setting experience, she held an 89% serving efficiency rate last season just eight service errors on 74 attempts.

“[Stengel] is someone I’m really looking to step up … She’s my setter, she’s a quarterback on the team,” Stokes said. “I need her to just take directive and be able to have those girls step up, or cheer them on when they need that.”

Shackelford will take on the libero role after recording 104 digs last season. She’ll have big shoes to fill in the wake of Kiara Sakry’s graduation, who finished her career with over 1,000 digs. Ella Cherveny will also provide support in the back row after leading the team with 351 digs last season.

Stokes will also be looking at Shackelford and Luepke to step into the leadership role.

“They’re seniors, they’ve been through this program longer than I have,” Stokes said. “I need them to be that sounding board for other girls and be that role model for those young kids that are coming through.”

Junior Alana Almich led the Sting last season with 130 kills, 30 solo blocks and 35 set assists.

Coming off a 4-21 overall record last season and dropping as many as eight matches in a row, Stokes is enthusiastic about rebuilding the program and knowing the past does not define the current roster.

“What I really want is for them to understand that last year means nothing to me. I’m coming in, I want them to show me that they’re a different team … We’ve moved on,” Stokes said. “I told them that day one. We got a blank sheet of paper. There you go, let’s do it. Let’s prove to people that YME is different.”

With the new leadership and different team, the chemistry has been growing stronger by the practice.

“It’s interesting to watch, because I’m throwing them in different positions that they haven’t played together before. They were a little scared, which I don’t blame them … By day two, I had them talking to each other, laughing and enjoying the game again,” Stokes said.”I think some of them had lost a little bit of love of volleyball because they had so many changes coming to them, and they didn’t know what to think. But right now, I think they’re starting to click.”

As the season progresses and adversity has the opportunity to present itself, Stokes plans to build trust between her athletes and grow relationships.

“My main thing is going to be making sure that kid is mentally healthy after something, and being there for them, because, yeah, I’m their volleyball coach and I want them to succeed at volleyball, but that’s not it,” Stokes said. “I need them to know that they have someone in their corner for every way of life … That’s a big thing with me, just having that trust and open communication.”

YME will begin their season and mission to reaffirm their program on Thursday at Wabasso at 7 p.m. The Rabbits are currently ranked No. 9 in the Minnesota Volleyball Coaches Association’s preseason poll.