BY HANS HINEBAUGH
Often, the most highly attended high school games at Mariemont in the fall generally are thought to be football, boys soccer, and girls soccer. However the stands at those games might soon be a little more empty as students flock to the high-energy postseason games of the Mariemont Volleyball team, the proud owners of the best team record in the high school.
What most will remember of last year came from the final match when an enormous student section showed up to cheer on the Warriors against Finneytown. However, what few remember are the regular season games.
“Last year our most loyal fans were Henry Neal and Trevor Cash. But this year it has been Nick Malone and Alec Ahrens,” says junior team member Caitlyn Iredale.
“I started watching the volleyball team when Nick (Malone) asked me to come to a game with him one day early in the season. I’ve been hooked ever since,” states senior Alec Ahrens. These two confirmed that Warrior volleyball is not a passive sport. Malone related that he got in trouble once with Mr. Books for his cheering.
“Nick almost got kicked out of a game for barking at a girl while she was serving,” Ahrens recalls.
Though the team does have its loyal fans, the Mariemont student body showed up in a massive, screaming, cheering section last year for the girls’ postseason game against Finneytown.
“Volleyball has a lot to do with the head and all the momentum that fans give us helps tons,” says Iredale.
Iredale hopes that for their remaining games, the fans will be able to once again bring this energy to help cheer the team on to a victory. During the postseason, the support of both new and old fans helps contribute to their victories.
Senior Maggie Teghtmeyer appreciates the support of the crowd during the postseason. She feels the crowd energy and support can really help boost the team. It’s the support of fans like senior Ali Molski that boosts the team to victory.
Molski originally came to the game because of a Facebook invitation senior Nick Jones sent out to a majority of the high schools students.
“I was even more excited to cheer on Quincy Taylor because she’s a boss on the volleyball court,” Molski says. Seeing her friend Maggie Teghtmeyer play and cheering from the first row were Molski’s highlights from her first 2012 volleyball game.
“Last season the giant student section hurt us because we had never had that many fans before, and I think it made people nervous. It helped us, though, too, because it got some people pumped up,” Iredale recalls. Junior team member Payton Coates has worked all season to prepare for the shouts and cheers of the larger crowds.
“My team has been great and has helped me prepare by getting in the stands at practice and yelling and stomping and being as loud as they can when I serve so that I don’t let the noise affect my game,” says Coates. The practice has paid off it seems after the team rallied from behind on Saturday, October 20 against Madeira in front of a massive student turnout.
Says Coates, “When I stopped letting the fans make me so nervous I realized that the cheering really is encouraging and my team and I truly appreciate everybody taking the time to support us.”
Though the volleyball crowd spikes generally have occurred only in the postseason, fans, like Ahrens, call for more fans throughout the season.
“People should attend games more because the volleyball team is the dark horse of Mariemont athletics. It’s a pretty simple game, but it’s the team spirit and the pretty girls that make it fun to go to the games,” he claims.
As Iredale points out, “The games are actually pretty fun to watch when it’s two good teams playing each other. Plus, who doesn’t like girls in spandex?”
