Volleyball Preview

Volleyball Preview -- High ropes and high hopes at Edgewood

Team building exercise over summer teaches Edgewood players to rely on each other, have fun this season.

By John Bombatch

Staff Writer

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

MIDDLETOWN - Before the Edgewood Cougars girls volleyball team began its season on Monday, Aug. 25, the players had already reached new heights.

This past summer, in an effort to become a closer-knit bunch, Edgewood coach Missy Mefford and her team participated in a team building exercise at Camp Campbell Gard just outside Hamilton.

High up in the air, with only a safety harness separating each Cougar from the ground, the team worked together to solve a series of challenges on the camp's high ropes course.

While she didn't expect things to go quite as they did, team captain Hannah Dennis said the camp truly brought her closer to her teammates.

"I cried while I was up there," she said. "I don't like heights, so that course was really tough for me.

"You're way up there, hanging on by a harness, and you've got bridges, logs and all kinds of ropes to cross," Dennis said. "It was really scary for me, but I think from each of us helping each other get through it, we've become a closer group."

Mefford smiled when she heard Dennis' description of the high ropes camp.

"Thirty-five feet up in the air, with nothing but a harness and your teammates to help you get through the course, a lot of us were scared," Mefford said. "But I think that was one instance where Hannah - who is usually one of the leaders who helps the rest of the team - she had to have the rest of the team help her."

Dennis and co-captain Angie Holbrook say the team is closer than last year's 3-18 squad already.

Having to start the season without 2007 Fort Ancient Valley Conference first-teamer Allison Bubemyre has also brought the team close together.

Bubemyre, a senior with a 4.125 grade point average, is appealing a grades-related suspension by the Ohio High School Athletic Association, a case that involves a college course she'd taken at Miami University.

Even though they've barely scratched the regular season schedule, Dennis says she's seen results.

"Last season, we'd be in five different groups when we'd sit up in the stands before the varsity matches," Dennis said, motioning toward her teammates who were packed in all around her. "You can see how close we are this year."

Prior to Monday's season-opening 25-19, 25-11, 25-13 road loss to Middletown, the team was crammed closely together as one unified mob in the bleachers.

"No matter how this season turns out for us, we're going to have a lot of fun," Dennis said.

*from the Middletown Journal