Sanders County Ledger - Your Best Source For Sanders County News

That still looks like volleyball, but that isn’t quite the way folks are used to seeing the Plains Trotters playing it.

Retooling the Trotter attack after graduation claimed All-State C hitter Kylee Altmiller, the last in the long line of 6-footers to patrol the net, long-time Plains coach Jesse Butcher says that a change in philosophy was in order.

As a result of that change, the Trotters have taken on a meaner, leaner, well, shorter demeanor this season. “We’ve had a history of having some big front-line players over the years,” Butcher said, “but this year our tallest starter is 5-7. We have had to adjust, to play a different style to take advantage of our strengths.”

One of those strengths cannot be measured with a yardstick. “This team is mentally tough, they are scrappy,” she said. “We will play an entirely different attack on offense and should be a lot of fun to watch.”

If you would have been watching already you would know that the Trotters started the season with a four-set loss to Noxon in Plains last Tuesday and a four-set win over St. Regis in St. Regis Thursday. Scoring from those matches was not available.

If you watch the Trotters play from now on, you will notice senior Dacia Black, juniors Izzy Butcher, Kayla Standeford, Lexa Craft, Madison Elliott and Jenna Deschamps, and sophomores Kallen Burrows, Piper Bergstrom and Shelby Scribner are the ones out there on the floor – the nine players from which Butcher will build her rotation.

“We are looking forward to the season, thinking it should be a lot of fun,” Butcher said. “And it’s like I was telling them: ‘Look at yourselves now and then realize that you will be a different team by the end of the year.’ There is just so much potential with this group, we can’t wait to see it.”