Mansell inherits strong Rebels program

There’s no rebuilding project ahead for Payton Mansell.

Mansell, recently hired as the new Vestavia Hills High School head volleyball coach, inherits a program that is on the rise. Mandy Burgess recently stepped down from the post following a four-year run leading the program, her second stint coaching the team.

“What’s awesome is coming into a program where they’re pretty solid, skill wise, athleticism, they’re a pretty solid team,” Mansell said. “It takes a good amount of time to get these seventh graders to where they need to be as 12th graders.”

The Rebels have been on the rise in recent years, advancing to the Class 7A North Super Regional in three of the last four years. They were 17-21 overall last season, but pulled off an upset of Spain Park in the Area 6 tournament to advance to the postseason.

Mansell is ready to help the program build upon the foundation that has been laid and help the team continue to rise.

“I want us to move on from that and go even further,” she said. “I’d love to win a championship and have their names on banners, but small goals.”

Mansell is from Decatur and played for four years at Austin High School under legendary coach Tina Lawrence, who recently retired after 30 years. Following high school, Mansell played at Millsaps College as a setter and right side.

Immediately upon graduating college, Mansell secured a job as the head coach at Germantown High, a Class 5A school in Mississippi. After three successful seasons there, Mansell admitted to being a little homesick and moved back to Decatur, where she became her former coach’s assistant.

She returned to the halls of Austin, now a coworker with many of her past teachers.

“It was awesome. I had a lot of mentors,” Mansell said.

In two years on staff at Austin, Mansell learned the ins and outs from Lawrence, potentially being groomed as her replacement. But an opportunity to take a job in central Alabama, in close proximity to volleyball powers such as Mountain Brook and Hoover, was too good to pass up.

“This competition is not like anything I’ve seen,” she said. “I think that has a lot to do with the community and how the parents buy in and the kids buy in.”

Although the beginning of her coaching trajectory seems backward, going from a successful head coach back to being an assistant, Mansell has learned plenty and evolved over the last five years.

“I’ve come a long way and I’ve learned from all those things and how to have conversations with players,” she said.

Mansell appreciated her recent time as an assistant, being able to observe and learn different ways to run a program. Some of the things she has been exposed to she will adopt in her Vestavia program.

“My assistants need to have a voice, too,” she said. “I got a voice and said when I was head coach again, I’m going to make sure my assistants feel like they have a role and can own it.”

Mansell wants her teams to be versatile and able to adapt to a variety of styles best suited to win a particular match. That seems well-suited for Vestavia, a program that has not always had the most imposing athletes but prides itself on being fundamentally sound and smart on the court.