Scott Swanson
Sixteen months after they played their last game together – at least in a gym, Sweet Home’s volleyball team is ready to roll once again.
But there are plenty of ifs, hithertofores and forthwiths looming over the next weeks as the Huskies eye a season in which plenty has changed, including during the first week of practice.
Volleyball is the sport under scrutiny by OSAA and school officials across the state this season. Teams in counties deemed “Extreme” risk can’t play at home and can’t travel, the OSAA ruled last week.
Because Sweet Home is in Linn County, which dropped from “High” risk to “Moderate” last week, the Huskies can host more teams indoors and, theoretically, allow more spectators as long as the county’s numbers stay down.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case elsewhere.
Sisters and Philomath, two of the top teams in not only the Oregon West League, but also the state, can’t travel or host as things stand now,” said Nate Tyler, Sweet Home athletic director, who has been maneuvering through the rapidly changing landscape.
“The can practice,” he said.
Defending state champion Valley Catholic, which defeated the Huskies in three sets in November of 2019 in what was Sweet Home’s last official match until this week, is a question mark.
“I don’t think Valley Catholic is playing, but I haven’t heard for sure,” Sweet Home Coach Mary Hutchins said. “I reached out to them. Some schools are choosing not to participate. We are struggling to find games.”
Her players have chosen, en masse, to participate, she said.
“My whole team came back, including a transfer from Lebanon,” Hutchins said. She had 30 players in the gym last week when team photos were taken – individually, since officials would not permit a team photo.
Leading the Huskies will be seniors Teja Abbott, Bailee Hartsook, Savannah Hutchins, Sydney Nichol and Graci Zanona, who with juniors Jamie Seward and Chloe Tyler have been key to Sweet Home’s rise through the ranks of the state’s best teams over the past three years. Rounding out the varsity roster are seniors Maddie Housen, Emily Windom and Kathryn Hanni, a transfer from Lebanon, and junior Adaira Sleutel-Burger.
On the junior varsity roster are junior Zoe Opperman, sophomores Taryn Abbott, Zoe Erevia, Makayla Guthrie, Kendra Jamison, Anna Miller and Avery Nelson, and freshmen Brooke Hanni and Bayliss Mark.
Rounding out the team are freshmen Devin Abbott, Riley Anderson, Makennah Deckard, Madison Ferebee, Adi Graber, Kadence Kistner-Lawson, Emily Rasmussen, Stephanie Saultz, Natalie Summers and Kaylene Zajic.
Sweet Home’s players, especially those involved in the last state tournament, have not been idle, Mary Hutchins said.
They’ve participated in “many” outdoor workouts, she said. They competed in quad volleyball leagues and sand volleyball. They practiced during last fall’s “mini season” and hosted an outdoor volleyball jamboree-type event with Cascade and Harrisburg on turf in Husky Stadium.
They played a tournament in Idaho in February in which the Huskies steamrolled the competition in what literally was their first tournament together since state, and which also ended some three months of down time during the freeze called last November by Gov. Kate Brown.
“Every avenue that’s been available to them they’ve taken advantage of,” Hutchins said. “These girls are just so happy to be back in the gym, to be together. These kids are gym rats. They’ve spent a lot of their time in the gym. They showed up for all of our outdoor workouts.”
The Huskies got a chance to warm up Monday, hosting a jamboree against Corbett and Scio.
“It was good,” Hutchins said. The Huskies beat Scio 25-13, 25-6, then defeated Corbett 25-15, 25-13.
“It felt good to be able to play in the gym, in front of spectators.”
Their first official match, assuming all goes as planned, is Wednesday, March 3, at Stayton. They will host Woodburn Monday, March 8, as things stand now.
The messages have changed frequently, Hutchins noted.
“It’s hard because we were told that if a team was in an “Extreme” county, they could just travel to another county to play,” she said after the OSAA changed the rules. “It’s hard for me to predict because things change every day.”
She said her team just needs some games “so we can see what we need to work on.”
The normal slick ratings aren’t available in the topsy-turvy world of high school sports, but Hutchins said she believes her team and Sisters are among the top in the state.
“We have all these kids that are practicing and ready to play, and I’m just hoping we can get games for them.
“We have eight seniors who have dedicated years of their life to playing volleyball. This is not how they saw their senior season going. Now they just want to go out and play together one more time.”