After finishing last season tied for first place in the Tri-County Conference, head coach Julie Bailey hasn't had to motivate the team to improve this year. The players do it themselves.
"These girls are so competitive," Bailey said. "They're not happy unless they're playing their best. I don't really have to motivate them to do their best, because if they make a mistake, they're mad and want to do better."
California has been working as a team since June, having open gyms, weightlifting sessions, camps and now with preseason practices. Two weeks into fall practices, the Lady Pintos are ready to play against somebody other than themselves.
"Sometimes you have to watch it because you wonder what they're going to do to each other," Bailey said. "I have to be careful not to pit them against each other."
The Lady Pintos lost three seniors from last year's 16-12-3 team, and they return two seniors, six juniors and one sophomore to their varsity squad.
"All 31 of them were there (in June) working hard," Bailey said. "You can't force that upon kids. That's just an internal drive to do well. They want to be successful."
While they only have two seniors, Bailey considers this a veteran team, because a lot of underclassmen saw a good amount of varsity action last season. .
California will lean on Adrienne Strickfaden in the middle, and Cameron Meyer as an outside hitter.
"We need (Strickfaden) to do what she can. She's capable of so much," Bailey said.
"(Meyer) is a strong outside hitter. She's working on some different kind of hits this year that she hasn't always done before, and she's becoming really successful at those."
The Lady Pintos also return conference MVP, Kayla Allison as the libero.
One of the weaknesses Bailey wanted to address this season was her team's lack of blocking. Blocking wasn't in the team's defensive strategy last season, and that's something she wanted to change.
"I've already seen the girls go from not ever touching the ball, to getting blocks," Bailey said. "Adrienne (Strickfaden) has really been focusing on that in the middle, and she's been getting some successful blocks in practice."
A strength for the team? Its year-round volleyball mentality. A lot of the players play club volleyball, playing nine months out of the year, and as Bailey says, that makes her job easier.
Experience will be the key when navigating the conference this season. Bailey complemented Versailles and Eldon on how far they've come from last year after playing them during the summer, and Blair Oaks returns a lot of strong players. The Lady Falcons tied with California for first place in the conference, then beat the Lady Pintos in the district semifinals last season.
"(The conference) is going to be tough competition," Bailey said. "It's not going to be easy for anybody.
"I think we should be strong," she said about her expectations of her team. "We have a lot of returning players and they have a lot of potential and athletic ability. They've seem to really come along as a team and working well as a team."
The Lady Pintos open their season at home on Thursday, Aug. 27 against Boonville, with ninth grade, JV and varsity games. Ninth grade starts at 5:30 p.m., with the two other games following.
"We've had our ups and downs, I guess that's expected at the beginning of the season," Bailey said. "They're starting to come together better as a team."
California was award all-state honors last season by the American Volleyball Coaches Associating for academics. The team's grade point average hovered around a 3.7
"Besides being academically gifted and academically minded, they're in all kinds of other activities," Bailey said. "... They're just a great group of kids and a lot of fun to work with. It makes it all worth it."