Written by Journalism Staff Reporter Cole Smith

Allatoona’s boys' volleyball team was named state champions after last weekend. After forming the school’s first men’s team for the sport last year, the program has looked like a successful squad in its first two years. In the 2022 season, our boys had a successful season but managed to top their previous performance with a title this year. The coach of the team, science teacher, Ms. Nina Hollis, is very proud of her band of boys. Ms. Hollis says, “The boys are the best at what they do and work extremely hard. They deserved to win, and we hope to continue the tradition of winning and growing the program.” Coach Hollis is looking forward to the team eventually being officially GHSA recognized and approved, hopefully next year. The team and Coach Hollis wish that more students and staff had come to support the team this year to witness the special run the team had. The team is led by a handful of juniors and seniors, Drew Nunley (Sr.), Thomas (Sr.) and Aiden Roper (Jr.), Michael Rogers (Sr.), Frankie Penaloza (Jr.), Santiago Guerrero (Sr.), Owen Graziosi (Sr.), and Rayden Powell (Jr.).

Santi Guerrero says, “Compared to most schools, our boys’ team is relatively new, but even so, we have shown that we have all the capabilities of great things. It feels great to win state, it was all we prepared for the entire year, and we worked really hard to beat the teams that we knew we were going to have difficulties with.” Congratulations to our boys’ volleyball team! Buc Nation is proud!