Girls volleyball: ‘Underdog’ DeKalb wrapping up productive summer under new coach Keith Foster

DeKALB – With a new coach coming in after a rough season in 2023, the players on the DeKalb girls volleyball team are thrilled with how summer drills have gone in advance of the fall season.

“We’re the underdogs, so we’re ready to climb to the top,” senior defensive specialist Taylor Lupton said. “It really can’t get much worse. So we’re just trying to improve all the time and get better every day.”

Keith Foster comes from Genoa-Kingston, which won the Class 2A state championship in 2022. The Barbs were 6-22-1 last year, have lost 21 straight matches in the DuPage Valley Conference and last had a winning season in 2017.

Foster said the team ends its summer with a grueling stretch that includes a three-day skills camp, three-a-day workouts and a trip to Muncie, Indiana.

Ella Russell, a senior defensive specialist and setter, said the adjustment to the new coach has gone very well.

“He came in and welcomed everyone into anything they can do to help the team,” Russell said. “It’s benefiting our relationships on the court and how we play. It’s helping us get better for the season.”

Foster said the main focus of the summer has been concentrating on what the players can control: working hard, always competing and growing love of the game.

And the atmosphere has been great, he said.

“The energy in the gym has been so awesome,” Foster said. “I’m having so much fun with the kids. They’re so excited for a change and they’re so excited for the environment that the kids are cultivating in the gym, and I’m just supporting the direction they want it to go.”

Lupton said the Barbs are adjusting to the new ways Foster does things because every coach is different. The players, she said, are keeping an open mind.

“The change in the environment and the culture - it’s a lot more positive,” Lupton said. “It’s a lot more uplifting. We are open to new changes a lot more, and we’re there for each other a lot more. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Russell said net defense was an issue last year, and she’s been glad to see Foster shift some players around to get stronger around the block.

That’s the sort of thing she’s seen that has her optimistic about the upcoming season as the Barbs look for their first regional title since 2016, when they reached a 4A supersectional.

“We’ve been adjusting to the new play style that we’ve learned,” Russell said. “I think it’s going a lot better because new people are playing new positions and different roles on the team. It’s creating better chemistry on the court. I think it’s going to be better this season and next season as people have played club and gotten better, as well.”

Foster said he’s proud of the seniors. It can be hard going through a coaching change, he said, and the seniors in particular have done a good job of embracing things and setting the example of what the new expectations are.

He said it’s part of what’s made the summer fun and has high hopes for the fall.

“It’s exactly what I expected,” Foster said. “I’m smiling, and I love my job. I love being with these kids. We’ve been together a lot, and their personalities are something. They’re always doing something to make someone laugh. Their focus and intensity are second to none, but they’re dancing in the gym, they’re being goofy, a song comes on, and I’m learning new TikTok dances.”