In her first year leading the Tigard volleyball program, Head Coach Rainey Shriver is looking to plant seeds for the future success of the program, and she’s looking for the current team to help her do it.
A big component of that has been the big sister program implemented this year, in which players on varsity act as mentors for younger players, mostly those on one of the two JV teams. Each varsity player has two little sisters in the program, Shriver said.
“They all like to write notes to each other before the game to encourage each other,” she said. “They cheer for each other, they make posters, bring little gifts, or send a nice text. It’s been really nice for them to have someone in the program that they can lean on besides just the people on their team. It really makes it feel like we’re one cohesive program.”
Shriver saw how those younger players feel about their big sisters at Tigard’s Senior Night at home on Oct. 13. The stands were packed with not just families and friends of the players, but younger volleyball players decked out in shirts they made featuring the names or even pictures of the varsity players.
“It helps the upperclassmen leave a longer impact other than just the players on their own team,” she said. “They get to know everyone, which is great.”
At Senior Night, Tigard honored the team’s eight departing seniors: Addy Witt, Ainsley Snider, Hailey Gustafson, Jacquelyn Godard, Brooklyn Peer, Elinda Butera, Lily Swindler, and Sienna Waller.
It’s hard to see the group getting ready to move on, Shriver said, as they helped her a lot in her first year at the help of the school’s volleyball program.
“They’re incredible leaders,” she said. “They leave everything on the court all the time. Our school and our team are so much better off because we’ve had them, and I’m really excited to see the kind of legacy that they’ve left behind for the underclassmen.”
Shriver said that Goddard missed about half the season, but since returning, she has been a force in the middle, while adding that Witt has excelled both in her passing and her defense this year for the Tigers.
Looking ahead to the future, Shriver said she’s excited about what she’s seen already from freshmen Quinn Zimmerman and Josie Feist.
“Starting this season, they weren’t the most confident, but seeing them grow into their confidence and really take ownership of their roles on the team has been awesome,” she said.
“With Quinn, nothing really gets past her on off-blocker or back row defense, and she’s got a killer serve. And Josie is a great utility player for us. She can set, she can hit, she can block, and she can pass, which makes her really versatile. We can play her anywhere.”
Record-wise, the season hasn’t gone exactly how Shriver and the team hoped. As of our press deadline, the Tigers are 2-8 on the season.
“I think our biggest problem is consistency,” she said. “We’ve been able to take sets from really great teams in the state. We’ve been able to do a lot of really amazing things. Our league is just really tough. It’s really a toss-up every single game. So being able to compete at that level and know that it doesn’t really matter who’s on the other side has been great. As long as we do our job, we can compete.”
Another positive for Shriver in her first year is that she feels like the players in the program are on board with what she and her coaching staff are trying to do.
“The kids have really bought into the things that we’re trying to change, and that that means a lot, because that’s obviously the only way that anything’s going to make a difference,” she said. “Being able to build up the program and the confidence and see, having the kids out there again playing with joy, that’s our number one goal.”
