By Avonlea Cummings
Hometown Weekly Sports Reporter
The boys’ volleyball team has made an impressive mark on their season winning 18-1 of their games. The team has been undefeated in the Tri-Valley League Large. The Warriors have been titled as champions of their TVL volleyball season and hope to continue their success streak.
Jerry Shu has been a coach for the boys since the beginning of the pandemic, since then he believes the change of the culture of the team has been one of many reasons leading to the team’s success.
“It takes time to build a culture and a team. My first real year was Covid year, but that was going to be our honeymoon year to kick things off. A lot of my players still think about that year. Setting the culture has been the most important part, it took about two years to establish the culture. We are this hidden gem; we have been climbing the standings throughout these three years. I think that’s the most important part, of any game is having the right mindset and right culture for the boys to develop and grow within the team,” said Shu.
During their senior night against Bellingham Shu had all seven of his seniors play throughout the entirety of the match leading to their 3-0 win in celebration of the seniors.
“We have seven seniors this year, four of which are my primary starters great group of kids I couldn’t say anything better. They played well, strong enough and healthy enough to stay all game and made a memorable night to carry on the win,” said Shu.
Not only has the success of the team have been through a culture shift but it has been through the growth and maturity of the team Shu reflected. He mentioned another big aspect is the leadership brought from his two captains.
“The two captains Caleb Garverich and Matthew Herbst, Caleb is a two year captain and Matt is a one year captain. Each year captains have different roles, there is so much work that goes into it. These two guys are very talented, they have different types of skills when it comes to their captainship too, Caleb is the skills and drills kind of guy. Whereas Matt is the communications and understanding side of leadership, being a captain doesn’t mean you are the best player it means you are the best to motivate the team,” said Shu.
The team will advance into the playoffs as the standings have been released earlier this week, you can check out their post-season schedule and follow their success on the Arbiter website.
