DACC Ready for First Volleyball Season in 11 Years

THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE STORY BY JOEY WRIGHT

 ABOVE: The Danville Area Community College volleyball team at The News-Gazette office in Champaign on Aug. 9. Front row: Kayla Cordes, Halle Brazelton, Kaitlynn Lange and Kendall Roberts. Middle row: Desiree Glaze, Nikita Taylor, Peyton Williams and Molly Doggett. Back row: Ravyn Davis, Maddix Minick, Lakin Alyea and Aubree Leader. (photo by Robin Scholz)

DANVILLE — Nikita Taylor was already interested in attending Danville Area Community College as she finished high school.

Especially so when she heard the school’s volleyball program would return after a decade-plus of dormancy.

So the stakes were a little higher when her Oakwood team faced off against DACC coach-to-be Shawna Jameson’s Armstrong-Potomac program last September.

“I really wanted to play for DACC because I have all my dual credits through DACC and I really liked their nursing program,” Taylor said. “I was really hoping I was going to be able to play volleyball there.”

Jameson found Taylor after the match concluded and added the first of 12 players that will help the Jaguars come back to the court for the first time since the 2013 season.

“I was so excited,” Taylor said. “I called my grandma on the way home. She was in Florida, so she was an hour ahead. I’m surprised she was awake. … (I told Shawna) I have to talk to my parents, and I told my parents and then I think I called her like an hour later and was like, ‘Yep, I’m doing it.’”

The first box on a daunting list was checked.

Jameson was officially hired in June 2023, leaving her and DACC’s administration just over a year to orchestrate the program’s return from the ground up.

“In the beginning, it was daunting because I’ve not coached this level,” Jameson said. “I was coaching Armstrong while recruiting, so that’s hard because you’re trying to go out and see your local girls, but you have your local schedule, as well.”

Joining Jameson on the sidelines is Emily Dieu, a Bismarck native and DACC alum taking on her first coaching role.

DACC’s other head coaches have been resources too. And DACC athletic director Tim Bunton remembers when the school added its baseball program in 1996.

“Like anybody, I told her I could remember starting the baseball team here 29 years ago from scratch and not really knowing the area or the league,” Bunton said.

“We’re all trying to help her out just with little stuff, the day-to-day stuff, the scheduling, the officials, the travel, the hotels, the meal money, just everything that goes with it.”

Mileage wasn’t a concern as Jameson built the rest of the Jaguars’ roster. Indiana natives Maddix Minick and Desiree Glaze are DACC’s only players from outside of Illinois.

And none come from farther than Glaze, a product of Terre Haute North High School about an hour from Mary Miller Gym.

“I was on every recruiting site ever made and hoping for the best,” Glaze said. “And then I found FieldLevel, which is another recruiting website. And then I saw that DACC was on there and then my coach was saying how I should just text every single one on there. … I got a hold of Shawna and she said that she was interested, and I was very interested.”

Jameson’s knowledge of the local scene comes from her time at Armstrong-Potomac, where coached from 1998-2005 and returned as the program’s head coach in 2021.

She guided the Trojans to 13 wins in 2023 while beginning to build the Jaguars from scratch, coaching against many of her future players.

“I just didn’t want to give up on those girls two or three weeks before the season started,” Jameson said. “I wanted to see those seniors out, even though it was a rebuilding year, to see those seniors out. So I did that.”

Jameson also worked alongside Parkland volleyball coach Cliff Hastings on the local club circuit; her daughter played for Prime Time and she’s helped with clinics and coaching within the club.

Hastings advised her to take the DACC job when it became open.

“The whole way, (he) has been there walking through everything that I have needed,” Jameson said. “Like how to do scheduling and get a hold of coaches and what a schedule might look like at this level, and some things that I’ll need and how to follow through with that.”

Taylor is among five DACC players who graduated from the Vermilion Valley Conference, joining Westville’s Molly Doggett, Georgetown-Ridge Farm’s Kendall Roberts, Hoopeston Area’s Kaitlyn Lange and Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin’s Ravyn Davis.

Doggett played her freshman season at Lakeland before transferring closer to home for her sophomore campaign.

“(My mom) was really, really pushing me to come home and play at DACC,” Doggett said.

“She’d attended a lot of the board meetings with my dad because they helped coach club and really helped try to get the program back. So she was really excited when I decided I did want to come back home and live here and play for DACC.”

Lange, on the other hand, left the door open in regard to college playing career because of a shoulder injury that ultimately required surgery.

But Jameson kept in touch with the former Cornjerkers star and she officially signed with the Jaguars in July.

“I didn’t plan on going anywhere to play college, so I just registered at DACC,” Lange said. “Well, then, like, a month ago, Shawna texted me and was like, ‘Hey, we have a spot on the team if you want to come consider it, try to get cleared and we’ll see what you can do.’”

Former St. Joseph-Ogden teammates Peyton Williams and Halle Brazelton will reunite in green and gold when the Jaguars’ season kicks off at the UW Sports Factory Opening Weekend Tournament on Saturday.

That marks the first of two tournaments the Jaguars will play leading into their home opener against Kaskaskia on Sept. 6.

“I played with (Shawna’s) daughter for one of my first two Prime Time seasons, so I just love Shawna,” Williams said. “She wasn’t at many tournaments because of her younger kids, but I just loved her energy when she was there. She was so in the game and knew what she was talking about.”

Williams immediately sensed Jameson’s enthusiasm for the new project.

“On the visit, she was talking about how she just really wanted to prove to DACC that you can have a volleyball team and that just really excited me. And I was super excited to be the start of something new.”

Eventually, Jameson had to turn players away from the Jaguars’ growing roster.

“I feel (in January) things really started where I had to tell girls ‘no,’” Jameson said. “I was not expecting that type of response so early, when we haven’t even played yet. Word of mouth has helped a lot with these athletes.”

DACC will play just five of its 33 matches at home, starting with a match against Kaskaskia on Sept. 6. They’ll face Parkland three times this season, including at the Cobras’ tournament on Sept. 27-28.

“Doing the whole scheduling process has made me aware of, it’s a lot like high school,” Jameson said.