Coach Heather Minnis is coaching her 25th (1998-present) season as the Dickson Middle School Head Coach where she started the first volleyball program in Dickson County Schools in August 1998 under the direction of Dickson Junior High Principal Mr. Johnny Chandler. The team was made up of 7th & 8th grade girls at DJHS. Tryouts were held in August and Coach Minnis called schools in the area to schedule matches. The team played Harpeth, Summertown, Nashville Christian, Fairview, and competed in the Sonic Invitational hosted by Freedom Middle (Coach Randy Stevens) in Franklin (Our jv and varsity teams played. Our DJHS assistant principal, Gala Rountree, helped coach the jv because they played at the same time). Due to the August start of the program, we used rolling standards and marked the lines on the floor with masking tape. In 1999, we purchased a net system, had sleeves added to our gym floor, and had Maroon lines painted for the court (Mr. Chandler let Coach Minnis choose the color).
2000 The Mid Cumberland Athletic Conference for Volleyball was created in April 2000 for fall 2000. The schools participating were Cheatham(Michael Carter), William James(Gary Gibson), Harpeth(Kelly Ensminger), Dickson(Heather Minnis), and Fairview.
2003 Began using rallly scoring in our middle school volleyball matches.
2011 DMS was voted out of the conference in 2011. Our volleyball team then entered the Big South Conference in the Columbia area for 2011 & 2012. We were then voted out of that conference in 2012. Our volleyball program has been without a conference 2013-2020.
2021 For our 2021 season, DMS has been invited to participate in a conference with Burns, Harpeth, Cheatham, Fairview, & Sycamore.
1998-present Some of Coach Minnis' teams' accomplishments:
1999 Sonic Invitational hosted by Freedom Middle in Franklin- 3rd place JV and Varsity
10 varsity CONFERENCE CHAMPION TITLES (in a conference 2000-2012) MID CUMBERLAND ATHLETIC CONFERENCE (MCAC) 2000-2010-- CHAMPS 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, & 2010 Big South Conference from 2011-2012 CHAMPIONS 2011 & 2012 MCAC CONFERENCE RUNNER-UP 2008
Sonic Invitational Tourney Champs 2006 & 2008 Sonic Invitational Tourney Runner-up 2001, 2002, 2005, & 2009 Sonic Invitational Tourney 3rd 1999 & 2004 participated in the Sonic Invitational 1998-2009 (last season for tourney) Mule Town Classic Champs 2010 & 2011 Mule Town Classic 3rd 2015, 2016, 2018, & 2021(3rd out of 24) Mule Town Classic Silver Champs 2014 & 2020 began participating 2010
TMSAA Sectional (2010 first year for middle school volleyball sectional) TMSAA SECTIONAL CHAMPIONS 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, & 2017 TMSAA Sectional Runner-Up 2013 & 2014 TMSAA Sectional 3rd 2018 & 2020
Cumberland University Middle School CHAMPIONS 2016 Cumberland University Middle School Runner-up 2005, 2006, & 2014 Cumberland University Middle School 3rd 2008, 2015 & 2017 participated in tourney 2005(?) through 2017
Lebanon High School Blue Devil Bash Tourney Runner-Up 2013
Donelson Christian Academy Tourney CHAMPIONS 2018
Tri-County Conference Tourney inaugural sesson Champions 2021
