John Bloomquist

C team huddled up and ready to go.

This year for volleyball the amount of C teams schools have are fewer than normal. Schools have pulled out of the C team games, but why? Some schools like Conway for example simply don’t have enough numbers to support one. Other reasons for this could be things like, not obtaining wins, other sports that girls enjoy more during the same season (like tennis and golf), or lack of numbers as well. 

After talking to Matt Biehler, Conway Springs Athletic Director, some other possible reasons could have been things that take place outside of high school sports. It’s possible that in elementary school competitive physical activity is less focused on teamwork and is more focused on individual performance. Some kids also may lean towards choosing work over sports and trying to get more work hours which leaves less time to play their sports.

As a result of this the remaining C teams have had to do what they can to find enough matches to fill their schedule. Cory Brack, Garden Plain’s Athletic Director, said, “GP has hosted more C team games this year than in the past. We have also traveled more, to places like Russell and Maize.” This year our league has 10 volleyball teams in it and only 6 of these schools have played or tried to play in C team games. Normally in our league 8 or so schools usually have a C team so 2-3 schools have dropped these games this year. 

Our Garden Plain C team has had a rougher time this year overall having to travel farther for their competitions. They have had to play difficult teams and had to play these teams multiple times.  Sarah Pracht, C team libero for Garden Plain, agrees that they have had a difficult schedule. So how does this affect the morale of the team and overall performance? Pracht said, “Because we don’t play a bunch of different teams it’s difficult to get better because we’ve played them so many times. We don’t get better mentally in the game than physically.” The Garden Plain C team has played Kingman 4 times this season, Belle Plaine 3 times,  Cheney 3 times, and Douglass twice. The squad has played matches against larger classifications including Maize, Goddard, and Clearwater to try and fill their schedule. Additionally, due to a last minute drop at the Pratt tournament, the C team participated in a quad playing only 3 matches, instead of the expected 5 for a typical tournament.

After playing the teams so much and never meeting new competition, it’s difficult to get better and learn to win against different kinds of play from various teams. Overall though GP’s C team has still performed well this year and with their season nearing the end, they will no doubt push through and finish out the season well. The team is coached by Eric Rockers, and their current record in 22-2 with 5 matches left to play this season.