Jonathan McCoy had been part of a volleyball startup before.

As a freshman at Whiteland High School in the spring of 2021, he was persuaded to join the Warriors' fledgling volleyball club. The team didn't even play any matches that first spring; with almost everyone new to the sport, the focus was on developing a fundamental base. But McCoy was quickly hooked, and by the time he was a senior he was the captain of an 18-win squad.

So the prospect of getting in on the ground floor again last year as a Franklin College freshman appealed to him.

"Every time you start something, there's always going to be growing pains," McCoy said. "And I had the really awesome privilege to be able to see both teams and their growing pains, and be able to help them work through it. ... I'm super grateful and blessed to be able to set the culture here, into one that's ready to grow."

The Grizzlies endured their share of bumps in the road during their debut campaign in 2025, but as year two dawns, coach Dillon Taylor and his crew feel they are in a far, far better place than they were 12 months ago.

Taylor started the 2024-25 school year with four players on his roster and went into the season with 10; if he wanted to run six-on-six in practice, he had to get on the floor himself. Now, he's heading into Saturday morning's season opener against Greenville with 18 guys — including 11 freshmen or transfers — and instead of teaching players the basics of volleyball, he's able to fine-tune his system.

It's a whole new ball game at Spurlock.

"We did a really nice job in the recruiting world putting ourselves in a position to be successful," Taylor said. "Last year we had pieces, but pieces that weren't volleyball players, that were learning the game. Now we actually have volleyball players in the gym to be able to mold into great volleyball players, rather than beginners."

McCoy likens the change from his freshman to sophomore year to the difference between quicksand and concrete.

"It's great now, knowing that pretty much everyone on the team has played before," he said, "and they want to play, and they have the hustle and they have the drive and they have the motivation to get better. It's so much easier to grow as a team when you have teammates that want to grow and be better."

With last season's team leaders in kills (McCoy), digs (Simon Hmung) and assists (Tiki Johnson) all back and flanked by a large, talented group of newcomers, the Grizzlies figure to be much more competitive than they were during their maiden voyage a year ago.

How that'll translate in the win column against a bigger and more challenging schedule remains to be seen, but this Franklin squad is eager to see where it stacks up.

"I don't know if I can put a number on it, but ... when we're on, we're on," McCoy said. "We're good. We've got pieces that are super athletic, super coordinated — and we all like playing with each other, which is pretty important too."

"We don't know until we know," Taylor added, "but we are doing a really great job of taking the right steps that we need to in order to get the program off the ground where we want it to be."