Teamwork Proves Essential For Girls Volleyball

ERIKA ANDERSON, Staff Writer

Published: October 21, 2004

ATLANTA—On the court, there is no individual. There is only the team.

The phrase “looking out for number one” holds little meaning to a volleyball team, as they stand, six girls as one, preparing for battle, facing their opponents through the checkered holes of the net.

They come in all shapes and sizes, these teammates. Some are tall; some are short. Some are superstars and others mediocre, but when they step onto the court, they feed off of each other’s strengths and swallow up one another’s weaknesses.

On a Thursday afternoon at St. Pius X High School, the varsity girls volleyball team is practicing drills in the large gymnasium. Trophy cases, dedicated to each sport at the school, line the walls outside the gym. Pictures of the girls show smiling friends with their arms around each other celebrating a victory. They show powerful serves and teammates in the middle of a “kill,” when a ball is slammed into the floor, preventing a return.

As they practice their drills, moving left to right along the net hitting the balls their coaches set for them, their eyes are turned up, focused on their task, their palms and forearms red from effort. But the St. Pius girls are not just about hard work. When a teammate misses a ball, they tease her convivially. They are quick to point out their own mistakes and joke with head coach John Frederick and assistant coach Killebrew Bailey.

Coach Frederick, who has been coaching volleyball for 21 years, the past four at St. Pius, said his team is playing better volleyball right now than any team he’s previously coached at St. Pius.

“If you would have asked me at the beginning of the season how we were doing, I would have said we were struggling,” he said. “But we’ve won the last 18 of 20 matches and we are playing extremely well.”

Frederick was a high jumper in high school, but when he started school at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa., his roommate recruited him to play volleyball with one of the school’s club teams. The coach, who also teaches chemistry at St. Pius, said that volleyball was a natural fit for a logical-thinking chemistry major.

“It’s a speed game, but it’s a pure team game, more than, I think, almost any sport out there,” he said. “An individual, no matter how good (she is), is only as good as (her) team.”

Gesturing to the Lady Golden Lions, he gives an example.

“For instance, we have a superstar player this year,” he said. “And we have three or four other players who are very good. And we’ve played teams that had better individual players than we have, but we were able to defeat them because we work as a team.”

That superstar that Coach Frederick referred to is senior Shannon Barnes. The outside hitter is the school’s all-time career leader in digs, in kills and in kill percentage, and she’s the second all-time career leader in aces. Though clearly a standout, humble and soft-spoken Barnes is quick to credit her teammates. She began playing the game in the fifth grade and was immediately drawn to the team aspect of volleyball.

“I just really loved being on a team and how much fun we all had,” she said. “Here, we have a great team. We all really get along, even in school. There aren’t fights.”

The tall redhead is planning to attend college and major in architecture next year and is unsure whether she will play volleyball. But she believes that the sport has been a major part of her years at St. Pius.

Senior outside hitter Susan Beamer has also played during the entirety of her years at St. Pius. It’s the intensity that Beamer loves, she said.

“It’s not a contact sport, but you really have to have endurance,” she said.

Volleyball is her favorite time of the year, she said.

“This team has really good chemistry. We’re all friends outside of volleyball, so we can rely on each other. It’s important to have that connection with your teammates, because ultimately, volleyball is a sport based on trust.”

Before each game, the girls get in a huddle, arms encircling around each other, and say a prayer. Then they begin stomping their feet and yell a “Hey, hey!” chant, as they kick each other on the backside.

Sophomore Jasmine Tyson is the Lady Golden Lions’ baby. A gifted setter, she has been playing volleyball since she was in the eighth grade at Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Atlanta.

Though she is younger than all the other senior starters, Tyson gets along with her teammates and said that they have provided her with guidance and encouragement throughout the year.

“I love the team. I just love how everyone gets along,” she said. “I get teased sometimes for being the baby, but I really do get along with all the seniors.”

As a personal goal, Tyson says she must maintain an 85 or above academic average in order to continue playing volleyball. But being a member of the team helps her to manage her time well.

Laura Armanios, a junior, who also plays soccer for St. Pius, agrees that sports help her to be a better student.

