Volleyball Player of the Year: James Wood's Kennedy Spaid

In 2022, eight of the 10 players selected to the Class 4 All-State First Team for volleyball were seniors or juniors, and in 2023 it was the exact same situation.

It’s not common for a high school volleyball freshman or sophomore to hit with more pace, variety, accuracy and frequency than everyone else in practically every match they play.

But when you spend as much time around older players as Kennedy Spaid has over the years, and challenge yourself against some of the best players in the nation as much as Spaid does, it’s no wonder she’s taken VHSL volleyball by storm.

The James Wood sophomore is The Winchester Star Volleyball Player of the Year after a 2023 season in which she led the Colonels to their second straight state title. The outside hitter earned First Team All-State honors as a freshman along with classmate and teammate Brenna Corbin, and this year both players repeated that feat, with Spaid also earning VHSL Class 4 Player of the Year honors.

Spaid is the first James Wood volleyball player to earn either the Class 4 PoY or The Star PoY since Katie Houser, a former Notre Dame and Georgia player, in 2014.

The 5-foot-11 Spaid was not only the area leader in kills with 346 this season (twice as much as any teammate). But she also led James Wood in hitting percentage (.339), ace percentage (16.5) and serve receptions (338), ranked second on the team and seventh in the area in digs (193), and ranked third on the team and ninth in the area in aces (54) en route to also earning the Region 4C and Class 4 Northwestern District Player of the Year awards.

Those numbers encapsulate why Spaid is on the court for every rotation.

“She earned that position to stay all the way in,” James Wood coach Adrienne Patrick said. “Everything has to be earned in our program. The fact that she’s a six-rotation player is extremely valuable to the team.”

Spaid has had a lot of practice with working for what she wants.

She got a good sense of the commitment level it took to succeed in sports from her brother Kaden, a 2021 James Wood graduate who helped the Colonels reach the Region 4C finals that year.

“He definitely inspired me to be the athlete that I am today,” Spaid said. “I grew up watching him play baseball, and I saw his tough moments in the sport, and I saw him succeed. He taught me a lot [about dealing with those things].”

Spaid first started playing recreational volleyball at age 9, then joined Frederick County’s Blue Ridge Volleyball Association at age 10.

“Ever since I’ve started, I’ve played an age group up, which definitely helped make my game better,” said Spaid, who added she will play with her age group this upcoming year for the first time. “Playing with people with more experience obviously makes you better than just playing people your same age. And people that are better than me, they inspire me more, because I want to work harder to get to their level.”

Spaid always has been an outside hitter.

“I just love the passion of hitting, and trying to get the last touch on the ball,” she said.

Spaid said she’s grateful for the coaching she’s received at Blue Ridge’s highly competitive program. Last year, she participated on its 16-and-under team at the USA Volleyball Girls Junior National Championship in Chicago, and the squad posted a 7-3 record to win its division.

“[The coaches] definitely know what they’re talking about,” Spaid said. “I love all the coaches there, because they have different styles of coaching. They know how to calm you down when there’s an intense game going on. They know exactly what to tell you.”

Spaid also is grateful to Blue Ridge because of its beach volleyball program, which was formed in 2018. Spaid desires to join the growing number of local players who are competing in that sport in college.

She’s certainly proven her value in the sand. In the summer of 2022, Spaid and Corbin teamed to win the 46-team 14U Nationals in Atlantic City, N.J. This year, Spaid played in a 16U East Coast Championships national event in Clearwater, Fla., and placed fifth out of 64 teams with a partner from New Jersey who she played with for the first time.

Spaid said Corbin didn’t play beach this year because she wanted to focus on indoor volleyball. Spaid said playing with Corbin has helped her greatly in beach play.

“On the court, she knows how to bring me up,” Spaid said. “We know where each other is going to be and we know what we’re capable of. We just try our best for each other.

“I definitely love beach, because you can connect with your partner more since there are only two people on the court. I just like the adrenaline of beach. You can dive and it sort of hurts, but it doesn’t hurt as much as indoors.”

Make no mistake, Spaid plays with tremendous joy in indoor volleyball, as anyone who has seen reactions to her own and her teammates’ play will confirm.

As a high school freshman, there was a lot for Spaid and her James Wood teammates to be happy about. After serving as a team manager for James Wood in middle school and getting to observe how Patrick and the Colonels operate as a program, Spaid starred for a history-making state championship team by recording an area-best 313 kills as well as 128 digs and 30 aces in 2022.

