WAYNE – Following a district final loss on Halloween last fall, the Wayne High volleyball team began their official NSAA practice schedule earlier this week.
Fall sports were able to start practicing as a team on Monday, August 9.
Traci Krusemark enters her 10th year as the head coach for Wayne High volleyball. She said this past summer it was good to get back in a routine.
“So, we went to the Wayne State team camp and we had some individual camps and all of our open gyms,” said Krusemark. “We (also) had our sand tournament down at the Jug for a few days and we also host our own team tournament here on the courts and we use the Activity Center and both of the schools gyms.”
Joining coach Krusemark will be Dale Hochstein and Nichelle Daum.
This year’s team will feature six seniors among the 18 out for Blue Devil volleyball. Three seniors were lost from last year’s team due to graduation but leadership will be called upon by this year’s upperclassmen.
“Although we have some positions that obviously need to be filled by some underclassmen,” Krusemark added. “So, basically just trying to get everybody on the same page, everybody working together for the same goal and I think the seniors are doing a good job so far of leading that.”
With an earlier start to school following a noon dismissal on Wednesday the team will switch to after school practices with longer times over the next week.
A road jamboree is scheduled for next Thursday, August 19 which will feature teams of the host Wisner-Pilger, Aquinas Catholic, Battle Creek, Guardian Angels Central Catholic, Norfolk, Tri-County Northeast, Winnebago and Wynot.
Coach Krusemark mentioned she tells the team this is just the first gig at putting everything together.
“We really focus, and we’ve done this the last few years, on the passing and the serve game,” Krusemark mentioned. “The offense comes with it if you can do those two things. That’s what I want us to see doing well.”
Wayne High finished 24-9 last year following a four-set loss to Columbus Lakeview in the Class C1-5 District Final.
Coach Krusemark also said they’ll look to compete early in the season.
“I think if fans maybe come to an early game, maybe to a game in the middle of the season or the end of the season hopefully they see some improvement,” said Krusemark. “Like I said, we have a lot of underclassmen that will be seeing some playing time. Hopefully they’ll be able to see our team get better each time they come.”
The 2021 campaign will begin on Thursday, August 26 for Wayne High at Ponca with the varsity match scheduled for 7:45 p.m. A two-day road tournament is also scheduled for Thursday, September 2 and Saturday, September 4 before the Blue Devil volleyball home opener on Tuesday, September 7 against Columbus Scotus at 7:30 p.m. for the varsity match.
