CLARION, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Some outside the Clarion Area High School gymnasium walls see the Bobcat volleyball players inside as chum in the water.
The sharks are circling, eager to finally take a chomp at their prey.
(Above, from left, junior Taylor Alston, senior Adia Needham and senior Aryana Girvan, are eager to produce another memorable season for Clarion volleyball.)
They perceive Clarion volleyball as weakened by graduation losses of players who will go down as Bobcat legends; Players who helped lead the program to back-to-back undefeated PIAA Class A championship seasons.
But beware.
“Yeah, we’ve done this before,” said Clarion volleyball coach Shari Campbell. “The 2010 and 2011 teams were probably some of the best rosters I’ve ever had. And then our 2012 team walked right in (and won a state championship).
“These kids are really committed and they want to have the torch passed to them. They want to repeat what their role models had done.”
Clarion Area High School sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Redbank Chevrolet and DuBrook.
Clarion will have to do it this year without Korrin Burns and Jordan Best and Noel Anthony and Payton Simko — all-state players who put up eye-popping numbers and were instrumental in two state titles.
But 5-foot-8 senior Adia Needham, who led the Bobcats in blocks last season as a middle hitter, said they’re not really gone.
“Korrin and Jordan and all of them were kind of like our coaches in a way,” Needham said. “They’ve helped us get better, and we’ve used what they’ve taught us for this year. Even though they’re gone, they’re still there in a way because they taught us so much.”
Needham said this group also has a volleyball-sized chip on their collective shoulders.
They are hearing the rumblings of the naysayers, who are already writing them off, and from the opposition, who would like nothing more than to topple the state champs.
“It really motivates us to prove people wrong,” she said. “People are saying, ‘Oh, they lost a lot.’ But we’re like, ‘You know what, we’re going to show you that we’re still Clarion volleyball and we’re going to give it back, right back, just like we always have.’
“It’s also really exciting, but kind of nerve-racking at the same time because we don’t want to fail to live up to our expectations and the goals we’ve made. We have a lot of goals.”
No matter who puts on the uniform at Clarion, those goals remain the same.
Win the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference.
Win the District 9 championship — something they have done for four years running.
Make a run at a state title.
“There’s no negativity on our team. We just kind of thrive off each other,” Needham said. “We use each other to build ourselves up. We always strive to win the KSAC and the district. We definitely want to win the state title three times in a row.”
Clarion isn’t exactly hurting for talent to make that kind of run.
Senior Aryana Girvan was second on the team behind Burns with 207 kills despite missing a few matches with an ankle injury last season.
She’s only 5-2, but her leaping ability and powerful swing help her play much bigger than her diminutive size. Girvan was also named to the all-state team last year.
There are other players who are itching to make their marks.
“We have some players returning who have played key roles in the past two seasons of success, like Aryana Girvan and Adia Needham and Grace Ochs and Brianne Pierce,” Campbell said. “Those are our seniors, and they’ve all seen the court and contributed, so I’m looking for them to step up. I think they’re rising to that challenge, because it’s certainly a challenge to defend back-to-back state championships.”
The biggest question mark is at setter, where Clarion has had a long line of stars.
Anthony was stellar in that role last season, taking over for four-time all-state performer Brenna Campbell.
This year, Shari Campbell is unsettled on who her setter (or setters) will be.
“Noel did a ton of work to make herself the player that she was as a senior and setter is always a trademark of ours,” Campbell said. “I’m looking at our options right now. We have a lot of kids who have done the work and can set.”
Seven players could eventually fill that role. Leading candidates are Grace Ochs, Taylor Alston, Hadlee Campbell and Sophie Babington. There are also three freshmen who have setting experience.
“Competition is always good,” Coach Campbell said.
So is staying grounded.
Clarion has set the bar so high, the players can sometimes lose grasp on reality.
What the Bobcats did the last two seasons is not normal. It’s pretty unheard of.
They’ve won 44 consecutive matches and have lost just three sets during that streak.
Both state championship matches were 3-0 sweeps.
“That’s my job to bring reality to them,” Campbell said. “They are all great kids and they all have individual personalities and they are all great players. You know, everybody on the outside just sees them as Clarion volleyball players and they can’t wait to be the ones to take them down. So my job is to make sure they are prepared for that pressure.”
Clarion Area High School sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Redbank Chevrolet and DuBrook.
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