Five Lady Pioneers and one team manager were recognized during an emotional senior night when they played in their last home game at the SHS Fieldhouse. This specific group of seniors is special to Head Coach Andrue Brown because some of them were his first group of girls to coach.
“Ella, Josie, Kennedy all played for me as 8th graders and my very first year coaching volleyball, so it’ll definitely be an emotional night,” Coach Brown said
A lot of the girls agreed that they will miss game days the most, more specifically before the games. The girls love to get ready together, hang out in the locker room and catch up before taking the court.
“I’m going to miss the game days, just like before the games with everyone, hanging out in the locker room and just catching up,” senior Josie Torres said.
Overnight tournaments are something all the seniors agreed on being some of their favorite memories of being on the team. Some fun memories were ordering Crumbl Cookie, hanging out until the last second before curfew, watching Pioneer football games and a hotel evacuation from a fire alarm that some of them slept through.
“My favorite memory is when we would go to the overnight tournaments and how much fun we would have in the hotels,” senior Kennedy Johnson said
The team manager, also a senior, decided to become a manager his sophomore year due to there being no boys volleyball team. Senior Porter Matlock helped all of the girls, alongside Coach Brown, improve in volleyball.
“I will miss hanging out with my friends and seeing other people I know from other schools,” Matlock said.
Not only will Coach Brown be affected by the loss of these seniors, but the whole team will feel the impact of them not being here next year.
“They are a very big impact on the team and it’s just going to be really sad without them next year,” junior Taylor Rattay said.
The game against CCS was a highly competitive match. Although it ended in a loss, the Lady Pioneers are still alive and start Regionals next week.
Coach Brown said he is still optimistic about the future of Stillwater volleyball.
“The future is bright, but it is mainly built on the backs of the girls who worked hard to get us to this situation in the first place,” he said.