As fall sports begin to ramp up, Palo Alto High School’s girls’ varsity volleyball team is getting to know their new coach.

With 30 years of experience coaching, Chris Crader has coached at many local high schools, including Castilleja High School, Homestead High School, and most recently, Carlmont High School.

“It was really hard to leave Carlmont,” Crader said. “There’s a lot of great people there, and I really enjoyed my time there, but I’m looking forward to the awesome stuff here.”

Already a week into the season, the team has been hard at work and Crader has been assessing the new team, identifying which players are the strongest at each skill.

“There’s just a lot of talent in every position here,” Crader said. “The girls have been great so far. Just trying to help them get better, and then trying to help us improve all together are good systems for our team.”

As their first game draws near, Crader aims to help the team improve, excited to see what they can accomplish. 

“I’d like to win league—that’s something Palo Alto’s done a bunch over the last 10 years—and we’d like to have a great run in the playoffs, and hopefully go for a really long time,” Crader said.

Crader says he is excited to see how far the team goes this season and is excited to see their improvement continue.

“The team had a great season last year,” Crader said. “Obviously some very important people graduated, but there are a lot of very talented players coming back, so I think I’m just excited to see how good we can get, how far we can go, what’s possible.”

The team will play its first game at Valley Christian High School at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.