Limestone County Volleyball Player of the Year: Athens Bible’s Mackenzie Davis 

Mackenzie Davis may not have been born with a volleyball in her hands, but it didn’t take long for the object to find its way within her grasp.

Her mother was a volleyball player and coach at Athens Bible School, and passed her love of the sport to Davis, who has blossomed into the top player in Limestone County in 2017.

“ABS volleyball runs in her veins,” Trojans volleyball coach E.A. Winland said with a laugh. “Pretty much from birth she’s been in that gym. She was a ball girl for many years and now is out there playing herself.”

Davis, a sophomore setter for the Trojans, helped lead her team back to the Class 1A State Tournament for the first time since ABS won the 1A title in 2014. She finished the season with 780 assists, 298 kills, 117 digs and 117 aces.

The setter does much more than just set up her teammates for kills. She is basically the quarterback of the team, communicating with teammates to get them in the right positions.

“You have to learn all the rotations and where everybody is, because sometimes they won’t know where to go and you’ll have to really take over and say ‘You have to go here,’” Davis said. “You really do have to know what you’re talking about so you really have to know your players and how they play. You also have to know what you have to do to get them out of a funk if they’re in one, so you really have to know your teammates very well.”

Davis was destined to be a setter from the time her mother took her to a volleyball camp at the University of Alabama when she was in the fourth grade.

“The Alabama volleyball coach signed a volleyball for me and she put ‘Be a setter’ on the volleyball,” Davis said. “Because she knew when I was older there wouldn’t be that many setters. She had seen me with a ball and knew I’d be a good setter. So from then on, I knew I had to be a setter and that’s what I focused on.”

Davis has been Athens Bible’s starting setter since eighth grade, and Winland said she has done a masterful job of controlling the team from that position.

“Without the setter you really don’t have the game of volleyball,” Winland said. “It’s just like a quarterback in football. You depend on them to call plays and make plays. When a play goes wrong, or we’re out of our system, it’s on their back to make it happen. She’s like a coach on the court. What I can’t do, she’s got to do out there, and she’s done beautifully since she came in as an eighth grader.”

In addition to her play with Athens Bible, Davis plays club volleyball for the North Alabama Spike Association (NASA) out of Huntsville. The club season just began and will run through the end of April.

Playing volleyball basically year-round is a lot of work, but Davis said it’s a labor of love.

“I’ve had a volleyball in my hand since I was born basically,” Davis said. “I played rec ball since about second grade, then travel ball starting in the fifth grade and then school ball. It’s really a team sport, and when you have a great team, you get really close to those players. You just want to keep coming back and playing with those teams and the really close friends you’ve made.”

Davis will be the centerpiece of a Trojans team that will have a very good chance to win its first state title since 2014 next season, and Winland can’t wait to continue coaching her setter again next season.

“I couldn’t be more proud of her and impressed with her,” Winland said. “She means the world to me. I’ve been coaching her since she was little and I’ve watched her grow, not only as a volleyball player, but as a person. It’s awesome to watch her lead the team as an eighth grader, freshman and now this year. She just continues to get better and better.”