“I definitely knew we were going to be good, but I didn’t at first think we were going to go that far,” Spaid said. “Once we started playing and beating the teams that we beat, I started to realize we had a big chance [to win a state title]. Obviously, being a freshman, it was a little nerve-wracking in the beginning. But my teammates were all so humble and kind, and the pressure went off my back. I’m very grateful for being a freshman and being able to play at the state level.”

Spaid had at least 12 kills in six of James Wood’s seven postseason matches, and led the Colonels in both kills (15) and digs (17) in a 3-0 win over Grafton in the Class 4 final.

It was a heck of a debut season, but Spaid improved her stats across the board as a sophomore.

Spaid had a strong .300 hitting percentage (kills minus errors divided by attempts) to rank third on the Colonels as a freshman, but she increased her kills per set from 3.6 to 3.9 by improving her hitting percentage to .339. Just like in baseball, hitting above .300 for an outside hitter is considered to be excellent.

Spaid said playing on smaller beach volleyball courts helps with indoor volleyball, because she has to be more precise on her shots.

“As far as her hitting toolbox, meaning her range and her ability to score and hit different shots, that improved from her freshman year to her sophomore year,” Patrick said. “She was able to execute at a higher efficiency, and that just comes from being able to work around a block, being able to know how to score, being able to read where the defense is, so that you’re obviously hitting where the defense is not.”

Patrick said Spaid also did well listening to teammates for guidance on where to hit the ball.

“A lot of times, when you’re in the air, you’re looking at the ball, your hand-eye coordination is in play, and you aren’t necessarily scanning the opposite side of the net,” Patrick said. “Having your teammates say, ‘Hey, let’s do this, or ‘Hey, this option’s open.’ Trusting her teammates I think is something that also improved.”

Patrick definitely has faith in Spaid. Because of her constant presence on the floor and volleyball savvy, Spaid served as James Wood’s floor captain this year, so she was the only one who could discuss things with a referee if there was an issue or question.

“I think she knows how much I trust her and I value her, and she also knows how much her team appreciates her,” Patrick said. “I hope that also allows her to continue to grow.”

After going 26-1 in last year’s championship run, the Colonels went 27-2 this year. James Wood’s two losses were best-of-three matches at the Endless Summer tournament on Sept. 16 in Virginia Beach against eventual Class 3 champion Hidden Valley and eventual Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association Division I champion Flint Hill. The Colonels went 3-2 overall in the tournament.

“We definitely didn’t like losing. Nobody does,” Spaid said. “But I feel like that [tournament] kind of showed us that there are people better than us out there, and it made us want to work harder. Losing teaches you a lot about mistakes you made and what you could have done to have a better outcome.”

Corbin was James Wood’s libero during that tournament, but the Colonels went without a libero the rest of the season to take advantage of Corbin’s hitting abilities. It’s safe to say it worked out, as the Colonels only dropped three sets in their final 17 matches, and never needed more than four sets to win.

“We all have the volleyball IQ to play any position, and we all have athleticism,” Spaid said.

During the postseason, James Wood swept all six of its opponents, including Millbrook in the Region 4D semifinals. The Colonels’ senior class had never swept the Pioneers.

Spaid said that one of the things that played a role in the team’s high postseason performance level was the desire to do well for Kim Maxwell. A former James Wood Middle School basketball coach who formerly coached Corbin’s mother and James Wood assistant Brandy Corbin, Maxwell provided motivational speeches throughout the postseason.

“She called us the queens of the court,” Spaid said. “We wanted to win for her, because she took the time to support us.”

Spaid was spectacularly steady in the postseason run. She had double-digit kills in the last five matches (46 total in the three state tournament matches) and double-digit digs in the state semis against Blacksburg and the state final against Hanover.

“I’m just grateful to be a part of James Wood volleyball,” Spaid said. “We’re back-to-back state champions. It’s amazing that I’m only a sophomore and had two great years with this team. Hopefully, there are two more ahead of me.”

There’s no telling what type of numbers Spaid is going to put up as she reaches the age of a typical All-State player in 2024 and 2025. Patrick is looking forward to it.

“I’m very honored to be able to coach her,” Patrick said. “I know that she has a ton of success in her future.”

— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at
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