“It would be nice to have a redshirt year for Savannah Clawson and a few others,” says Garcia. “But now we have to move on and it’s time for the others to step up and lead.” (Press Pros Feature Photos)
The popular coach of Tipp volleyball has no grand plan to encore the Red Devils’ 2025 Division III title. Just go out and play and work to be better, and surprising…better than undefeated. After all…all you have to win is once!
Apparently there’s no complex plan with Tipp volleyball coach Howard Garcia. Like other sports, if you know what works you just go out and execute it.
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Serve well – aggressively.
Serve receive well.
That first pass in volleyball is pretty important.
And keep the ball off the court, defensively.
You never see him do backflips when it works…or kick a chair when it doesn’t.
During timeouts he rarely approaches the huddle. He lets his assistants do the coaching while he walks in circles with his head down, intent with his thoughts. Garcia is the quiet thinker. What’s coming next?
So you do those four things better than your opponent and you’re going to win games. You do it with veteran, mature senior leadership than that and you might win championships…state championships.
Tipp’s Faith Siefring returns from an outstanding state tournament as the the top libero in the Miami Valley League.
And during the Red Devils’ title run of a year ago Garcia unleashed one of the more prophetic, but true, corollaries about competition that somehow made it all feel, and seem, more doable.
“All we have to do is beat them once,” grinned Garcia two days prior to beating state #1 Akron Hoban in a stunning defeat in the Division III semi-final match at Wittenberg.
Stunning? 25-19, 25-20, and 25-15. And it wasn’t that close. Tipp played textbook volleyball, relying on a strong senior class and the mercurial efforts of then-sophomore Abby Mader, who at times played like she was running on twin Evinrudes.
Whatever Garcia had sold them through the one simple phrase – all we have to do is beat them once – was once enough. Astonished Hoban fan left Wittenberg that day believing that they had bedeviled, not just Red Deviled. Players and coaches skipped the post-game press conference. After all…what was there to say?
Whatever mojo, or voodoo, that Garcia used to push the Devils that day, even in the end, it’s nothing new with him. He won at Middletown Fenwick in 2010 and swears that all he did was preach that if you play good enough, long enough, competition breaks down. Do your job and the pressure becomes the problem of your opponent…just like what Tipp did to Hoban in November.
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His breakthrough in 2025 raised some eyebrows during the regular season because a lot of Tipp’s 22 wins came against conference competition that played as though it was already broken down.
But Tipp was that good. So good, in fact, it didn’t matter who they played, as it turned out.
Junior Abby Mader returns to add power and impact, and bonafide first-team All Ohio prospect.
“You hear that because of our schedule,” he said in November. “Every year we hear that when we go to play in Cincinnati (OHSAA tournament), and we prove those people wrong. Big games are just one match, and that’s why I said what I said last year. Literally, you only have to be good enough to beat a particular team one time on a given day. Then you move on and plan for the next match.”
In a bigger sense, he now has to move on without some very important elements – graduated Savannah Clawson, Courtney Post, and Morgan Sessions. Glass half full, he returns Mader, outstanding senior libero Faith Seifring, and a cadre of seasoned juniors from last year that saw significant, and championship playing time.
“It would be nice to have Savannah Clawson back for a redshirt year,” laughs Garcia. “She and some of the others. But we have a strong core back with experience and it’s their time now to step in and lead.”
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“Faith Seifring is a very unique kid because in the volleyball world the libero position does not get a lot of attention, and yet she does most of the dirty work.
“And everyone would want an Abby Mader on their team, whether its basketball or volleyball. And let me say this, between the two sports I don’t think it makes much difference which she plays. She’s equally impactful in both. She just has the type of personality where she can apply it equally well, and she’s very humble about it. She doesn’t take herself too seriously. But just a few days into workouts you can already see her assuming the attitude she needs to be that special player.”
In addition, Garcia and the Red Devils are profiting from that title with swollen youth summer camps and a community fervor for volleyball not known on Cowlesville Road despite decades of talented rosters and conference titles.
So, is there a new “remember the Alamo” for 2026?
Probably not. Garcia is not one to pull the wool over anyone’s head, or have it pulled over his.
“The girls have decided on “Defend the legacy” as our motto for the season,” Garcia says. “And you can put a lot of things under that…defend the title…defend the league…be better than last year…be better than undefeated? That would be hard, in fact, and even hard to repeat. We just have to be a better team, regardless, because now the bullseye will be on our back.
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“We have to play the same fundamental game,” he said last week. “Volleyball doesn’t change. The only thing that changes are the individuals. You have to be mentally tough and focused on doing your job. We’ll adjust.”
Just a few different faces.
And nothing different, really, about “You only have to beat someone once.”
“You only play them once on a given day,” says Garcia, meaning it.
Question him…if you want. Howard seems to have the answer.
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