It’s been a good two years for Macon Middle School volleyball.
After losing Blue Ridge Athletic Conference title games in 2020 and 2021, last year the team finally broke through, winning their first-ever BRAC Championship under first-year head coach Brooke Watson. With a 17-0 season and a win over Polk in the conference title game, the team wrapped up one of the best two-year runs in program history.
“We had some really, really talented girls last year, and as you can see with them going on to JV, JV was conference champs,” said Watson of the 11 eighth-graders from last year’s team, who helped the Franklin High JV team secure a Mountain Seven Conference title. “So, I wouldn’t say I was worried about this year, I just knew we were gonna have to work hard. We started working in June, and some of them have been playing year-round.”
Despite losing the majority of last year’s roster to eighth-grade graduation, Watson knew this year’s team could repeat as conference champs, led by 10 returning players who spearheaded the fall campaign. But while the 2023 Panthers had no shortage of talent, Watson said it took her a few matches to optimize the team’s lineup.
“Maybe our biggest challenge was trying to find a rotation. At the beginning of the season, I maybe changed it three, four, five times before I felt at peace about it,” she explained. “I remember, our first game against Hayesville we did win, but I looked at my assistant coach and I was like, ‘I feel like we could have done better.’ I remember coming home from Hayesville and she was sitting on the ice bucket and writing stuff down, and we were trying to find a rotation then. I think we changed it another two more times before we actually found one that the girls [played best in].”
With help from assistants Amy Tippett and Morgan Maslin, who like her are Panther alumni, eventually Watson settled on a rotation and the team was off and running. In an early-season match against Canton, Macon started to reach its full potential.
“I remember being over there at Canton, and they were ready for us. You could tell that they were prepared for us, and that coach and those girls were really, really wanting it,” she said. “We did battle with them to about 11 points, and we had had momentum all game, but something just clicked and we killed them by 10 points that first set. … That was the moment that clicked for our girls over there, and that was a very, very fun game. I remember the girls getting back to the locker room and they were just exhausted from cheering and playing. That was the game that will stick out to me from this season.”
As the defending BRAC Champions, Macon had a target on their backs all season, especially from the eventual West Division second-place finishers. With the big win over Canton in hand, Macon faced little more resistance in the conference, steamrolling their remaining opponents all the way to the BRAC Tournament.
“Apple Valley was the first [match], and I think we beat them like 25-6 that first round. … [That] Wednesday, we knew that was gonna be a little bit more of a competition,” said Watson of the three-round tourney. “Rugby is always very, very good, they have a travel team and obviously they feed into West Henderson, which is Coach Bekah [Brooks, FHS varsity head coach]’s biggest rival. … We honestly did not warm up very well against Rugby and Rugby warmed up amazing, so me and my coaches were all like, ‘Oh no, this could be a game.’ But, the girls found their momentum, and that momentum carried us through the game.”
With big wins over Apple Valley in Round 1 and Rugby in the Conference Semifinal, Macon earned the right to host the BRAC Championship. Against a difficult opponent in Polk County, Watson knew the team would need to play its best.
“When we heard that we would be playing Polk, that was obviously pretty big because we faced them last year in the championship, and we had faced them early in the season and went to three [sets],” she said. “Knowing that we had went to three sets with them this year kind of had everybody a little iffy, but we prepared hard for it. We watched film [from] our first season and then we watched film from Rubgy, and just to see the growth from our team, we honestly were fine.”
After needing three sets to defeat Polk in their first home match, which was played on the first day of school and seemed to throw them off their game, Macon looked like a different team heading into the Conference Final. In an MMS gym jam-packed with fans of both sides, the Panthers took care of business to secure another BRAC title.
“I could tell the nerves were very high with a big student section. I think that was probably the biggest student section that I had ever seen coaching at Macon Middle School,” said Watson of her five years with the program. “Polk had brought their own fan bus – they had about 20 kids and four teachers that they had brought with them. Our soccer and cheerleading teams came and Franklin Panther Sports Network was obviously there, so seeing all of that was kind of like, ‘Holy, cow, they’re here for me.’ So, with that aspect of it for the girls, I could tell I really had to say, ‘It’s OK; you’ve got to block all of it out.’ They blocked it all out, and they came out and played ball.”
In a raucous atmosphere amid a standing-room-only crowd, the Panthers stayed calm, cool and collected, routing Polk in straight sets 25-12, 25-14. While the win brought Watson’s record as head coach to 33-1, she said her team’s work ethic has been their true driver of success.
“All the way around, they put in the work, they worked hard and they deserve every ounce of this,” she said the morning after the final. “Looking back at the [FPSN broadcast], I’ve rewatched it so many times in the past few hours, and they really don’t look like a middle school team. With their dives, their saves – they really don’t. Like I said, they’ve really worked hard.”