Mary Langenfeld
A long day was a happy one for the Mount Horeb volleyball team when the Vikings won a tournament they hosted in September.
When the high school sports season begins each fall, everyone talks about Friday night lights — the marching band, the crowded bleachers. No one talks about Saturday morning pillows.
That’s when yawning teenagers, earbuds in place and pillows in hand, board a bus heading to a volleyball tournament, cross-country invitational, soccer game or swim meet for the day.
It’s a quiet start to what is really the most frenetic day in high school sports as legions of athletes roll out of bed at dawn in order to compete.
“We see the sun rise,” says Randolph volleyball player Courtney Vander Galien, who with her teammates got on a bus at 6 a.m. in late September to go to the Mount Horeb Invitational. “Football players see the sun set.”
Saturday events are the norm for all fall sports other than varsity football, but volleyball players are truly tested on their endurance. While they will play a single match on a weeknight, on Saturdays they play four or five matches in a tournament that might feature a dozen or more teams. These tournaments are an opportunity for teams to pack a lot of competition into one day and to play teams beyond their conferences.
A Sept. 16 tournament in Middleton lasted from 8 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. — the Mount Horeb Vikings lost in the final game to West Allis Nathan Hale. “That was a long day,” says Mount Horeb coach Kurt Owen. “But it was a short one for that tournament. Sometimes there will still be games going on at 8 o’clock at night.
“Mentally you’re pretty worn out by the end,” Owen adds. “When you’re not playing you’re making sure they’re still warmed up and that you’re keeping them together.”
For the Mount Horeb tournament, coaches had to be at the high school in time for a 7:45 a.m. meeting. Volunteers were there early too to get the concession stand up and running for a day that would start with muffins and Honey Buns and segue into hot dogs, pizza and nachos (with other healthier foods available, too).
Mount Horeb activities director Kolleen Nesheim and Lou Ann Spanel, who serves as the tournament host, were there more than an hour earlier. For Nesheim, volleyball was just a sliver of her day; there was also a home soccer game she had to check out and be on site that evening for the school’s homecoming dance.
It’s a long day for the players, who might catch a nap on or under the bleachers during down time but mostly figure out how to have fun together.
“We get tired but as soon as you start to play, the adrenaline hits,” says Grace Shay, a Mount Horeb senior.
The Vikings had plenty to celebrate in their gym that Saturday: They won their tournament and five hours later, Shay was announced as the Homecoming queen. Homecoming king was soccer goalie Carter Coon, who had a match earlier in the day.
The visiting teams were back on their buses by then, returning to a world where few understand what their weekends are really like.
“The other day our history teacher said, ‘What are you doing for fun this weekend?’ and we said we were playing volleyball,” says Randolph junior Jora Hughes. “And she said, ‘That’s all you’re going to do?’”
But even with a 5:45 a.m. wakeup call, Hughes’ teammate Vander Galien had an easy answer. “What else would we want to do?”
50,664: High school athletes playing WIAA-sanctioned sports this fall, not including football. That includes boys’ and girls’ cross-country, girls’ golf, boys’ soccer, girls’ swimming and diving, girls’ tennis, and boys’ and girls’ volleyball.
25,629: High school athletes playing football this fall.
177: Enrollment at Randolph High School, the smallest school in the Sept. 23 Mount Horeb Invitational volleyball tournament. The largest school in the tournament was Madison East, with 1,502 students. “We want to play tournaments because we want to play the bigger schools,” says Randolph coach Jeff Kohlbeck. That strategy works; last season the Rockets made it to the state tournament for the first time since 1999.
80: Teams (40 each boys and girls) in the Midwest Invitational cross-country meet hosted by Janesville Craig on Sept. 23, including many from the Madison area.
19,633: Steps (just shy of 10 miles) tracked by Lou Ann Spanel in her role as “tournament host” at the Mount Horeb Invitational volleyball tournament.
