The Nansemond River High School girls’ volleyball team has a new coach looking to create a brand new program.

Mandy McManus has been coaching for about a decade, including the last three years at Cape Henry Collegiate School, where she helped the Lady Dolphins achieve significant success, including a Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools tournament title last year.

She coaches for the Beach Elite volleyball team and gained experience as a volleyball player in high school at Great Bridge and through intramural play at George Mason University.

McManus recently became an eighth-grade English teacher at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Suffolk, and shortly thereafter, Nansemond River principal Thomas McLemore invited her to become NR’s varsity girls’ volleyball coach.

As she implements her plan with the Lady Warriors, she said she is hoping to see results within the next one to two years.

“Success isn’t an instant thing,” she said, and the team has not had a perfect start this season, including a 3-1 loss to host Western Branch High School on Tuesday.

As far as this year is concerned, “I’m not expecting us to win states, but winning (the) conference is not out of the question,” she said.

McManus had the Lady Warriors participate in a tournament recently that involved other teams in Conference 10, Nansemond River’s new conference after the latest Virginia High School League realignment, which bumped the school up to the Group 5A classification.

The Lady Warriors’ new coach noted Menchville High School looked like it would pose the greatest challenge in the conference, and she said, “We’re coming after Menchville.”

Nansemond River has a legacy that includes some success. It went 9-13 overall last year, finishing runner-up in the Ironclad Conference tournament but experienced an early exit from the regional playoffs.

Graduated since last season are team leaders Morgan Lower and Courtney DeLucia, but a fair amount of talent remains.

The Lady Warriors’s 2015 roster features 10 juniors, three seniors and one sophomore.

Leading the way among that group is senior setter Camryn Holt, senior libero Madison McGrath and junior middle blockers Danielle Douglas and Keona Bellamy.

Strengthening the right side will be junior Kelly Lafferty, and junior Madison Rhoads will also be key as an outside hitter.

McManus hopes to see her players continue to be open-minded as she implements a new program and helps to break them of any bad habits formed on the court.

The Lady Warriors visited Great Bridge High School on Thursday evening, and they host King’s Fork High School on Tuesday.