Three weeks ago, volleyball players around the state didn’t expect to have a season until spring 2021. Then came a reversal Sept. 21 from the Minnesota State High School League, resurrecting the fall 2020 season and sending coaches, administrators and players scrambling to make plans.
The Hutchinson Tigers went from 0 to 60 in two weeks, organizing a 14-match, seven-week season as quickly as possible. It’s not ideal, and there will likely be kinks to work out when the season begins at 7 p.m. Thursday with a match against Holy Family Catholic. But none of that matters to the Tigers. They were just glad to be back in the gym.
“It was kind of surprising at first,” senior Aubrey Brunkhorst said about the decision to bring volleyball back this fall. “We were all pretty hopeful for it. We had a practice week before that, so that helped a little to get us into the swing and back into volleyball. We’re just excited now.”
“It was pretty exciting,” said senior Marissa Kalenberg. “We didn’t think we were going to have a normal season, which obviously we’re not. But at least we’re going to have a season, and that’ll be fun.”
With a limit of 14 matches this year, the math worked out well for the Wright County Conference East, which has eight teams. Hutchinson will play Holy Family Catholic, Mound Westonka, New Prague, Waconia, Jordan, Delano and Orono twice.
“I like the schedule, because you really will find who the true conference champion is,” Hutchinson coach Dennis Piechowski said.
Another unique twist to the schedule is that, in most cases, the Tigers will play the same team in the same week, with only a day or two between matches. That should make for an interesting dynamic this season.
“I’m looking forward to see how that works,” Piechowski said. “Both teams are in the same boat, so if you had a bad game on Tuesday night and you’re playing Wednesday night, well, let’s see how you change the next night. It will be interesting.”
Another twist to the season caused by COVID-19 is that because volleyball is played indoors, no spectators are allowed in the gym. Piechowski said he and others are working on ways to allow fans to watch home and away matches live on Facebook or a YouTube channel, and perhaps even on the Hutchinson Community Video Network. Look for more information about that on the Leader’s website as the details become more clear.
What is clear, however, is that there will be no fans in the gym. Without them, Piechowski said, the Tigers must learn to pump themselves up, because they won’t have a rowdy crowd in the student section to feed off.
“We have to practice having energy, being loud, talkative, having fun, because we’re going to have to bring our own energy, whether it’s home or away,” he said. “And I think teams that can bring their own energy, they’re going to have the upper hand and be more successful.”
One thing Piechowski is not concerned about is having the players ready. Despite a bit of whiplash from having their expectations for the season changed, he believes the players are ready to go. He’s more concerned about having himself ready to go.
Unlike last year, when Piechowski knew he had a big group of varsity returners back, the 2020 Tigers have a lot of shoes to fill after graduating seven players.
“We’ve got a lot of open positions that we’re trying to figure out, OK, who’s going to go where,” Piechowski said.
“We only have three returning varsity (players) that have actually experienced varsity,” Brunkhorst said. “There are spots to fill. We lost height last year in the middle, so that will be a spot for the underclassmen to step up and show their game.”
The three varsity returners are: Brunkhorst, who will spend time as a middle and outside hitter; Adri Rhoda, a junior outside hitter who can also move to the middle; and Alyssa Stamer, who played defensive specialist last year but is shifting to setter.
What Hutchinson lacks in varsity experience, Piechowski hopes it makes up for with sheer numbers. The Tigers have a big group of underclassmen this year, including a freshmen class of about 15 kids.
“It’s been awhile since we’ve had that,” Piechowski said about the big group of young players. “So everybody’s vying. We’re looking at freshmen, we’re looking at sophomores and juniors, those kids that played JV last year, maybe played a little freshman. Can they fill the holes that we have? With three returners, we’ve got to come up with about six or seven more players to fill out our varsity to get things going.”
