Freddies are like one big family

FREDERICKTOWN — Seven girls stood around talking with one another Monday afternoon in Fredericktown High School’s gymnasium. They discussed many random things, just as sisters or best friends would do.

“OK girls, go do your warm-up,” said coach Marilyn Rutherford, who got looks more deserving of a mother than a high school volleyball coach.

As the girls took off to do laps around the gym, Rutherford watched, much as a mother watches her children play in the yard.

“That one’s my rebel,” Rutherford said while pointing to a player. “And that one there, she doesn’t trust anything I try to tell her.”

The coach had a tough practice prepared for her team on Monday after the squad dropped its first match of the season over the weekend. The Freddies lost to perennial state contender Bascom Hopewell-Loudon in a mid-season tournament, making the team’s record 9-1.

“It was one of those losses you can learn from,” Rutherford said. “It is hard to lose, but we will take that loss.”

But none of the Fredericktown players are as accepting of the loss as Rutherford.

“We don’t like that losing feeling,” said junior Kate Newkirk. “We’re all done with that.”

The team had hoped to go through the entire season without a loss.

“I guess you can learn from losses, though,” said senior Mackenzie Logan.

And that’s just what her coach wanted to hear. Rutherford spent most of Monday’s practice honing her team’s passing skills.

“You can never be at your best in passing,” she said. “We always need to improve in that area. Everyone can hit the ball, but the question is whether or not you can get the ball there.”

One of the drills Fredericktown worked on involved the whole team standing in a cirlce on one side of the net. A single player would stand in the middle of the circle and receive kills from Rutherford. The goal was for the player in the center to dig or set the ball toward a teammate so that she could catch the ball, after diving if necessary.

“Like this,” junior Danielle Goeppinger said as she threw herself onto the floor. When everyone just stared blankly at her demonstration, she pushed herself up.

“Could you show us that again?” asked Rutherford, arousing a giggle from the team.

It is just that sort of playfulness that makes the Fredericktown team so good.

“We all get along really well,” senior Lauren Stump said of the team. “We are all friends, and that really adds to our team chemistry.”

Only a few minutes later, the team was working on a serving drill when Newkirk dove to the ground, rolled across the floor and came to a stop, virtually on the side of the wall.

“I had to do a James Bond move,” she said when she noticed her coach was staring at her. Rutherford just grinned.

The Freddie coach has coached a lot of good teams, but she says this one is very smart with its fundamentals. The players all have a strong understanding of their role on the team, and can perform the tasks they need to when in a clutch situation.

“They bring confidence with them to the court every night,” said Rutherford. “Their confidence comes from the fact that they really enjoy this game, and that they know each other really well.”

All that remains to be seen now is how the squad will finish out the season. Fredericktown has defeated Centerburg both times the schools have met this year, which is quite a feat since the Trojans have one won the Mid-Buckeye Conference 15 out of the last 16 seasons. The last time Centerburg didn’t win the conference was in 1999, when the Freddies were last on top.

“Our goal is to win the conference, and that’s been our goal every year,” Rutherford said. “But the season is still very young. There’s a lot of volleyball left.”

One thing that will help Fredericktown in the remaining six games of the regular season is momentum. The squad knows how to win.

“When you are winning and when you have the momentum on your side, its like nothing can stop you,” said Logan.

The Freddies still have to play Utica twice. Because of the blackout last week, the teams never met in the first round.

“Everyone is playing well this year, the whole conference is good,” said Rutherford. “We are excited about beating Centerburg, but a lot of things could still happen.”

And it is just this sort of concentration that will help keep the Freddies playing well for the rest of the season.