“I absolutely believe in doing the little things,” says Howard Garcia. “You control the things you can control.” – Tipp volleyball coach Howard Garcia
Enough with overture and on with the opera…area teams compete this weekend for district titles as the competition and the drama amp up in volleyball.
Fair or not, it simply doesn’t get the attention, the fans, or the attention that football gets.
But area volleyball heats up this week with district finals action in Dayton and Cincinnati for Miami and Shelby County teams seeking the gold right in two weeks (Nov. 6, 7, and 8) at the Nutter Center in Fairborn.
For coaches like Russia Aaron Watkins, or Tipp City’s Howard Garcia, this is kinda’ where the fun begins…one of the goals that programs set annually to measure just how good and how far they can advance.
“We always shoot to win a district title,” said Watkins in September. His Russia Raiders team shared the SCL league crown this fall with Anna and Fort Loramie (10-2).
“I’ve always said that, but this year we want to win a regional. We want to get to that final four.”
“I’ve always said we want the district…but this year we want a regional.” – Russia volleyball coach Aaron Watkins
Ditto, Fort Loramie coach Kelly Hoying, Anna coach Kelli Zumberger, Troy coach Alexis Clark…and Garcia, whose Red Devils enter Saturday’s final with Oxford Talawanda with a 24-0 record, and as much optimism as you can have for a district final.
“This is where you find out how good you are,” says Garcia. “This is where your weaknesses show up because you don’t get challenged in league play like you do with you play teams like Ursuline (Academy). Ursuline denied the Red Devils in the district last year, knocking them out of a regional appearance.
And so it is.
Tipp will meet Talawanda on Saturday at Fairfield Arena at 1 pm.
Troy plays Cin. Mt. Notre Dame at Trent Arena at 2 pm.
Russia will play New Miami at Fairborn High School at 11 am.
Fort Loramie will play Troy Christian at Fairborn High School at 3 pm.
Houston plays Fort Recovery at Trent Arena (Kettering) at 10 am.
Anna plays Summit Country Day at Monroe High School at 11 am.
Miami East plays Deer Park at Monroe at 3 pm.
And that’s just the beginning. Let’s face it…there are so many area teams playing on Saturday that to accurately follow where, and when…you have to go to www.OHSAA.org, click on the state-wide brackets prompt, check your school’s division, and follow the bouncing ball. With so many divisions now (seven), the district final venues are as scattered as grass seed in the wind. There’s almost more than you can list on one page.
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But again, the point is…this is where the fun starts if you’re Watkins, or Zumberger, or Garcia, wanting to measure the comparable strength of your program against district this weekend, the region next week, and then the state.
“I’ve been there,” adds Garcia, who led Middletown Fenwick to the Div. III state title in 2010 before taking Tipp to the state semi-final round in 2020. They were knocked out by Gilmour Academy.
“At this level it’s a lot of little things, and the discipline you work on throughout the year,” adds Garcia. “And it takes a degree of balance. We have many players that can do many things very well, and the things that we cannot do well, the other ones complement them.”
And one cannot mistake the obvious lapses in competition, in all divisions, that have come with the expansion to seven divisions. In area volleyball alone, there were 18 semi-final matches on Wednesday of this week, and of the 18 only four of them were not three-set sweeps.
So when coaches focus their goals on district and regional competition, it’s only natural, and follows, perhaps last year’s pattern at the state level.
In the seven OHSAA title matches played just last year…four of the seven – Division I, Division IV, Division VI, and Division VII – were decided in three sets.
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