Over the past three years, the girls varsity volleyball team has been through five different coaches. Each one came to ODA with a promise and commitment that eventually fell through. Now, they have a coach who has kept his promise and is willing to work with the team for an extended amount of time.

Coach Craig Wolfe played collegiate volleyball and also played on the USA adult team. He is still, to this day, playing volleyball for a 50’s team at the national level.

As Wolfe first stepped foot in the gym for the 2012 tryouts, the team was curious as to how one man could make up for all of the past failures. After multiple long days and practices, it was clear that he was the one. His positive attitude and willingness to work with the players makes him stand out as not only a coach, but a friend.

Wolfe’s wife, Janice, also contributes to the team by taking statistics and helping her husband out with anything she can. The couple, as a pair, has lead the lady thunder volleyball team to great things in the past two seasons.

In the 2012 season, the varsity women’s volleyball team beat their rival school Cardinal Mooney in the district semifinals to end their season. Although they lost in the district finals, the team advanced to regionals. Set to play on halloween, the girls wanted to finish the game early in order to enjoy their holiday.

Unfortunately, this seemed to be more of a difficult task than they thought as the girls lost to the Marauders in a tough match. Their season may have ended, but Coach Wolfe knew this would not be the end for his team.

As six seniors moved on to the next chapter in their life, Wolfe was left with only a few experienced players and some promising new athletes. After making some difficult decisions during the week, he chose one senior, eight juniors, and two freshmen.

Incoming junior and a new student at ODA, Savannah Jones said “Coach Wolfe is very patient and sees potential in every one of us, including the new players such as myself.”

With two rough preseason games, the thunder moved into their regular season with two losses. After an easy first week, the girls pulled through with two wins and only one set lost.

Lone senior Lauren Maxey told us that “although we have a new group of people who have never played together before, we have really great team chemistry.”

The women’s varsity volleyball team, along with Coach Wolfe is looking for not only a district champion title, but also pulling through to regional finals.