By Kyle Nagel and Staff Writer
FAIRBORN 12:00 AM Friday, November 13, 2009
FAIRBORN — When Mary Anne Souder was growing up on her way to a volleyball career at Lehman Catholic High School in Sidney, she started her education quickly.
“We played from an early age,” said Souder, now the coach at Dublin Coffman High School. “We got involvedin club volleyball right away.”
The early start method has worked for Lehman, which has won two state championships in six trips to the state tournament, including a semifinal appearance when Souder was a freshman in 1993.
Souder has an immediate comparison for the youth participation.
“It’s just like Cincinnati,” she said.
It can be difficult to grasp just how dominant Cincinnati has been in big-school volleyball in the past three-and-a-half decades. Since Ohio started playing a state volleyball tournament in 1975, big-school Cincinnati teams — including Seton (6), Mount Notre Dame (5), Mother of Mercy (4), Ursuline Academy (2) and St. Ursula Academy (2) — have won 19 titles, or 56 percent of the championships awarded.
Since 2002, five different Cincinnati schools have won D-I titles.
That’s a staggering amount for one city. It seems like it’s been a lot in football, right? But there, Queen City high schools have won 15 of the 37 titles given out (40 percent).
Still a large number, but volleyball has dwarfed that in dominance. Just ask the teams from the Miami Valley who have fought for years to get to the host Nutter Center for the state tournament through these powerful private schools.
Souder’s Coffman team will get a chance to challenge that control Saturday, Nov. 14, when the No. 2-ranked Shamrocks (29-0), making their first state tournament appearance, face No. 1 Ursuline (28-0) for the D-I title. Both won their semifinals Thursday, setting up the title match between undefeateds. Combined, the teams have gone 157-3 in sets this season.
Part of Cincinnati’s success, said Ursuline coach Jeni Case (who played at Seton) can be traced to commitment.
“They do lessons, they do trainers, they all live for volleyball,” she said.
Not to mention the schedule. In Ursuline’s division of the Girls Greater Cincinnati League, they had to play Mother of Mercy, St. Ursula, Seton and Mount Notre Dame — twice each.
“And you play them on a Tuesday-Thursday,” Case said. “There’s no letting up.”
The state has been catching up to Cincinnati’s commitment and offseason training. At Dublin Coffman, seven of the eight starters play on national-level club teams in the offseason.
Still, Coffman was surprised when it got to the regional final and faced Mount Notre Dame. Could they tell the difference?
“Oh, yeah,” Souder said in a no-duh tone. “Just so quick, a very fast pace.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7389 or knagel@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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