The Woodville volleyball program did not have look far to find its new head coach.

Woodville has promoted assistant Meg Paddock to the head volleyball coaching position.

Paddock takes over following the retirement of Woody Beard, who coached the Woodville volleyball and girls basketball teams for the past four seasons.

“Being entrusted to lead the volleyball program means a lot,” Paddock said. “It’s a dream come true. It’s about guiding the team, fostering growth and achieving our goals together.”

Paddock was Woodville’s junior high volleyball coach and served as a varsity/junior varsity assistant last season. 

Paddock is a 2016 Scottsboro High School alum and played both volleyball and basketball for the Wildcats. 

She teaches seventh- and eighth-grade math at Woodville.

Paddock believes the familiarity between her and the players will be beneficial during the coaching transition.

“Knowing the players well makes the coaching transition smoother because we already have trust and good communication,” Paddock said. “It helps us understand each other’s strengths and how to work best together.”

The Woodville volleyball program has posted four consecutive winning seasons and made three consecutive Class 1A North Super Regional appearances, and Paddock said her goal is to continue to the Panthers’ upward trajectory in the sport.

“I just want to see the program continue to build and see these girls grow in a sport they love,” Paddock said. “I want my volleyball teams to be known for their relentless hustle, smart plays and unbreakable bond, always pushing each other to be better.”

The road to 2025 racing is just prior to Nationals!

Track & Field 2025 season is over.

Time to rest up and get in two weeks of gentle running.

Today is  July 4 , 2025

For Slow Summer launch, two weeks of Easy Running: 

Warm-up, 30 minutes on bike, walking or swimming.

Hydrate and stretch.  Always hydrate.

Some thoughts on summer mileage program. 

Have you considered cross country?

Cross Country is offered in over 16,500 high schools and many junior high schools. It normally goes from mid-August to November for most.  To prepare for cross country, we at RunBlogRun encourage you and your 550,000 closest friends who like the 400m to 5,000m, consider cross country!

It is a great way to stay in shape and it builds your fitness so that you are ready for the challenges of cross country.

What motivated Steve Prefontaine in the summer between his sophomore and junior year?

Was it the knowledge that he had not done his very best in track and field? Perhaps, he had not taken his commitment as serious as he thought he should?

When you have not achieved what you expected, how do you respond? Are you being called to put in some more effort? Many of us have had those challenges, and Summer mileage is a great program to get one self focused.

Think about five things you can do better for fall cross country, write them on a post card, and tape it to a place in your room where you will see it at least once a day!

Remember to drink 8 glasses of water, 12 ounces each a day!

This week is the 50th NIKE Pre Classic. You will be able to watch it on Saturday, July 5, around 4 PM Eastern on NBC Sports and Peacock. It is a wonderous meet, celebrating the raw talent, courage and guts of one Steve Prefontaine. When Pre was in high school, after he failed to make his State track meet as a sophomore, he became obsessed with daily training. These were not just easy runs, they were bone-churning, gut-wrenching efforts focused to make him unbeatable. In his junior year of cross country, Pre saw that his summer of running made a huge difference. 

Do you want to be a better cross country runner than you were in the past? Focus and follow our training, but also, watch NIKE Pre Classic on Saturday to get inspired! 

Other book suggestions include Self Made Olympian by Ron Daws, A Clean Pair of Heels by Murray Halberg, and Pre! by Tom Jordan.

“If you look back to when we got those football national championships, it almost feels a little bit like some glory days of Georgia athletics,” said women’s tennis coach Drake Bernstein, whose team won both the ITA National Indoor Championships in February and the NCAA Championships in May. “And this year kind of obviously feels exceptional with what equestrian and track did, also. So just being in the same sentence as other national champions and, I don’t know, playing a role in making this year special for UGA athletics is a big deal for all of us over here.”

For tennis, an experienced roster achieved something it had chipped away at for years, losing in the round of 16 in 2022, advancing to the final four in 2023, losing in the finals in 2024 and now going out on top at NCAAs.

Also beneficial was the Bulldogs prioritizing women’s sports, per Bernstein.

