Stratford High School - Mnemosyne Yearbook (Houston, TX)

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Varsity takes trophies Senior Darla Lee K1 91 serves the ball. l enjoy volleyball because it is such a competitive game. said Darla. lt allows me to express myself physi- cally. ,,.i,,, . , '0AllYONK1l'!iFlGYOKYOU9'Al' TAN'-' y'7r'rr1'v wharf N H-Yr' fn 'ff ANll+ ttf. I 1 11 sv ltlfillir'-5 Ri. .1 .fi 1-f trite-it 'rr llxtf, .. . . l Varsity Volleyball brought home their first trophies since their organization in 1974. Competing with sixteen teams, the varsity took a second place trophy in the Lamar Consolidated Tournament, and a Consolation trophy at the Klein Tournament. Team members enjoyed tournament competition. lt was a blast! said Junior Linda Suchochleb, We got to meet a lot of neat people from other schools. When we played, other teams cheered us on, and we cheered them. lt was tiring to play all day at tournaments, said Senior Donna Sloan, We'd usually be gone longer than we were supposed to be. But, it was fun, too. We'd eat out at cafeterias, or sit in trees and read books. At the Klein Tournament, we met a lot of people and became Spiking the ball, Senior Darla Lee 5192 is backed up by Senior Kathy Zirker 531 and Junior Sherry Williams 1382. ,se fi' good friends with a crazy team, Galena Park, because they liked our cheers. The varsity worked their way to district, where there was a toss-up between Stratford, Spring Woods, and Northbrook. Northbrook got the by, or did not play first. Spring Woods and Stratford played. This was the fifth time for the Spartans to play the Tigers. Despite beating them four times, the Spartans lost, placing third in district. Spring Woods was hard, said Linda Suchochleb, They had one girl who could really pick up plays. There was a kind of rivalry between us and Spring Woods, more than at any Westchester game. l think we played best against Spring Woods, said Donna Sloan, senior. The team, coached by Ms. NeVada Brimberry, indicated they had a good season. We had a real good year and I liked going to district, said Sherry Williams, junior. The team played strong and did very its well. They really improved from last year, said Coach Brimberry. Being on varsity was worth it, said Junior Lisa Sims, There was a lot of pressure involved, though. That's partly why l moved down to J.V. But, on varsity it was exciting. We had huddles and prayer and we all liked each other. That's why we did so well. The team consisted of four seniors, two juniors, and one sophomore. The lone Sophomore Janice Sloan said, lt wasn't hard being on varsity, because everyone included each other. We were all really close and like a family. During the season, the girls worked on basic fundamentals. We worked on defense and hitting. We also did serves, constantly. It got boring after a while. Serving and setting were our main problems, said Donna Sloan. Practice was a lot of work, said Lisa Sims, We sweated a whole bunch and lost a lot of weight. We'd serve over and over, until we were sick of it. Our work-outs were hard, and it showed in our games, said Linda uchochleb. Varsity Volleyball will lose four seniors next year and more will move up from junior varsity. We might lose some important people, said Lisa Sims, but we were all pretty equal, and that made us a team. Varsity Volleyball District Statistics SHS Opp. 2 Hastings 1 j 1 S 2 Spring Branch O 4 AX j , O Westchester 2 ? Q f , -l 51 Q ' J J, . 2 Spring Woods 1 1 - 7...---4 . 2 Elsik l try, Q-NX-.5 ,, . f 1 Northbrook 2 ,N . -..- N- y 2 Memorial O . f X X it Before a game the varsity volleyball 0 Hastings 2 vjw.. f Q u team gets ready to yell a cheer. To 2 Spring Branch O U' A ' GYO f ' 'I d ll fl d J as gor Lflerovvi gfljencarigrijzzw 2 Westchester 1 . ...,.... ..,.. M. ,W ....., . . . . towels, said Senior Donna Sloan. 3 Spring Woods 1 Elsik O 1 Spring Woods 2 volleyball 119

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'l Abs. Backed by Junior Sherry William C381, Senior Kathy Zirker C31 spike the ball against a double block b Spring Woods. Spring Woods was. tough game, said Kathy, They hai improved over the season and had . good offense and defense. S... 3 is ,ai Spiking the ball, Junior Lisa Sim: C1 71, jumps high in the air. l like spik ing the best, said Lisa. When ygg hit a good spike, you know it and f good, you feel like you've accom plished something. Stretching out before a game, Junio. Linda Suchochleb C231 and Sophoi more Janice Sloan C751, listen tc instructions from their coach Stretching out was boring, saic Linda, but it helped to prevent inju- ries. 1 18 volleyball

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A close-knit team Concluding a tying 7-7 season, the junior varsity team roster was constantly changing. Our problem was we never had the same team, said Coach Karen Martin. Some girls quit, some moved up, and some moved down. If we had the team at the end of the year the beginning of the season, our ratio would have changed, she said. Freshman Erica Garrison commented about the changes. Having a small team of only six people was hard, until two varsity players, Juniors Lisa Sims and Leslie Mathias came down to help. It was difficult but we managed consolation at one of the tournaments. Despite a small team, Coach Martin said that this enabled the girls to have a lot of court exposure, during the games and practice. Because there were only eight people on the team, which left two substitutes, everyone got to play, said Sophomore Pam Matthews. Practice was hard because of so few people, we had to really work, said Erica, We worked on serves most of the time and if we didn't do so many serves in a certain number of time, we'd have to do it over and over. It was boring, but it helped. Being so close knit helped us to put up with our losses and to win, said Junior Leslie Mathias, I liked the j.v. team because we were close on and off the court - that's what helped us a lot. Sophomore Kim Kent said, Before a game we'd go into the bathroom and get in a circle to pray. After that, we'd say a cheer and run around the gym. Tournaments and games I 20 volleyball were a Challenge for the team. My hardest game was my first one on j.v. said Erica, I had never played with the girls before, and it was hard getting used to. But, it was challenging and a good experience. We played against Elsik and they beat us the first round in the season. But the second round we beat them, which good for our spirits. Grinning wide, Sophomore Pam Matthews commented, I liked the away tournaments the best. We'd go out to eat and be gone all day, so we'd miss some school. Coaches and team members worked, but so did the managers. Sophomore Mona McChesney, and Freshmen Laura DeBesse, Caroline Suchochleb, and Lisa Kalesti helped the coaches in preparing for the games. Laura said, I liked managing and it was fun. We'd help in practice, run errands, and put up nets. It was a lot of work, commented Caroline Suchochleb, Everyone had plenty to do and we all took turns at managing the teams. Coach Martin explained, The managers worked extremely hard, and Ms. Brimberry and I consider them our assistant coaches. What I Iiked, said Lisa Kalesti, is that the coaches treated us fairly and included us as part of the team. Despite the small team disadvantage, j.v. managed to pull a first consolation trophy from the Klein Forest Tournament. Commenting about the season, Coach Martin said, We did well this year, the girls really improved individualIy. During the Spring Woods game Sophomore Mona McChesney keeps score. Managing took a lot of time, said Mona, but we all knew what we were doing. Ms. Brimberry and Mrs. Martin treated us like their assistant coaches, too. Q. so t tv V Spiking against a Spring Woods blocker, Junior Leslie Mathias C 171, jumps high in the air. I liked j.v., said Leslie, because we were so close-knit on and off the court. -M-5. .... ..,,.sWMQN is ,Q I Freshman Judy Raymond l20j, springs into the air. When we won a game, said Judy, we felt good because we had done our best. 4' ,,.........--fl