By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The Stayton Volleyball team had one of those incredible Cinderella-isc runs last Fall.
A 4A State Play-In team, the Eagles wheeled off wins in the Play-In Round against Junction City, North Bend on the road in the Opening Round and then defeating Pendleton to reach the 4A State Semifinals before falling to Marshfield en route to a fifth-place finish in the classification. It was the pay-off of the program’s hard work, and now the girls are coming into Open Gyms, Summer League, ready to go and see if they can do it again this Fall.
“I’ve been trying to build this program for a really, really long time. So last year was a culmination of a lot of hard work. So now the girls have the buy-in, and they know that they can achieve bigger things,” said Stayton Head Coach Ruth Daniels. “They’re working harder. More girls are showing up to Open Gyms, we’re averaging 30 girls are showing up to Open Gyms, last year it was maybe 20. So this year, we have more involvement than last year, and the girls want to continue that same trajectory.”
The trick will be to replace the six seniors that they had graduated with; a solid number of those seniors being starters for the Eagles last year. That’s where this Summer work comes into play. The vast opportunities to close the experience gap and pick-up where they left off is there.
“Open Gyms have been awesome. We have a really strong freshman group coming in. Summer League has been a building for us because we graduated six seniors, and most of them were my starters,” starts Daniels. “So Summer League has been us trying to move people around and see who can fill those roles the best.
“The girls are just starting to mesh together. We’re starting to build their confidence, so I’m just hoping to grow on that in the next week or so.”
The Eagles open the season August 29.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