Women’s sports at Georgia are no stranger to championships — think 10 national championships for the gymnastics team, including five in a row from 2005-2009 under coach Suzanne Yoculan — and strong attendance.

The Gym Dawgs sold out Stegeman Coliseum in their win vs. Boise State in January (attendance: 10,224), and this past softball season featured a season attendance record at Jack Turner Stadium (52,704 total fans). In October, Georgia volleyball drew 8,376 at its 3-2 win vs. South Carolina at Stegeman, breaking the record for the largest crowd to watch an NCAA volleyball game in the state.

“Women’s sports are celebrated here and they’re featured here,” Bernstein said. “I think that it’s really just been part of the culture here at Georgia … it’s not necessarily just a women’s sports thing, it’s an Olympic sports thing and (athletic director Josh Brooks) is very clear that he wants to support all of the sports and he wants all of us to push for championships or to be in a position to push for championships.”

For equestrian, this was the final year for fifth-year seniors who had received extra eligibility (during the COVID-19 pandemic) and had been a part of the 2021 championship.

“(The seniors) really bled into the team and showed the commitment, the passion, the belief that led to an absolutely magical championship run,” coach Meghan Boenig said. “And there wasn’t a moment, stepping into that arena Day One, where this team — particularly led by those fifth years in our senior class — said anything other than ‘this is what we’re doing and we’re winning this championship.’”

For those on the women’s track and field team, they’ll always get to own a bit of history as the first to win a outdoor national title.

Both the women’s and men’s track and field team placed second at the NCAA Indoor Championship in March, but the outdoor championship was an even better fit, given the events featured.

“They decided that they were going to win the national championship and that’s what they wanted to do,” track and field director Caryl Smith Gilbert said. “And they stayed true to that. We’re more of an outdoor team because 400 hurdles, javelin and hammer are outdoor events. So we didn’t have that indoors and we were still second. So when we did that, we knew that if we could add those field events and the 400 hurdles and all that to the docket and score some points there, we could be very effective and have a really good chance to win.”

There’s a push for Olympic sports at Georgia, Smith Gilbert said, with resources such as a sports psychologist, nutritionist and massage therapists, and the expectation they’ll be able to consistently compete for championships.

With the passing of the NCAA vs. House settlement in early June, the college sports world has undergone a seismic shift. Many see the backpay and revenue sharing system as a step forward for athletes, but there are also questions of how it’ll affect smaller or nonrevenue sports.

While previously Brooks said Bulldogs’ programs will see more than 100 additional scholarships spread among the school’s 21 scholarship sports, other colleges have already announced cuts, such as Washington State announcing it would consolidate its track and field program.

However, Smith Gilbert said she has seen minimal change.

“They’re doing their very best under such trying times to accommodate us without the student athletes feeling much of the pain,” Smith Gilbert said.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State track and field head coach John Gondak has announced the hiring of Darrell Hill ’15, a three-time All-American Penn State alumnus and 2016 Olympian, as assistant coach. Hill returns to his alma mater to coach the throws group.

“Penn State Track and Field is excited to bring one of its all-time greatest throwers back home to coach in the Blue & White,” said Gondak. “Darrell will bring great energy and passion to our program, and being from PA, he will help us keep the best from PA here at home. Looking forward to having Darrell join us here in Happy Valley and continue his legacy as a Nittany Lion.”

Hill returns to his alma mater after spending the last two years on staff at Delaware, including serving as associate head coach for the 2024-25 season. Hill mentored Olamide Ayeni to a CAA championship in the discus throw and coached two NCAA East Regional qualifiers during the 2025 outdoor season. Five throws athletes earned podium finishes at the 2025 outdoor CAA Championships under Hill’s tutelage.

Hill spent his first season at Delaware as assistant coach in 2023-24, coaching the throws group as well as the multi-event student-athletes. He mentored Alicia Lehman-Woodyard to heptathlon bronze and All-CAA honors at the 2024 CAA Outdoor Championships and coached two student-athletes to the 2024 NCAA East Regional prelims.

