Population Boom Boosts Jackson County Volleyball Team — Grady Newsource

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The halls at Jackson County High School are growing busier each year, and so is the volleyball court.

As the county’s population surges, more students are filling classrooms, lockers and tryout lists. The squeak of sneakers and the thud of volleyballs echo through the gym as coaches call out drills, a reflection of how fast the community and its competition are growing.

With more players trying out than ever, coaches and athletes have had to adjust to a more selective environment that’s reshaping team dynamics. As the Panthers close the book on their season, which included a second-round playoff run for the second straight year, Laura Keefer is already reflecting on what she learned in her first year leading the program.

“So when I came for tryouts in May, we had 72 girls here for tryouts, and that was a lot,” Keefer said. “I’ve been at a smaller private school for the past nine years, but even when I talked to other friends in public high schools and I told them how many girls we had, they said that’s a really big number, too.”

Over the past decade, Jackson County has been one of Georgia’s fastest-growing areas. The high school, which opened in 2021 to accommodate the surge in population, has already hit capacity. Public development director Jamie Dove said the county’s growth is fueled by its location and livability.

“There are just a lot of things to drive people here,” Dove said. Jackson County is an interstate drive away from Atlanta and Greenville, S.C., “and I’m a day trip to the beach and a two-hour drive to the mountains. So it’s a gem of a location.”

Jackson County’s population jumped from 75,907 in 2020 to an estimated 93,825 in 2024, according to the development department. 

For two years in a row now, we have been the fourth-fastest-growing county in the country,” Dove said.

At Jackson County High, that growth has led to what students call “learning cottages,” temporary classrooms used to handle overflow. Siena Berthold, a senior at Jackson County and member of the volleyball team, mentioned this.

“They’re called learning cottages,” Berthold said, “but they’re not learning cottages — they’re trailers.”

Keefer brought two decades of experience from smaller schools and club teams to Jackson County High’s volleyball program. Now that the season is over, Keefer said the tryout and cut process is still on her mind, especially as she thinks ahead to next year.

“The positive side of that is I had a lot of talent in the gym to choose from,” Keefer said. “The hard part is I don’t think everybody realizes it’s truly a gut-wrenching process for me. I had to cut a lot of talent.”

For players, the population boom means that earning a jersey is no longer guaranteed. The competition drives everyone to push harder and succeed.  

​​“It’s just a great group because everyone wants to play volleyball,” Berthold said. “You have more competition, so everyone wants to play better.”

The volleyball team’s rise mirrors growing community pride. Home matches now draw bigger crowds. Jackson County Schools have also made athletic and academic expansion a strategic priority.

“Our board of education does a great job of letting us hire earlier than other school systems,” Hooper said. “It’s a daily tracking of enrollment, and for human resources, it’s a daily tracking of students.”

So far, the volleyball program has not faced gym or scheduling conflicts with other sports. Keefer said the athletic department’s collaboration has been essential to that success.

Our administration does a fantastic job and really all of our teams together,” Keefer said. “We support each other.”

As Jackson County prepares to open Hoschton High School in 2027 to accommodate population growth, the volleyball program at Jackson County High School may eventually face a split, with players and families drawn toward the new school. This shift could reshape existing rivalries and create new opportunities for athletes across the county.

After one season coaching in Jackson County, Keefer said she now better understands how deep that talent pool runs, and how a future school could split and reshape it. 

“I imagine most of the upperclassmen would stay and want to finish out and graduate where they’ve been,” Keefer said. “As far as the long term, obviously the pool of talent like we’ve had these huge numbers coming in right, that’s going to be divided now.”

Ellie English is a student in the undergraduate certificate program at the Carmical Sports Media Institute at UGA.