By Briana Padilla
Ithaca High School’s girls varsity volleyball team continued their season of firsts Tuesday night when they beat Binghamton High School in a 3-1 victory. The win, their third of the season, made the ‘09-’10 season the team’s best since 1999. A fact which made last night’s victory about more than what was on the scoreboard.
Up to this point, the volleyball program at Ithaca High School has been, at best, unstable. Having lost their competitive reputation, and having five different coaches in as many years gave the girls on the team a unique set of hurdles to overcome.
“I feel really good [about the season] because every year we’ve had a different coach,” said senior Audrey Cullen. “It’s been really hard for the seniors because every since [we started playing] we haven’t had one coach or one person who runs the whole program and [Coach] Reynolds is trying to change that.”
The team’s current coach, Bryan Reynolds, who was the junior varsity coach last year, is the first consistent coach many of the juniors on varsity have had and another in a long line of different coaches for the girls who have been on varsity for two, three or five years.
Prior to Reynolds, the girls varsity coach was Amanda Hubbard, a health education graduate student at Ithaca College.
Hubbard, who has six years of coaching experience, was asked by the school to coach after Darin Strong, varsity coach and physical education teacher at the time, was charged with felony offenses of attempting to disseminate sexually explicit materials to minors, attempted unlawful contact with a minor with the purpose of committing a sexual offense, criminal use of a communication facility and indecent exposure, a misdemeanor in the first degree.
As of April 2008, the misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure was dropped and Strong was awaiting arraignment in Blair County Court.
The suddenness of Strong’s removal from the girls’ lives as their coach as well as the questions and the interest his arrest garnered was difficult for the team to deal with said junior Jackie Cheri.
“It was so weird,” she said. “You would never expect him to [do that]. He was so nice, he was such a nice coach and his wife was also the JV coach when he was the varsity coach. We loved her. We loved them. It was like a family.”
In the wake of Strong’s absence, it fell to Hubbard and Reynolds as varsity and JV coaches to refocus the girls on the game said Hubbard.
“That‘s how our season started last year,” she said. “We were going into our first tournament, and boom, [Darin‘s arrest] is in the papers everywhere and the girls were bringing those papers to the tournament.”
In the years since Strong was coach, Hubbard said the team has worked not only to overcome the negative spotlight put on them because of their former coach, but also to establish themselves as a team worthy of respect in the sport. The girls motivated themselves by establishing what they wanted to stand for as a team said Hubbard.
“It was a struggle for identity,” she said. “It was mostly [about gaining] self-respect, respect for the team and the sport.”
Since Hubbard left the team, Reynolds and the team have continued to work towards establishing the Ithaca High School volleyball program. By all accounts, they’re succeeding.
“They’re a lot more aggressive this year,” Reynolds said. “They’re playing with a lot more enthusiasm and passion. With me being the first coach who has been with them for more than a year, I think they’re familiar with me, with what I want to see out of them. They’re playing longer games, they’re winning more games within a match. [Overall] they’ve been more successful than they have been in past years.”
The girls are excited about their success especially because of what they have overcome, said junior Emily Sullivan. “In comparison to other years, we’re just playing better,” she said. “I think it’s the consistent coach and [we‘re] going to get better as the years go on. Our skills have improved so much and we’re really excited about that.”
