CALEDONIA — Samantha Brooks loved what she saw last weekend from her Caledonia High School volleyball team.
Brooks couldn’t help but smile Monday as she talked about how Caledonia rallied from losing the first set to win the next two to beat Corinth to win the Silver Division of the Ridgeland High Set It Off Challenge.
The victory was especially pleasing because Corinth has been a playoff hurdle Caledonia hasn’t been able to overcome the past few seasons. This time, though, Brooks said the Lady Confederates came together, limited their mistakes, and played with great spirit to complete a four-game sweep of the annual event.
While Brooks was pleased with what she saw from her team, she was tickled to see her daughter, Tori, a freshman middle blocker, play a key role in the team’s performance. Tori Brooks had 16 aces, 17 kills, two blocks, and two assists as part of a balanced showing by the squad. She said Tori stayed upbeat throughout the two-day event to help Caledonia earn confidence-building victories.
“I stayed positive and I encouraged everybody,” Tori Brooks said. “Everybody stayed up and nobody really got mad at each other.”
For her accomplishments, Tori Brooks is The Dispatch’s Prep Player of the Week.
“Our goal Saturday was to play our game,” Samantha Brooks said. “They really did rise to the occasion.”
Brooks said Caledonia made fewer errors, had strong serving, and was mentally strong against Corinth. She said everyone on the team played and contributed in the performance. She said Tori’s serving performance epitomized the Lady Confederates’ success because she said her daughter’s face lights up when she serves an ace on a jump serve and the feeling is contagious. She said that spirit engulfed the team and helped lift it to a higher level.
Brooks said Tori has a similar excitement after she makes a kill. She said she will break out a “silly little footwork thing” when she is excited.
“She does it all of the time,” Brooks said. “She does it on the softball field. She does it on the basketball court. She is so happy go lucky. She loves life. She doesn’t take anything too seriously. She takes it serious enough to put her heart into it. She is just fun loving.”
At 5-foot-7, Tori Brooks isn’t a prototypical middle blocker/hitter. But coach Brooks, who played volleyball at Mississippi University for Women, said her daughter has a good arm swing and has experience from several years of playing club volleyball with former Mississippi State volleyball coach Tina Seals’ organization, Level Elite. She said Tori is athletic enough to be a two-way weapon for the Lady Confederates.
“We need an effective middle, so she just got thrown into it,” coach Brooks said. “She has played volleyball since she could have a volleyball in her hands.”
Tori said her ability to be “loud” on the court helps her. She said communication is essential in the front row because each player needs to know their responsibilities. She said being a vocal player always has come naturally for her, especially against rivals like Corinth.
“We watched (Corinth) so we knew what we could do and we couldn’t do,” Tori said. “We knew how to short serve. That helped us a lot. We stayed together. They kept tipping over us, so we worked out something and we picked them up.
“We communicated, we worked harder, and we picked up more balls since we lost the first game. We just really wanted to win.”
Tori admitted she usually has a ball in her hands in any season. She said her love for sports rotates during the seasons, which means she loves volleyball right now. Coach Brooks said Tori “loves” softball and that her husband “loves” the sport, too. She said Tori lettered last season as a pitcher, third baseman, first baseman, second baseman on the fast-pitch softball team. She also plays with Fear, a travel softball team made up of players from Caledonia and New Hope high schools and Heritage Academy.
Coach Brooks believes Tori will continue to play a variety of sports throughout her high school career. She hopes she will continue to be dedicated if she loves the sports and to work in the offseason to get better.
Tori said she hopes to play in college, so it is evident she will heed her mother’s wishes. As an Honor Roll student, Tori hopes to stay on the right track and to continue to play with a contagious spirit.
“My mom talks about how (her time playing volleyball in college) was a good experience and how she is still friends with everybody and it was fun and probably the best thing she did,” Tori said. “It kinda influenced me. I wanted to try it out to see if she was telling the truth.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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