OCEAN CITY – A new sport has livened up the Ocean City Sports and Civic Center at Sixth near the Boardwalk. The yells of support from the bleachers could be heard outside the doors Friday afternoon as Ocean City High School’s inaugural volleyball team was playing.
The school district started the girls team this fall. They only play a junior varsity schedule as they learn to dig and spike the ball.
Counting Friday’s three-set victory over Absegami High School’s JV team, the girls are 3-1 so far this season. On Monday and Tuesday, they were hosting Cedar Creek and Absegami, respectively, and they have three more away matches on the schedule, Middle Township at 4 p.m. Oct. 6, Mainland Regional at 4 p.m. Oct. 10 and a TBA match at Stockton University at 7 p.m. Oct. 11.
Jill Garza, a teacher in Somers Point, is the head coach, and Ocean City teacher Jennifer Dean is the assistant coach of the new squad.
“It’s been a lot of fun. It’s been challenging at the same time,” Garza said. “We have very varying skills levels from ‘I only played in gym class’ to ‘I’ve been playing for four or five years.’ Our goals are to try to get all the girls to get some touches on the ball and have fun out there.
“Besides that, we’re doing our best,” she said.
Thirty-three girls came out for the team along with five managers. The team plays six girls on court at a time.
Although the girls beat the Absegami junior varsity team, winning a close first set, losing the second, and then dominating an abbreviated third, Garza wasn’t exactly pleased with their performance in the Civic Center.
“Not great,” she said. “We’ve definitely played a lot better than that. Luckily, they listened to me in the locker room. My pregame speech was unity, team unity. I thought they started to come together after each play and once they started talking and working together they began to play much better.”
Garza, who has taught for 15 years, has played “volleyball forever. All the way through high school, I played rec in college and I still play rec league now.”
She said the goals are “mostly to just get those fundamentals down. A lot of these girls didn’t know the correct way to pass and serving is huge. If you can’t get the ball over the net no one plays. We’re really just focusing on fundamentals and trying to get the girls to pass and serve.”
Dean has been a teacher in the district since 2001 and this is her 26th year of teaching. She coached in the school district, with Trish LeFever in field hockey back in 2001, coached lacrosse and for the past 10 years coached softball.
“As far as volleyball, I really wanted the program to start,” Dean said. “I wanted the program to really take hold, start a booster club and just get our team going. I volunteered. I wanted to help.” While she has a good bit of coaching experience, she isn’t as versed as Garza about volleyball.
Dean said she and Garza bounce things off of each other to get organized and have practice plans ready.
“It’s been really fun. I love it. Me being 51 years old you’d think I’m on my way out but I love teaching and I love coaching. I’m a lifer,” she said, laughing. “And I love this district. It’s been great to me and I always want to give back.”
The fledgling team has had a lot of support. The girls play at the center on Sixth Street because equipment hasn’t been set up at the school’s main gym net.
Dean thanked Kristi Fenton, the city’s recreation director,
“The city has been absolutely phenomenal. They taped our floors correctly. We’ve been so happy. There’s support everywhere. The athletic director (Geoffrey Haines) has been great helping us. We’ve been shy a little bit with equipment and Fenton has loaned the team some equipment and gym teacher Beth Kelly also helped,” Dean said.
She said she loves all of the girls who came out for the team.
“We decided in the beginning we wanted to work on teamwork. There are seniors who came out. They didn’t have previous experience either. They just played in gym class,” Dean said. “They’re stepping up and you can see it. From day one until now every single girl on this team has increased their level of skills.”
She and Garza also gave a shout-out to Jana Reilly, the Egg Harbor Township volleyball coach, who helped them out in the beginning and let the coaches see tryouts and practice.
One of the new players is Danna Ramirez, 15, a sophomore from Sea Isle City who plans to play through the rest of high school. She and Jess Mooney were the captain’s for Friday’s game.
“I came out because I didn’t know Ocean City was going to start (a team) so I was very eager to belong to a volleyball team, especially since Ocean City didn’t have one,” she said. “And now I took the opportunity because, why not?”
She is having “a ton” of fun. “This has really improved a lot of my skills. I think this has been a great opportunity for us to increase our mobility out on the court.”
“My hope is that this keeps on growing for future generations as well,” Ramirez said. “Since they started it, they should keep it going.”
In addition to Ramirez and Mooney, the other team members who suited up for Friday’s game included Ella Catton, Marlie Chiarello, Ava Coffey, Nikki Limo, Brielle Linden, Brooke Panico, Miranda Peterson, Addie Piola and Allie Youngblood.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
