Later than intended but today we start looking at the newcomers to the 2014 Lady Vols team. First up is Claudia Coco, a 5’4″ defensive specialist from Chattahoochee High School in Johns Creek GA. Coco joined Tennessee for the spring semester, getting a jump start on her collegiate career.

The Cougars were Area Champs during three of Coco’s years on the high school squad and advanced deep into Georgia’s state tournament in each of her four seasons — they played for the title her freshman and senior years and made it to the final four and final eight in her sophomore and junior seasons. Over her career Coco had an astounding 2,754 digs — a state and national high school record! She averaged 5.40 digs per set. During her senior year, those numbers were 935 digs, for 6.60 per set. She also accumulated career numbers of 166 aces (0.30 per set), 379 assists (0.70 per set), and 2,000 receptions (4.00 per set).

Coco’s list of high school awards is almost too long to list here! So here are the highlights. She was named All Area four years in a row. She made All State in 2012 and 2013. Last year she was the Georgia Defensive Player of the Year and a Georgia Senior All-Star. She was named a PrepVolleyball national “Defensive Dandy” every season of her high school career. And for her final season she was named to four All America teams: Max Preps (First Team), Prep Volleyball (First Team), USA Today (Third Team), and Under Armor (Honorable Mention).

Coco played club for A5 in Roswell GA, where her squads came in third at the AAU Open National Championships the last two years. She also earned AAU All America honors.

Here’s what people have said about her:

• High school coach Jennie Blevins: “Claudia is an amazing athlete with an incredible work ethic. She works very hard to make every pass perfect and is very consistent. No matter what, she will work hard to get the job done.”
• PrepVolleyball: “Her defense repeatedly frustrates and denies the opposing teams’ best hit. Spot-on defense, great reading, anticipation, consistency, speed and tremendous tenacity are Coco’s trademarks. She is a fearless defender who can take over a match. She is not afraid, has a tremendous work ethic and really likes to compete.”
• Club coach Mike Webster: “Her dedication to the development of her craft is the reason why our team has grown so much over the course of this season.”
• Club coach Karen Brown: “Claudia’s desire to be great as a teammate and her drive to win is more important to her than any stat, medal or award.”
• Club coach Blair Boyle: “Claudia is an athlete with an immense passion for the game. Claudia is disciplined and determined. She takes pride in her role as a libero. She pushes herself to work harder each time she steps on the court. She pushes her teammates to be their best and always knows no matter how hard she works, there is more she can do to make herself better. As we all know, liberos don’t get much recognition. This is a libero you cannot help but stop and watch play.”
• High school coach Jennie Blevins (on Coco breaking the state digs record): “This accomplishment really just puts us on the map even more as a strong volleyball program, which Claudia has played a huge part in molding the past four years. She is also showing all the other girls that if you work hard, you can obtain the ‘unobtainable’ goal.”
• PrepVolleyball: “A great pure defender, Coco is very competitive and a strong worker. She has no fear of the big moment.”
• UT coach Rob Patrick: “I’m very excited about Claudia joining our program as she’s a player who is homegrown in the Southeast playing for the very successful A5 volleyball program. She’s one of the top liberos in the country as she broke the official Georgia all-time digs record and the unofficial national record. She’s a tremendous defensive presence who will bring a great passion and competitiveness to our team. She is someone who will continue the great lineage of defensive players that Tennessee has had.”

And here’s what Coco had to say about her decision to become a Lady Vol: “I absolutely loved what I saw at Tennessee from the team and the coaches, it’s close to home and they have a great journalism and broadcasting program, which is what I want to do. I’ve always considered myself a decisive person and once I decided on Tennessee, I just wanted to make it official.”