Volleyball uses summer to prepare for big season

Everyone knows how good the Tippecanoe volleyball program has been. A trip to the regional semis last season was cut short with a heartbreaking loss to Ursuline. The summer has brought about a new focus for the Red Devils as they not only prepare for another shot at a league title, but a chance to make a memorable run.

“It’s great to be a target because now you have to defend that and we have been doing that for quite a while now,” Tipp coach Howard Garcia said as youth camp recently wrapped up. “You have that as your basis, but at the end of the day, these girls know where the program has been.” “They want to repeat this again, not only within the conference but when they go into the tournament. At that point it’s one-and-done. The stakes are higher. Yes, people know we have dominated the conference for several years now but now they know Tipp is a contender. When a team does not accomplish what its predecessor did, they take it as a failure.”

While everyone remembers the loss to Ursuline, it was the match before that Garcia said defined his team.

“The match before, when we played New Richmond, we were down 2-0,” the Tipp coach said. “We came back and put the motors together and we destroyed them. Next year, we could be the favorites in our conference. We could have a match where we don’t perform well and it costs us the championship. But if you have prepared yourself physically and mentally for what has happened before, so it doesn’t happen again, you will be alright.”

One of the biggest challenges a coach has when they have a team heavily favored to succeed is keeping them focused, and that is what Garcia is doing. “We do not care who the opponent is, we are there to perform to the best of our abilities,” he said. “That will determine the outcome of that match. If it is a team that is not at our level, we can’t just assume because they are not at our level, we aren’t going to apply what we have learned.”

Savannah Clawson is a player who Garcia is counting on as a big leader for this team, as she is a two-time all-state player. “She is a leader by example, and not just her, but we have several who are leaders by example,” he said. “When we start the season, we sit around and talk about what we have accomplished before and that it doesn't matter anymore.” 

Time will tell how this team responds to the challenge, but the Red Devils will get things going August 1 as the season approaches.