It’s the destination, not the journey

Published 9:00 am Saturday, November 11, 2006

Just getting to State isn’t enough this year; BHS wants a title.

To Bainbridge volleyball teammates and seniors Hannah Stuart, Marijke Schwarz-Smith, Lindsey Bratonia and Ally Post, making it to State is not wishful thinking. It’s a goal they strive for every year.

“It’s an expectation that we have made for ourselves,” Stuart said. “And we’ve risen to it every year.”

This year, the road to that goal took some twists and turns – most notably at the Sea-King District 2 tournament last weekend.

The Spartans had to play three games in a row with only a 20-minute break in between their games, and it also came with some pressure.

“Last year we had to play Rainier Beach (at districts) and this year we had to play Newport,” Schwarz-Smith said. “It was a real difference.”

“It was really taxing on our nerves,” Stuart added. “It felt more stressful.”

The mental, physical and emotional strain nearly got to them at times, but they fought back. Stuart said the team became one.

“I really felt that everyone started connecting,” she said.

Bratonia agreed.

“I think it’s the first time that we all focused together,” she said. “Everyone had to be in sync.”

So despite all the obstacles, the Spartans have made it back to this weekend’s 3A volleyball tournament for the fifth straight year.

The streak is not only a record for volleyball teams in Kitsap County, it’s the second longest streak in school history behind the six straight appearances at a state tournament by the boys soccer team from 1996 to 2001.

It gives the Spartan volleyball program six appearances at a state tournament overall.

Their success is thanks to the talent that has come through the gymnasium in recent years, from Kristina Purdom, Ashley Bice, Alison Thies and Michelle Miller, to recent grads like Sabrina Tan, Michelle Baggett and Alexa Seidl, and current players like Stuart, Schwarz-Smith, Post, Bratonia, Kelcey Dunaway and Hillary Grant.

“We’ve gotten kind of lucky the past five years,” Post said. “We’ve had some powerful players.”

They also gave credit to head coach Julie Miller.

“Her coaching technique is the players have to want it,” Bratonia said. “She can’t motivate you to want to win.”

“She knows that it’s not her that’s playing,” Schwarz-Smith said.

Miller said that when she first started coaching, she wasn’t too familiar with the importance of making the state tournament, but now she realizes what it means to the players.

“I think it’s a good tradition,” she said. “I think it makes it more exciting to get to the postseason for sure.

“Even before the streak, we always said we wanted to go to State and then we finally did. Now, it’s a goal every year to get there.

And, Miller added, “road trips are always fun. You can take a road trip and stay in a hotel somewhere. Who doesn’t want to do that?”

Road trippin’

The quartet of players have had some fun over the years and have some great memories of youthful hijinks on their journeys.

Post recalled last year in Everett when some of their teammates decided to start a collection of hotel items.

“Hillary and Daron (Vandelur) and Becky (Gottlieb) stole things from other people’s rooms,” she said.

“They took things like the cups, the ice bucket and put them in their rooms,” Schwarz-Smith said. “I think Hillary had 60 – 60! – cups in her room.”

“Even the lampshades were missing,” Stuart said.

It hasn’t all been fun. The first year the Spartans went to the tournament in Yakima, Thies hurt her finger so bad that she and the coach had to sit in an emergency room for hours awaiting medical attention.

The next year, one of the team Suburbans broke down in Everett, and a parent had to go back and pick up some of the girls.

The year after that, tournament games were running well behind schedule and the Spartans didn’t finish with their first-round contest until midnight – with their next game taking place early in the morning.

“(But) the whole thing was fun,” Miller said. “I can’t pick one thing that stands out.”

They’ve had some fun this year by holding what they call “DP’s,” or dancing parties, on the top deck of the ferry coming back from road games. It’s a chance for the team to unwind.

Bratonia said, “We just have a lot of fun –”

“– and get strange looks from people walking by,” Schwarz-Smith interjected.

But to make it to State is not just about getting away from school for a few days and continue a streak.

The Bainbridge girls want to take home a trophy as well.

In their last three appearances, the Spartans have made it to second-day play, but only come home with a third-place finish in 2004.

They had high expectations last year, but collapsed against White River.

As seniors Stuart, Schwarz-Smith, Post, Bratonia want to go out on top this time.

“We want to go as far as we possibly can,” Schwarz-Smith said. “What we went through Saturday, there has to be some reward.”

Bratonia agreed.

“We talked about what we wanted to accomplish,” she said. “Julie asked, ‘Do you guys want to go (and be happy) just because we got there, but we all said ‘No, we want to go as far as we can.’”

Miller feels they’ll go out on a high note this weekend.

“I think the expectation is that they want some sort of hardware,” she said. “Which is good, because it’s up to them. To me, I would love to have a trophy but they’re the ones that have to go out and play (for it).”