High School Preview – Carlie McCutchen – 2022 Setter

This month I will be rolling out some articles that are a little different than we have been writing for the past couple of months. I will still be doing our regular highlight articles on multiple athletes for exposure, however I wanted to do some special articles on a few special athletes that we are getting to know quite well with Prep Dig TX. These young ladies volunteered to discuss their upcoming high school season and how they are planning on getting ready for it. In the spring, I have written about her school Conroe Grand Oaks High School out of North Houston. Carlie was picked because of her being the setter on a talented team who is brand new to the ultra competitive Houston High School volleyball scene. I thought it would be a good idea for our readers to get some insight into what a leader on a great team in this position thinks about in regards to her upcoming high school season. Without further ado, here is our article on Miss [player_tooltip player_id="99520" first="Carlie" last="McCutchen"].   [player_tooltip player_id="99520" first="Carlie" last="McCutchen"] [2022] 5-6 Setter (HS: Grand Oaks/Club: TAV Houston/Verbal: Uncommitted) <img class=" wp-image-106163 alignright" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pd/uploads/2020/08/YC-YYlxq.jpg-large-169x300.jpeg" alt="" width="171" height="304" /> Carlie is ranked as the 77th best prospect in the state of Texas according to our Prep Dig State Rankings List. We recently wrote an article about her high school Grand Oaks and her coach Morgan Rogers said the following about her, “Carlie is the work horse of our team. She is the player who would run through a brick wall to keep a play alive. As a setter, she works so hard to put her hitters in the best situations, and plays excellent defense - never lets a ball hit the floor without making the ultimate effort. She truly enjoys the sport and is a student of the game, always learning and working to improve. I am excited to see her continue to learn and grow, because her work ethic and drive is going to take her as far as she wants to go. Carlie earned First Team All-District honors and Academic All-District.” This young lady sends a beautiful ball to her hitters. The way the ball floats off of her hands is a sight to see. She is pinpoint accurate on all locations and all levels throughout the net. I love how she can go against the flow on a ball traveling toward the left side of the court and push it to the right side hitter for a one on one attack.   Grand Oaks high school is a new school to the North Houston area. It is going to be their third year in existence and they have been thrown into the uber competitive district 13-6A. Last year they were able to compete in their first ever Varsity schedule and they won their district and even won their first ever playoff game. The Woodlands has dominated their new district for the last couple of decades, but Conroe Grand Oaks High will have something to say about that. Miss McCutchen is a great leader for this program on the rise. We were able to sit down with Carlie and here is a little from the conversation:   Prep Dig TX: Why Volleyball? Why is it so important to you? What do you love about it? Carlie: Volleyball is a sport that if you don’t play, you don’t see the intense side of it. People think of just hitting a ball over the net, but its so much more than that. Volleyball is important to me because its where you can let go of everything in your daily life and focus solely on volleyball. The volleyball community is amazing and you never have to worry if someone is going to be there in difficult times. Not to be biased, but volleyball has the best community of people. My entire family plays volleyball and that’s how we spend time together. It gives us something to do rather than sitting at home on the couch. We are a very competitive family so it gets pretty intense sometimes!   Prep Dig TX: What do you love about your position on the court the most? Carlie: As a setter my position is very vital. I love being able to run the show and putting my teammates in the best possible position for them to look good.   Prep Dig TX: What are you looking forward to most this season? Carlie: This year’s going to be very different, but what I’m looking forward to the most is playing in a new district as a 6A school. That means new competition and new challenges. You have to be able to pick out the positives as to what we will be able to do this season rather than what we won’t be able to do.   Prep Dig TX: What do you think your biggest obstacle this year compared to last year’s school season? How do you plan to overcome it? Carlie: An obstacle that I feel is going to be hard to face is trying to stay positive about the situation we are currently in. Last year’s obstacles were crazy for me. I had knee surgery, broken thumb, concussions, and being in a boot. But when looking at the fact that that we are healthy and we get to have a season this year, that’s more than some schools get and we need to see the blessing in that.   Prep Dig TX: What are three individual goals that you have for this high school season? Carlie: Three individual goals that I have set for myself this season is first to stay positive. I’m getting to play volleyball with the people that I love and I’m perfectly healthy. Secondly, I want to better myself as a player and a teammate. Setting is something that you have to be able to make quick decisions and really be able to read the other side of the net in order to set your hitters up for success. Lastly, I would love to be setter of the year. That is going to take a lot of hard work being in a new district but nothing I can’t handle. I made 1stteam all district last season, but I’m striving for more.   Prep Dig TX: Finish this Sentence…this high school volleyball season I’m going to _____ Carlie: This high school season I am going to keep myself and others accountable.   Prep Dig TX: What did Covid-19 do to you mentally during this long shutdown? How have you coped with it? Carlie: Covid has not affected me as much as I thought it might. I continued working out daily and kept growing my mentality of “win, win, win” and that kept me motivated to go further. I also got a bunch of things done around the house. I found new hobbies such as painting, so that is currently being added to me day. I cope with things much differently than others might. I open my bible or I will Bible journal and I think that has been what keeps me sane during all of this. I’ve been able to see the blessings God has given me.   You can tell from Carlies’s answers that she is very mature in both life and in sports. It is easy to see why she is able to lead a talented team to victory. She has that innate leadership ability that setters truly need. We are excited for her and her high school program and cannot wait to watch them this season. I decided to write a few articles on players such as her so that our readers can get a true understanding of what these athletes go through and how volleyball is a passion for them like it is for many of us. These players deserve all of the recognition that they can get. I will be rolling these out throughout the month along with our regular highlight articles that contain multiple athletes.   We will be publishing more articles daily to give the recognition to each athlete that has earned the right to be called a top 100 Texas Volleyball Player. Stay tuned for more articles on your favorite athletes. If you have anyone you think we should watch out for or that you think have what it takes to be added to our database, please shoot me an email with some info at nov8vb@yahoo.com