Franklin High School’s newest team has earned its first win of the year.
On the week of March 16, Panther men’s volleyball began just their third regular season, hosting Pisgah and A.C. Reynolds on Tom Raby Court. With a 3-1 win over Reynolds, they ended the week with a full head of steam.
“We hadn’t had any games yet; we’d had one scheduled versus Brevard, but they’re still trying to make a team and they only have like four consistent guys,” said head coach Bekah Brooks of the fledgling sport’s continued expansion west of Asheville. “So we didn’t get to play that game, and just kind of did a little inter-squad scrimmage, because we do have quite a few new kids. We took Spring Break off, came back, had one practice and then played two games in a row, so for [having] one practice and a whole week off for Spring Break, I thought on Tuesday we did a good job against Pisgah.”
Just 10 years removed from the creation of the state’s first teams, high school men’s volleyball is still gaining traction in North Carolina, playing in an independent league unsanctioned by the N.C. High School Athletic Association. Due to their truncated preseason, Brooks said the squad went through some growing pains in a St. Patrick’s Day season opener versus Pisgah.
“It was varsity only, but we had plenty of chances to win that game, even before the fifth set,” said Brooks. “It was just mental errors that converted to physical errors. … For the first game, I thought they played hard. There was no quitting, they were still trying their best and trusting the process, and that’s honestly what I look for in the men’s program right now.”
Despite not playing to their full potential, the Panthers fell to the Black Bears by just two points, splitting the first four sets (25-22, 18-25, 25-23, 22-25) and dropping the fifth 21-19. The next day, Brooks gathered the team before another home match with A.C. Reynolds.
“We had a little team meeting before the game just to talk about [Tuesday’s] game and what they thought, and I was just so impressed that they were using volleyball terms and thinking about what could be fixed, and what was really good and things we needed to work on,” she said. “It was good to see that they were upset, that it wasn’t just like, ‘OK, well let’s go do something else’ – they were genuinely upset and wanted to win. I asked them to be here yesterday around four to where we could meet at 4:15, and they were here trying to work on some serving and doing some stuff until we got everybody here. … It was cool to hear them talk; I didn’t say anything, and they nailed every point of emphasis that I would have said as a coach.”
After their team meeting Franklin came out firing against the Rockets, turning four points from Miguel Ortega into a 14-8 lead. Despite a Reynolds comeback to cut their lead to 16-13, Jackson Wilson added three points down the stretch to win the first set 25-18.
Wilson and Ortega stayed hot in the second, posting two kills apiece to take another 14-8 lead. Ortega and Jack Teesateskie added two points apiece down the stretch to win the set 25-21.
Ortega continued a strong match in the third, scoring four points including two aces to go up 16-8. Reynolds called a timeout to regroup however, going on to win the set 25-20.
Teesateskie came back with a vengeance in the fourth, scoring four points to take an 18-10 lead. Ortega added three more points down the stretch to win 25-13.
“Last night was phenomenal. A.C. Reynolds was not in the mix last year, which I thought was pretty cool. Obviously they’re a little bit bigger of a school than us, and they brought a lot of kids, so that was cool to see. We were able to play JVs and varsity so everybody got some time, and I just thought it went great. I was just so impressed even just with their attitude and their will to learn and to do good – they weren’t satisfied with losing the one set that we lost.”
With their first win of the season in hand, the Panthers returned to action after press time March 24, hosting Mount Pisgah Academy (Candler) on Tom Raby Court.