By Mike London
Salisbury Post
CHINA GROVE — Carson head volleyball coach Kelan Rogers has watched Reese Joyner perform the ultimate high school fitness exercise more than once.
The 5–foot-10 outside hitter can hand-stand walk the length of the gym with no problem.
“Reese is athletic, she can jump, but what makes her special is her strength,” Rogers said. “The girl is super-strong.”
Joyner got that strength from hard work. Dance was her first athletic endeavor, tens years of it.
Next came cheerleading. Now she may be the greatest cheerleader/volleyball/track and field person of all time in Rowan County.
Joyner was the South Piedmont Conference Player of the Year for volleyball as a senior and is also the Rowan County Player of the Year. She was the standout for one of the state’s best teams. Carson went 29-4 and reached the regional final where the Cougars lost a competitive match to Hickory, the eventual 5A state champs.
“I looked at Hickory as a 50/50 match for us,” Rogers said. “We were good enough to beat them, but they were better than us the night we played them. We made more errors, made more mistakes than we usually do. We knocked them out last year, so they wanted vengeance. They played very well.”
Carson reached the Elite Eight last year, so this year’s run to the Final Four, with most of the team returning intact, wasn’t a shock
Joyner played at a high level against Hickory. She had 24 kills. Not a season high, but close.
“This was the best volleyball team I’ve ever been a part of, so I hated to see the season end,” Joyner said. “We had the right chemistry. We had lots of good players who helped me have the season that I did. Katy Falkowski was the one who always got me pumped up to play my best, and I don’t get any kills without Rylee Hedrick’s sets. We’ve been teammates in a lot of club games as well as high school games.”
Joyner first encountered Rogers when he coached her as a seventh-grader at Southeast Middle School. That was her introduction to volleyball. Rogers could see Joyner’s athletic talent, but her priority was her cheerleading squad.
“Even when she was a freshman at Carson, she made it clear that if she couldn’t keep cheering, she wouldn’t be playing volleyball,” Rogers said. “I’m glad she’s been able to do both.”
Joyner is part of all three Carson cheering squads — football, basketball and competition.
Joyner remembers challenging Thursdays her freshman year. Volleyball teams always play on Thursdays and Joyner was still playing matches for the Carson JVs. When a volleyball match ended, she would hustle out to the football field to cheer for the jayvee Cougars.
“I do have a real passion for volleyball now,” Joyner said. “But I’ve also got a real passion for cheerleading.”
While she doesn’t necessarily have a passion for track and field, it’s great cross training for volleyball and cheerleading. She’s one of the county’s top high jumpers with a PR of 5 feet, 2 inches.
“Track has been good for me as far as staying in shape,” Joyner said. “And I’ve been out there competing with friends.”
Joyner began to emerge as a standout 0n the volleyball court as a sophomore when she had 271 kills for the Cougars.
She had 340 kills as a junior, overcoming a tragedy in her life, Her father, Chris Joyner, a 1998 East Rowan graduate, died from cancer at 44. He passed in August, just as the volleyball season was getting started.
“That was very tough,” Reese said. “Knowing I wasn’t going to hear him in the crowd cheering again was very hard because he’d pushed me and wanted to see me succeed in sports. He always knew the right thing to say to motivate me. Fortunately, I’ve got an amazing mom (former Mustang Stephanie Morgan Joyner) and a lot of great friends and teammates. They helped me get through it. I will say that everything I do, every trophy or award that I ever get, it’s for him. Everything I do, I do to honor my dad’s memory.”
Among the friends who helped Joyner was Carson basketball and football player Drew Neve and his family. Neve had lost his mother to cancer when he was still in middle school.
Joyner returned to the court quickly — that was her outlet — and she put the pain behind her. She had a terrific junior season with 340 kills. She was one of the county’s top players in 2024.
“She’s driven to be successful in anything she does,” Rogers said. “She’s just an awesome girl who wants to please everyone, but she’s also very tough. She pushes herself hard.”
Joyner posted 467 kills as a senior, with super hitting percentages and kill percentages, notching the last kills of her high school career at Hickory.
She reached the 1,000 kills career milestone in a match with Robinson during her senior season.
“There were some good matches for me personally,” Joyner said. “I may have played my best one (25 kills) against South Rowan because they had a really good team this year. As far as our whole team, I don’t think we played a better match than we did against North Henderson in our first playoff game.”
Rogers is certain there will be more volleyball ahead for Joyner. She got her first college offer about three months ago — that put a smile on her face — and she’s added more since then. She hasn’t made a decision yet.
There’s no rush. For now, her focus will be on cheerleading for Carson football, and then basketball.
All-County Volleyball:
The Post set the number of players from each team based on the seasons they had — Carson (6), South Rowan (5), East Rowan (4), West Rowan (3), Salisbury (2) and North Rowan (1).
Coaches picked their players.
Carson — Reese Jordan, Katy Falkowski, Alana Herring, Piper Thonen, Rylee Hedrick, Chloe Webster
South — Campbell Withers, Avery Fisher, Clancy Street, Meghan Eagle, Cressley Patterson
East — Alli Corl, Jordan Dry, Leigan Lusk, Jacee Eudy
West — Lydia Wilson, Brinley Hiatt, Clary Graham
Salisbury — Carmen McQueen, Dayami Acevedo
North — Madison Gooch
Player of the Year — Joyner, Carson
Coach of the Year — Kelan Rogers, Carson
”
”
”
aug 23 2024 at 44
