To end school before winter break, Fallston participated in student versus teacher volleyball games. Every grade got a team consisting of 12 students to face the rough and tough teacher team.
At the end of it all, the teachers won two and lost two games with the following results:
- Win against the freshmen 20-19
- Win against the sophomores 28-13
- Loss against the juniors 22-27
- Loss against the seniors 28-36
First up was the freshman team. Mr. Costante served for the first serve of the match, and the first point of the game went to the teachers. The freshman team’s coaches, Ella Litz and Natalie Wirth, were not messing around and rotated every player off the court after the score was only 3-2 with the freshmen winning.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until Mr. White rotated in, wearing a Grinch onesie. With Mr. White’s fast hits back at students and Mr. Rychwalski’s electric spikes, the score went from the teachers being down, 14-8, to a tied score of 14-14.
Finally, the freshman team got the ball back with the teachers leading with a 17-15 score.
With seconds left on the clock and a score of only one point difference, the freshman class was scrambling, trying to get a point to tie it up. After a few more seconds, the buzzer rang, ending the game with the teachers winning a close game, 20-19, against the freshmen.
The close score surprised many watching. “We didn’t expect to be so close with the freshmen,” admitted Ms. Price. Typically, the freshman game is a warmup for the teachers, but they gave the teachers a run for their money this year.
“We started off strong but in the middle of the game we kind of sold, but it was fun,” said freshman player, Mylan Durbin. “We’ll be back next year just watch,” adds freshman player Zion Triplett.
Next came the sophomores. The teachers started with the serve and got the first point. However, Oliver Rueckert wasted no time and single-handedly led the next rally that gave the sophomore team their first point.
After some back and forth, you could tell that this game was going to consist of a lot of one-on-one plays with the teachers and the sophomores. Mr. Costante showed up by spiking on sophomore player, Brooke Bolesta, breaking the 8-8 tie and spiked again shortly after, making the score 12-8.
The sophomore coaches, Ayla Galloway and Maddy Burns, frequently subbed out the whole team leaving the team, and the students watching, constantly confused.
With five minutes left in the game and the teachers winning 14-11, the sophomores needed to turn things around fast to win.
Sadly, the sophomores didn’t find their groove fast enough and with one minute left, a 25-13 score, and nontraditional coaching tactics, the sophomores knew their fate was doomed.
The game ended with the teachers winning with a 28-13 score, their second win of the competition.
“I think we struggled a little bit as coaches with the rotation,” said sophomore coach Maddy Burns. “We weren’t really sure how that works.”
The coaches took inspiration from their own coach, Johnny Woods, and used his coaching tactics throughout the game. Those coaching tactics do help in basketball, but they did not help in this game.
Already doing some recruiting next year, the sophomore class is determined to come back stronger than ever. “Junior year we’re going to win,” said sophomore player, Victoria Goad.
Between the sophomore and junior game, there was a special musical performance by the teachers. Mr. Houck sang “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” by Mariah Carey, accompanied by thirteen backup dancers. Meeting during their lunch period and after school, a group of ten teachers and three high school students planned a backup routine for the show.
“It was kind of a combination effort between me, the English department, and Ms. Ryan,” said band director Ms. Breidenbaugh.
Mr. Houck of course wore a boa while the dancers wore old color guard jackets. “Nothing says both holiday and school spirit like gold and glittery jackets,” said dancer Ms. Majewski. “And shoulder pads!” added dancer Ms. Rizer.
The Jazz band also played a big part playing Christmas show tunes during each game change and played along with Mr. Houck’s performance.
The juniors then made their way onto the court, starting the game with varsity volleyball player, Ethan Seilback, serving and the teachers getting the first point. No one knew how to react when Nolan Fisher walked onto the court dressed as Santa Claus except for the announcers. Announcer seniors, Saras Gill and Max Rueckert, quickly came up with catchy comments like, “Santa Claus is coming to town” and “Santa is trying to save Christmas.”
