JDHS volleyball teams find their new groove hosting JIVE tournament

Combining Juneau’s two high schools into one meant 91 students signed up to play volleyball this season, 13 of whom were on the varsity roster for the Juneau Invitational Volleyball Extravaganza (JIVE) on Friday and Saturday. In addition, the merger means former crosstown rivals are now teammates after coming up under different coaches and levels of success.

“Things were a little rough at first,” said Evelyn Richards, a senior at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé who was part of the Crimson Bears’ varsity last year, after a win against a high-seeded team Saturday afternoon to advance in elimination play. “We went to our first tournament in Sitka and we didn’t do too great up there. And I think it’s just because we were all warming up together and like learning how to be cohesive as a team here. But we’re kind of getting over that and building together more. So this tournament we’ve been doing really well.”

The win was the varsity’s high point during a tournament with hits and misses for the team, which finished Friday’s pool play seeded fifth among six Gold Bracket teams with a 6-4 record (a total of 13 teams participated, with the top three in two divisions advancing to the top bracket Saturday while the others played in the Silver Bracket).

The Crimson Bears lost their first game in double-elimination play Saturday morning to fourth-seeded West Anchorage High School, but then rebounded for the early afternoon win against third-seeded Mountain City Christian Academy.

The victory resulted in a rematch against West – and this time JDHS showed it might be able to prevail as it took a 24-21 lead, putting the team within a point of taking the first set of the best-of-three matchup. But the Eagles came back to win the set and then the match, resulting in a fourth-place tournament finish for the Crimson Bears.

Still, for the players and their coach the weekend is an indicator of the potential of the team’s combined pool of talent as it enters the bulk of its conference schedule and begins thinking about how far it can advance when the playoffs begin.

“I think going into (the season) I was a little nervous because it’s a new coaching staff and new people, but I’m having a lot of fun,” said Braith Dihle, a junior who was on the varsity for the now-defunct Thunder Mountain High School last year. “And I really love all the girls and I think we have good team chemistry. Our personalities really match well together.”

Richards and Dihle both said they were a bit nervous about who would make the varsity squad when the season started due to the extra competition for spots. That prospect was also rather daunting for JDHS Head Coach Jody Levernier.

“What I was thinking was it was a lot of kids,” she said. “How are we going to get all these kids playing time? And how are we going to get all these kids travel time?”

Part of the answer is JDHS also had two junior varsity teams among five teams in that portion of the tournament that were led by some of the 10 coaches involved with the Crimson Bears’ volleyball program. In what might be considered a mix of success and irony, the two JV teams played each other in the semifinal, with the “JD1” team advancing to the final where it lost to Sitka High School’s junior varsity.

Sitka also won the Gold Bracket championship over crosstown rival Mount Edgecumbe High School in what turned into a dogfight for both teams. MEHS defeated Sitka in the quarterfinal, sending the Wolves to the loser’s bracket, where they defeated West before going on to defeat MEHS twice in a row to claim the title.

The JDHS varsity next plays on the road against conference rival Ketchikan High School this coming Friday and Saturday, with JV and C-team games also scheduled. The following week the Crimson Bears varsity returns home to host Wasilla High School on Oct. 18 and 19.

Among the tricky things to figure out is Juneau has five C teams to accommodate all the players who signed up, yet only one is scheduled to be part of next weekend’s matchups against Ketchikan. Levernier said teams not playing where the varsity is on a given day or weekend often will participate in competition elsewhere.

“I think for our conference game when we go to Ketchikan the coaches will probably pick the upper teams for both for the JV and C team,” Levernier said. Meanwhile “we’re going to send a group of kids to Haines and that’s more of getting kids to travel that haven’t been able to.”

A similar approach was taken by the JDHS cross-country team that had more than 80 students sign up. That program just competed at the state championships in Anchorage this weekend, with Juneau runners finishing second in both the boys’ and girls’ races.

The two high school volleyball programs in Juneau had different levels of success last year, with JDHS finishing 7-34-1 overall and THMS 33-13-7 overall, including winning their third Region V Conference title before being eliminated with consecutive losses at the state tournament.

The Crimson Bears are 5-15-4 so far this season, but 2-0 in a conference that now only includes themselves and Ketchikan. Levernier said the team went through some early-season struggles trying to adjust to the new situation.

“The first couple weekends we got on the court they were kind of flat and, I think, really unsure of each other and unsure of themselves,” she said. “And then all the way until today where they’re just they just look like they were having fun playing volleyball and excited for each other. There’s never been any meanness or maliciousness.”

While Levernier said the potential of this year’s team is yet to be revealed entering the crucial stretch of the regular season, planning for building on whatever happens is already underway.

“We’re already starting conversations about how we readjust for next year,” she said. “I don’t know how so yet. Do we continue to have this many C teams? Do we have an intramural team? I don’t think we’ll ever have a cut program — that’s not of my interest. I think it’s a great sport and it’s something that these kids can do as adults, so I don’t ever want to tell a kid that they can’t play.”

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.