All-Ohio volleyball team honors Red Devils

When you are successful and win, the postseason accolades usually follow. The Tippecanoe volleyball team set a new standard with their program as three members of the Red Devils were named to the all-Ohio team that was released last week.

In addition, head coach Howard Garcia also received his second consecutive Ohio Division Three Coaches Achievement Award.

Senior Savannah Clawson was named to the Division Three First-Team all-Ohio team, while senior Courtney Post and sophomore Abbi Mader were both named to the Third-Team all-Ohio. It is the first time in school history that three players in the same year received all-state honors. Even with those honors, Garcia said it has been tough to get recognition for the Red Devils over the years.

“A lot has to do with our school, we are isolated in nature when it comes to volleyball, and it is very hard to get recognition,” Garcia said. “Now, when we moved into the Final Four, we have defeated teams that are very good and may not have known very much about us; now they saw the result of it. They said these girls at Tipp are legit.”

“It provides the legacy that it is something big here, and several teams have been like that for quite a while.”

But now, the recognition has arrived.

Post will continue her volleyball career at Otterbein next season. Garcia said her success goes beyond the court, it is how she is as a person.

“The reason why she is who she is this year is because she has never changed as a person,” Garcia said. “Every year she has added something to her skillset, but she has never changed her values and how she talks to others. She has been through all the wars with us for four years. If she struggles in a match, you will not know it, or if she is having a great match, you will not know it. It is because she never changes the way she treats her teammates or the sport itself.”

Another player who landed on the Third-Team was Mader, who has seen her game grow tremendously since she stepped onto the floor as a freshman last season.

“She has been surrounded by fantastic players and been able to absorb that,” Garcia said. “Everyone likes Abbi, but she reciprocates the same way. On the court, as every single match goes by she is getting better and better. She has harnessed more of her physical skills and maintains them more under control to be more viable.”

On the First-Team team was a young lady who it is believed has become the first three-time all-state player in Tipp history with Clawson landing a spot among the elite in Ohio.

“She believes what the program can do, and what it has done for her,” Garcia said. “She has that responsibility to carry that onto others. She holds that in high standards.”

“Since her freshman year, she has given us every single thing she has, whether it is a serve, defensive play, a cheer…. she gives you everything. I cannot imagine where we would have been the past couple of years without Savannah Clawson. She is the standard setter for the program.”

This is also the second straight season that Garcia has received the Coaches Achievement Award in Ohio for Division Three.

“There can be coaches who can make the kids really good, but it comes down to the kids who you have and the community you work for,” he said. “It recognizes that Tippecanoe High School has a very good volleyball program and something is happening here on a frequent basis.”

“I am just giving them the tools, they are taking the tools and using them right.”

A volleyball memory to last a lifetime

COMMENTARY

Sometimes, it’s just different.

What we saw recently with the Tipp volleyball program, will go down in history as the most successful volleyball team in the history of Tippecanoe High School.

It was literally a perfect season. They finished 29–0 on the season, capturing the first volleyball state title in school history.  

They also only lost four sets all season, finishing 87–4. In short, they just did not know how to lose, and in the games where they had to step up their game a little bit, oh like maybe the state finals, they did that. In the biggest way. 

They lost the third set and you had to wonder if Bloom Carroll was going to get the momentum. All the Red Devils did was annihilate them in the fourth set. They ended the game on a 19–3 run, you just don’t do that in the state championship game.

But this team did. They believed in each other all season, loved and respected each other to the fullest, and when it’s time to step on the court, they just took care of business.

Nobody touched these players all season, and it takes me back to when I was sitting in New Bremen high school in August for a mega super scrimmage that had a lot of the powerhouses up in Northwest Ohio, and Tippecanoe.

New Bremen‘s legendary coach Diana Kramer and I had a great conversation that day when it was over, and she told me Tipp was winning the state title. And she would know, she’s won four of them in the last 10 years. 

It’s about persevering through the tough days, not every practice is going to be great, not every game is going to be flawless. But the young ladies' attitudes, demeanor, and will-to-win was not going to be damaged this season.

Think about this, the Red Devils were totally snubbed in all of the polls, they got no respect from any media outside of the Dayton area, and all they did was destroy the three teams that finished number one, two and three in the state ranking. Disrespect goes a long way.

But this team had what it takes. They had five seniors who dedicated themselves to a program that coach Howard Garcia began to mold when he got here over 10 years ago. And I always tell kids no matter what your role is on the team, play it to the fullest. When the final ball hit out of bounds and the chaos began, it was a moment that Kaylee, Savannah, Bri, Morgan and Courtney will never forget in their final ever high school volleyball game.

The juniors were unflappable and sophomore Abbi Mader, well she’s already a bigtime D1 basketball recruit but what she did this season in volleyball was equally impressive. Now I don’t know as much about the white ball as I do the orange one, but I would say her inbox will be filling up with a lot of volleyball interest. 

And what can you say about the community? What I saw at Wittenberg was so impressive, filling up the entire side of Pam Evans Gymnasium. I remember running into the Wittenberg AD., a friend of mine who was a two-time WNBA championship head coach, he just looked and smiled at the support that this town gave these young ladies. 

Then what can you say about Wright State? I mean, literally, the whole town was there, and the student section, wow, did they show out! 

After getting to go through all of the state championship benefits that this team will get, eventually the championship feeling will fade. It won’t disappear but in just a few months, another team will begin preparation for a new season. But this team…they’re gonna wake up every day knowing they are champions. And that they were untouchable. And that they are Red Devils.