The Lady Bulldogs field hockey team is ready to compete under Coach Kayla Jones’ direction.

For the past two seasons, the Lady Bulldogs field hockey team had been under the direction of Coach Ashley Skinner. This season, they will be under Kayla Jones, a former Lady Bulldog field hockey player who graduated in 2014. It will be a different team for the Lady Bulldogs this season, as they have graduated a ton of seniors off of last year’s team; however, they are excited for the season to start.

“I think we have all adjusted pretty well to each other,” Jones said. “I think I have gotten to know them well and how they do things and vice versa. It’s all about getting on the same page to accomplish a goal, and I think we are going to do that.”

King’s Fork has showed well in a couple of scrimmages, which indicates they are moving in the right direction. They return only two varsity players from the previous season. Jones is expecting contributions out of the young players, such as Brielle Little, Hailey Muench, Katherine Tsetsilas and Ava Gilbreth-Steil. Jones wants the team to embrace the underdog role.

“We are going to fight hard for everything on that field,” Jones said. “We know if we want to win, we have to take the win. Teams aren’t going to just lay down for us. We have to work hard, and good things are going to happen. I want to push them. I always tell them the underdog is the hungry dog, so let’s go be hungry dogs.”

The season officially begins next week, and the Lady Bulldogs will face their first test when they match up with rival Nansemond River High School. In the first official game with her new team, Jones is just looking forward to seeing how the Lady Bulldogs compete as a team.

“We want to go out and show that we are not one thing or another,” she said. “We want to show that we are a whole team and we play together. We want to have good communication out there and have fun.”