Nolan Fisher helped to tie the game at 12-12 with seven minutes left. This game was filled with great volleys, leaving everyone constantly on the edge of their seat while watching the game.
You can easily tell that the teachers started changing how they played to complement the skills of their teammates, especially when Mr. Costante and Mr. Houck collectively spiked on the juniors, giving the teachers a lead with 17-14 showing on the scoreboard.
Mr. Costante went head-to-head with Ian Swartzendruber many times, but with Ian’s height – well, we all know how that went.
The juniors got in their groove and the score switched in favor of the student class. Another spike by Ian gave the juniors more of a lead, making it 24-21 with a minute left. If the teachers had been quick enough, they could have tied it, but with Landon Bell running all over the court saving the ball with his shallow digs, there wasn’t much hope for the teachers.
The game ended with the juniors winning 27-22, making this game the first loss for the teachers.
“The junior team was hard,” said Mrs. Price. “There was not much we could do when [Ian] was in the front row.” This seemed to be the takeaway from a lot of teachers. “I think we will probably not hit it to Ian next year,” reflected Mr. Rychwalski.
Talking to the junior coaches about the game, they were ecstatic with how the game played out.
“It’s all about communication,” said junior coach Taylor Thomas. “When you talk on the floor, that’s what racks up the points and that’s exactly what we did.”
Having a great mix of different groups around the school, this team really came together and played well against the teachers.
“We told you it was going to happen on the floor and look what happened,” ended junior coach Kylie Thrift.
Finally, the seniors walked onto the court. Already before they picked up the ball, you could tell this team was on another level. With the matching festive suit jackets the coaches, Sara Drzik, Leah Rhinehart, and Erin-Kate Roeder wore, and the matching shirts the whole team had, you knew this game was going to be different.
Mr. Collins served first but Jason Roberts quickly showed his own skills, giving the students the first point of the game.
Starting slow in the beginning, the students and teachers were neck and neck tying 6-6 and later 10-10 when Landon Mills spiked the ball after a short rally.
Soon after, a dispute broke out with the referee over the possession of the ball; the ball went to the students. Varsity volleyball player, Grace Pfaff, served, breaking away from the close score with five consecutive serves making the score 19-15.
The teachers worried about this game playing against four varsity volleyball players, but they hadn’t taken Jackson Peganoff into account. The football player spiked the ball over Mr. Capozzoli, and Graham Johnson and Landon Mills both added hits of their own, making the score 21-18.
The crowd’s favorite was easily Marco Garcia-Tellez who was not afraid to jump to get the ball, not backing down from any hit.
Mrs. Price and Mr. Hulka had an amazing bump and set play; with that play, the teachers were only two points away from the seniors.
As the game continued, the teachers could see the score growing further and further apart, especially with Kyra Douglass’ amazing serves, but could do little to stop it from happening. With little time left, the teachers tried their hardest to get the score closer, but the buzzer rang and the score 36-28 shined on the scoreboard.
“[The teachers] just couldn’t keep up and I don’t think anyone was surprised,” expressed Graham Johnson. “Everyone knew that the seniors were going to dominate from the start, and we did just that.”
“We destroyed them,” said senior player Jason Roberts reflecting on the game.
Everything about the senior team seemed to flow organically, especially with the coaches. “Our coaches did very well,” said senior player, Arianna Pross.
Talking to the coaches, you could tell how proud they are of their team. Coach Leah Rhinehart expressed this by saying, “We had a lot of talent and a lot of good volleyball IQ between the whole team, and they all played really well.”
Even with this game being the hardest loss for the teachers, they didn’t take it to heart. “We hung in there and had some good moments,” reflected Mrs. Price.
“Hats off to the seniors,” said Ms. Palko. “Seniors did what seniors do best, which is show up and beat everybody. I’m proud of you guys!”
Great job to all the students and the teachers that played volleyball, played instruments, danced, and sang. I’m sure Fallston can’t wait for next year’s match-up!