“People who don’t play a sport can go home and sit around because they think they have all the time in the world,” she said. “Because I play volleyball, I know I don’t have a lot of time, so I have to get my homework done right away.”

Each prayer that the team says include the words, “St. Pius X, pray for us; Our Lady of Victory, pray for us.” The girls, however, added the words “Jesus, pray for us.”

“It’s good to know that God is on your side,” Beamer said. “We always joke that Jesus went to Pius.”

Nearly 30 miles away in Fairburn there is a team that may disagree about Jesus’ alma mater, because Christ is an essential member of Our Lady of Mercy High School’s Lady Bobcats varsity volleyball team.

On a warm fall day in early October, the red and white OLM bus sits parked outside of The Lovett School in Atlanta.

Inside the school, wearing black shorts, knee pads and red jerseys with white trim, the girls volleyball team warms up, guided by their head coach and Mercy athletic director Bill Schmitz. Parents of the Mercy players who have made the trek from Fairburn cheer on their daughters from the bleachers as the game against Landmark Christian School, also in Fairburn, begins.

Greg Crocker, whose daughter, Amanda, is a sophomore, said that volleyball has brought his daughter out of her shell.

“She used to be really quiet and shy when she was younger,” he said. “But she’s really blossomed.”

As Crocker sits on the sidelines watching his daughter play, Coach Schmitz yells out to the girls, “Be strong! Be confident!”

The team has been “struggling” this year, he said.

“We’re trying to break ourselves of inconsistent play.”

Inconsistency has been a challenge since the birth of the Lady Bobcats in 2000. Schmitz is the fourth coach in four years. But despite their hardships, the girls have stayed a team.

Lana Oberst, whose daughter, Lindsay, is a senior at Mercy, said that volleyball has changed her daughter.

“She had never done sports before,” she said. “But she decided to try volleyball, and it has just brought so much out of her.”

Oberst cheers loudly from the side as the Mercy team struggles and ultimately admits defeat to Landmark in two games. Though they did not win the game, the girls, and their coach, remain positive.

“Overall, you did an outstanding job,” Coach Schmitz tells them.

Coach Schmitz’s pep talk is interrupted by a player from Landmark, who asks the Mercy girls if they would like to join them in prayer.

The two schools gather together, hand in hand, navy blue uniforms and red ones, the winners and the team they defeated.

Before their next match on the other side of the gym, against home team Lovett, the girls drink water and eat blueberry muffins, a ritual that they stick to each game.

“We have to eat muffins—blueberry muffins,” says senior Victoria Ifeadi. “It’s our tradition.”

Ifeadi, who says she was not athletic “at all,” said she didn’t know how much she’d like volleyball when she came to Mercy.

“When I came to Mercy, I was given the opportunity to try something new,” she said. “And volleyball was really the only thing I was able to get into.”

The sport has taught her an important lesson about herself.

“I found out that I don’t give up as easily as I thought I would,” she said. “It’s definitely made me more confident.”

Sarah McQueen, a fellow senior, said that volleyball helped to ease the transition when she enrolled at Mercy as a sophomore.

“I really just like being with the team,” she said. “They’ve helped me to realize that if I push myself to do something I can do it.”

As they walk out of the school after another tough loss to Lovett, Amanda Crocker and her father talk about the upcoming week.

Amanda, who also plays for the junior varsity team, has four games that week. Despite her busy schedule, volleyball is one of the things she looks forward to the most.

“It’s really fun to get to play on both teams,” she said. “Volleyball has definitely made my high school experience a lot better. I love our team. We get along really well and we play together well.”

As she walks to her mother’s car carrying her duffle bag, Lindsay Oberst also talks about her team.

“My favorite part of volleyball is the other players and how much fun we have. It’s so great the way we can work things out if we have a problem on the court,” she said. “Everyone is always encouraging each other.”

Both the St. Pius and Mercy teams, as they celebrate their victories and support each other in their losses, remain close. Though they may individually be strong players, both the Lady Golden Lions and Lady Bobcats have remained true to that old adage—there is no “I” in team.