King’s Fork High School boys’ volleyball coach Angelique Gatling will have plenty of teaching opportunities this year.

“We have a lot of new players that have not touched a volleyball,” she said.

The distribution of players across the four classifications may make the team seem fairly experienced, with four seniors, four juniors, three sophomores and a freshman, but eight of the 12 boys have never played volleyball before.

Nevertheless, Gatling has made a habit of helping to build strong teams at King’s Fork, and she expects this year’s squad to do fairly well.

Last year, the Bulldogs went 18-7 overall, advancing as far as the Virginia High School League Group 4A South Region Eastern Section semifinals.

King’s Fork went 12-0 against Ironclad Conference opponents, finishing as the top conference team in the 2014 regular season and as the conference tournament champion in the postseason.

The latest VHSL realignment has moved King’s Fork from the Ironclad Conference to Conference 17, which also includes Churchland, Deep Creek, Great Bridge, Lake Taylor and Woodrow Wilson high schools.

Gatling said she knows success in Conference 17 is going to take a lot of hard work this year, but her expectations remain high.

“I’m hoping to take the conference,” she said. “If not first, we should take second.”

She respects Lake Taylor’s ability, noting the Titans are the ones who eliminated the Bulldogs in regionals last year.

The 2015 Bulldogs will have to press on without several players from last season, including high school graduates Cal Bailey, Cole Bailey, Brandon Hall, Aireon Leary and Jarrod Yakub.

Uriah Dickerson and Gabriel Dickerson transferred from King’s Fork, and senior Chris Roscoe is focusing on basketball at this point in his athletic career.

But Gatling has a trio of returners that she is expecting to help lead the many Bulldogs who lack experience this season.

Senior outside hitter Drequan Wilson returns for his fourth year on varsity, and Gatling is looking for him to pass a lot of his expertise on to the newer players.

“As far as his hitting, he’s a power hitter, and he’s all over the floor,” she said.

Senior Noah Callis also returns for his fourth year on the team, and he will be taking Cole Bailey’s spot at libero.

“He’s looking pretty good,” Gatling said.

Senior middle blocker/outside hitter Deshaun Wilson is only a second-year player, but he came on strong last year as a rookie, earning a spot in the starting lineup.

“By mid-September, he started showing tremendous progress,” Gatling said. “We’re hoping that some of these new players will kind of follow his path.”

King’s Fork visits Hickory High School tonight to start the season.