Hill arrived to Delaware following a stint as a volunteer assistant at San Diego State from 2017-19 and an illustrious professional career competing at the world’s highest levels. He represented the United State at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, finishing 12th in the shot put. Hill achieved his personal-best mark of 22.44 meters in 2017 at Bruxelles Memorial Van Damme in Belgium to win the Diamond League Championship, a mark that ranks him 15th all-time in the shot put. In addition to his Olympian status, Hill is a three-time World Championship finalist, the 2018 USA Outdoor US Champion and was named the USATF Thrower of the Year in 2018.

Hill was a three-time All-American and three-time Big Ten Champion as a student-athlete at Penn State. He still owns the Penn State indoor shot put (20.51m) school record and is second all-time in school history in the outdoor shot put (20.86m). He was named both the 2015 USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic Region Indoor and Outdoor Men’s Field Athlete of the Year, in addition to earning Big Ten Field Athlete of the Year honors.

Hill, a Philadelphia, Pa. native, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in rehabilitation and human services from Penn State in 2015.

The Air Force men and the Navy women volleyball teams captured the 2005 Armed Forces Volleyball Championship here May 16.

Both established themselves as the teams to beat in their respective divisions by posting perfect 3-0 marks after the first half of the tournament.

Morris Davis, Navy women’s head coach, said his team kept the same attitude it had coming into the tournament after it was able to win the first three games. He said his veteran team knew that it was a long way from winning the interservice gold medals.

“We knew from the time we started training camp that it was going to take a lot of hard work to win the championship,” he said. “We knew Air Force was a really strong team and we were going to have to make some adjustments, even though we beat them in the first round.”

While the Air Force men’s team would cruise to the championship, the Navy women’s team had to withstand a furious rally by the Air Force women’s team to earn its title. Davis said his team’s veteran savvy helped them to battle back from what became a titanic struggle between the Air Force and Navy women’s teams.

The championship tournament began with the same match-up that would end the tournament for the women’s side, Navy meeting Air Force. Navy dropped the first game to the Air Force 25-21 and then came back to win 25-16, 25-16 and 25-22. It would be Navy’s only action of the first day of competition, but it gave them a leg up on succeeding the Army team as women’s champions.

In the second game involving women’s teams on the first day of action, the Marines defeated the defending champion Army team 25-18, 25-14, 22-25 and 26-24. The victory for the Marines was significant, because this was the first time in two years the Marines have been able to field a women’s team because of service commitments. While they did not have the best team the Marines could have fielded, Marines coach Peter Cruz said, he brought a team determined to be a factor in this year’s tournament.

Defeating the defending champions on the first day proved this team was going to have to be taken seriously and it showed the women’s half of the tournament would be hotly contested.

After losing to the Marines, the defending champion Army team found itself in a must-win situation against an Air Force team that was smarting from the lost to the Navy in the first match of the tournament. Army gave it a great effort, but the Air Force was able to pull off a 25-20, 25-22, 25-20 victory.

On the men’s side, the Air Force began its run to the title by defeating the Navy 25-23, 25-17, 22-25 and 25-22. After the Army defeated the Marines in five matches — 12-25, 22-25, 25-21, 25-19 and 25-17 — Army was in a position to take control of the tournament if it could beat Air Force.

Air Force had other thoughts, and pulled out a four-match victory (25-21, 25-23, 17-25 and 25-18) to finish the first night of the tournament undefeated.

Both the Air Force men and Navy women tightened their grip on the tournament on the second day of action. The Air Force men defeated the Marines to take a 3-0 record into the third day of the tournament, while the Navy women followed up their first-round win over Air Force with wins over the Marines and Army to also take a 3-0 lead into the third day.

The third day of the tournament could have been the day both the Air Force men and Navy women put the championship away, but the other service teams were in no mood to let the eventual champions win it so soon.

Air Force’s women’s team knew the only way it could win the armed forces title was to beat the Navy as the second round of the tournament began. Because the Navy and Air Force teams looked like they would be too strong and talented for the Army and Marines to beat, the Air Force team could not rely on the other service teams to beat the Navy. Air Force responded to the challenge by winning a four-set thriller (26-24, 25-22, 20-25, 15-7) to give each team a 3-1 record.

“The first time we played them, we caught them a little off guard. This time they were ready for us and it forced us to make some adjustments in our lineup,” Davis said.

