2023 Review: New Dexter VB coach handles pressure, meets expectations

Here is a series of stories which glance back at some of the interesting storylines from the 2023 sports year throughout Southeast Missouri.

This fall a new era for Dexter High School volleyball got underway, and there was no hiding the expectations that were heaped upon first-time head coach Haylee Orf.

“I think naturally, anybody would,” Orf said this fall of feeling those high expectations. “But there is no reason that an awesome community like this, with a history of strong athletics, strong coaching, and just having a championship mindset and the Dexter tradition likes to carry on (can’t meet those expectations).”

No one understood those expectations more so than Orf, who was a former Bearcat volleyball player, herself.

“Growing up here,” Orf said, “and being a three-sport athlete, myself, you feel (the expectations) at a way deeper level.”

Orf’s tenure didn’t quite go as planned, initially.

The Bearcats dropped six of their first seven matches, and the Bearcat followers were curious as to how this story would end.

“I turned the pressure to prayer, to keep myself up,” Orf explained. “I knew that I could only do what I could do, and I continued to pour (my energy) into these girls.”

Whether it was Orf having a feeling for her team or Divine intervention or whatever, the strategy began to work, as Dexter won 9 of 10 matches during the mid-season.

“I had the biggest belief in this group,” Orf said following the win streak. “We had what it took to do some amazing things.”

The Bearcats finished the season having won 17 of their 31 matches, which gave the program its 13th consecutive winning season after closing the season with a 16-8 mark through the final 24 matches.

“Once we got everybody believing,” Orf said, “it will continue to keep going up.”

Though achieving another winning season was certainly nice, Orf said her focus was on daily growth more so than the win-loss record this fall.

“The record doesn’t mean anything,” Orf said. “It is how we grew, how we improved, and how we level up from now on.”

Dexter will return eight players from its 2023 varsity roster in 2024.