IAC VOLLEYBALL: NEW NEWARK VALLEY COACH IS FAMILIAR FACE (2025-08-21)
By TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
NEWARK VALLEY — Newark Valley will have a new head coach on the sideline this season, but the Cardinals didn’t have to go far to find her.
Val Fischer has moved up from the JV ranks to replace Kelsey O’Donnell, who stepped down to work on administrative schooling.
Fischer had been the JV coach at NV for the past six years following a year at the JV level at Cortland High School. She played her high school ball at Mineola on Long Island.
“I played all through high school and I played club, and then I went to a two-year JUCO and played at Nassau Community College, and then transferred to SUNY Cortland.
Fischer hopes to regenerate some of the passion for the program.
“I think some of the girls just need to bring their spark of loving volleyball back a little bit,” she said. “ The past couple years, we've been not as competitive as we have been, so I think we just need to bring back the love of being excited to play volleyball.”
There may be a few changes, nothing drastic for the Cardinals, but there will be some voids to fill.
“Positionally, there might be a couple changes,” Fischer said. “We only have four returning from last year, so it will look very different just because we're missing so many people.We had a couple seniors graduate and our libero, Maddie Noble, moved, so that was a big loss for us. We're just trying to fill in the people that were missing from last year, so that's why we only have five five people on the varsity court right now. And JV court, they're trying to earn their spot to come over and play with varsity right now.
“We are a very young team right now. I have three seniors. There's one junior, a 10th-grader and a ninth 9th-grader."
One of the seniors earned IAC all-star honors in 2024.
Fischer is familiar with most of the players, having coached all but the freshman and two 8th-graders on JV.”
It should make for an easy transition for the most part.
“They understand my expectations on and off the court, so that will be a nice easy switch,” Fischer said. “I also know knowledge-wise what they should know, so it's easy to just add on.”
The numbers are impressive, so NV won’t have any problems filling its varsity and JV squads, the latter of which is now being coached by former Cardinal Gracie Gardner.
“We do have 24 total, which is really nice,” Fischer said. “I have never needed to make cuts here, which is a blessing and a curse, obviously, but it is nice to have two full teams.
“I think we're the only fall sport that has a JV, which I do take a lot of pride in, because I know our other female fall sports are struggling for numbers right now. The fact that we have two full teams is really good.”
The Cardinals open the season Sept. 3 at Watkins Glen.
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IN PHOTO 1: Val Fischer moves up from the JV team to run the varsity squad this season. IN TOP PHOTO: NV will have full varsity and JV teams this season. … PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
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