The Air Force’s team could have put a stranglehold on the men’s title if it could defeat the Navy men. After going through the first round undefeated and watching the other service teams knock each other off, Air Force, with a victory would have mathematically wrapped the championship. Malu Segai, Air Force men’s team head coach, said winning the championship was the goal from the beginning for his team, and it was right there for the taking.

“From the time the players arrived at the training camp in Hawaii, we told them our goal was to win the interservice championship,” he said. “We had a very young team this year, but they quickly realized what it would take to win the tournament.”

But Navy wasn’t about to let the young Air Force team wrap up the title. The Navy team played its best game of the tournament and beat the Air Force team in five sets (25-20, 21-25, 25-18, 18-25, 15-8). In the nightcap of second round action, the Army teams defeated the Marine teams, setting up third day action that would determine how the tournament would finish.

On the women’s side, Air Force and Navy each defeated their opponents, the Army and the Marines respectively, to ensure each would go into the final day’s action with 4-1 records. On the men’s side, Air Force defeated the Army to push its record to 4-1 and assure itself of at least a tie for the title going into the last round of the tournament.

The victory also gave Army its second loss of the tournament, and after the Navy won its match, gave each team an identical 3-2 record going into the final day of action. On the final day, the Air Force men had a simple mission: win its game against the Marines to succeed Navy as the armed forces champions. While a loss would not have ended the Air Force hopes of winning the title, it would have forced it into a playoff match against either the Navy or Army, because the winner of the Army-Navy game would have a 4-2 record that would have been similar to the Air Force.

Air Force didn’t leave anything to chance defeating the Marines 25-16, 25-14 and 25-19 to wrap up the championship.

The Air Force women’s team had a different mission as it entered action on the final day. The Air Force team had to beat a gritty and determined Marines team and then see if Army could upset Navy and give it the championship.

Air Force did its part by defeating the Marines 25-15, 25-22 and 25-19 to finish the regular phase of the tournament with a 5-1 record. Now the tournament would come down to what happened between the Navy and Army in both men’s and women’s action.

The first match would pit the Army and Navy women’s team in a game that would determine whether the Air Force women’s team won the title outright or if there would be a playoff between the Air Force and Navy to decide the title. The Army team wanted to salvage what had been a disappointing tournament for them by beating Navy, but the Navy team was just as determined to force the playoff round. Navy defeated the Army team 25-14, 25-16 and 25-12 to set up a playoff with Air Force to settle the title.

With the Air Force men’s victory over the Marines, the Army-Navy game was the battle for the silver medal, which each team wanted badly. In what was a hard-fought battle Navy defeated the Army 25-24, 25-19 and 25-22 to capture the silver medal.

Air Force came into the playoff the more rested team, having played in the morning session while the Navy had only a two-hour break before having to play in the best two-of-three playoff. Air Force took advantage of the rest it got by winning the first game of the match 25-16, and it looked like Navy may not have enough to put up a challenge. Suddenly, the Navy team got a surge of adrenaline and beat the Air Force team 25-16 to even the championship playoffs at one game apiece.

Now each team had a one-game shot to win the championship, and each team played like champions, thrilling the crowd at the Fort Carson Special Events Center with clutch play after clutch play.

Navy and Air Force took turns getting three-point leads, and just when it seemed like one team would put a stranglehold on the game, the other team would come back and tie the game or take a one-point lead.

Air Force had the first opportunity to wrap up the title as it took a one-point lead, 14-13, and had the serve to win the contest. Navy won the point and tied the game, setting up a furious 10-minute stretch that saw both teams earn the chance to win the match.

Air Force squandered two chances to put the championship away, and Navy one, before Navy would finally earn the points necessary to win the playoff 19-17 and clinch the championship.

“This could have gone either way,” Davis said. “After we got down by one game, I told our players to just relax and play our game of ball control and we should be able to win. This was a really competitive tournament. I like winning, but I like to earn a victory — and we earned this one, and that was the best thing about this championship.”

(Walt Johnson writes for the Colorado Springs Military Newspaper Group.)

Story by Walt Johnson, Special to American Forces Press Service