ADAMS — Volleyball was a big deal at Freeman High School when Dani White’s current players were in diapers and she was working for State Farm Insurance.
When you have a player like Dani Busboom – who led Freeman to a state title and two runner-ups in four years from 1999-2002 – volleyball nights do take on a bigger significance. One of the most celebrated players in state history, Busboom played collegiately on Nebraska teams that went 124-10 in her career and won a national title in 2006. She is now the setters coach in Lincoln.
Yes, the road back to getting Freeman to the top of the small-school volleyball elite has been a long, winding road for the Falcons and their coach, who took over in 2011. When she started – almost by accident – the Falcons had not been to state since 2007.
“I worked with State Farm for a long time after college,” White said yesterday, on the eve of the 2015 season. “But, I had always been doing a lot of volunteer or club coaching – both softball and volleyball – and I felt a calling to get to a school and do it full time.”
Back to school the Nebraska Wesleyan graduate went, getting her teaching certificate to teach Spanish. When she got the job at her alma mater – she graduated from Adams before they merged with nearby Filley to form Freeman – she was going to be an assistant.
But, during that summer, “things got a little crazy” and she was named head coach. Her first Falcon team was 20-10. Since then, they’ve lost only 13 matches and last year finished 33-0 and were the Class C-2 state champions.
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If you were there, they might tell you it was one of the greatest state championship games in tournament history.
Both Freeman and Crofton were unbeaten. The final score – 25-23, 22-25, 34-32, 27-25 – separated the two teams by just nine points in the rally scoring format.
“We knew it would be a great game,” White said. “I had 48 text messages on my phone after that 34-32 set. It was two great teams just trading blows.”
Returning senior Emliy Lenners, who had 180 kills and 66 blocks last year said the experience in that game is hard to describe.
“Winning the state championship last year was exhilarating,” she said. “We worked so hard last season and our ultimate goal last year was winning state and when we won it felt very rewarding achieving that goal.”
Freeman, after a hard-fought loss to Hastings St. Cecilia in the 2013 finals, had got back to the top of the hill they had been climbing.
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Now, the Falcons – even with the loss of three college volleyball players from last year’s team – are out to prove they can keep the tradition going forward.
Gone are Carly Lemmers (Ohio University), Marissa Haynes (a Doane College volleyball and track recruit) and setter Riley Dorn (now playing at CCC-Columbus).
Only Lenners and fellow senior Alexis Holland (93 kills, 243 digs) have starting experience. Its a problem that doesn’t seem to phase their coach.
“The girls we’ll bring in have been practicing against a pretty good team the last few years,” White said. “I wouldn’t trade who we have for any team in the state.”
White is most excited about 5-9 senior setter Katie Unvert, who she thinks, “could have started for about every team in the state last year.”
The Falcons will have no shortage of height at the net with Lenners at 6-2 and Holland at 5-10. Newcomers Allison Parde (6-2, junior) and Marissa Haynes (6-0, freshman) also bring good attacking, blocking and leaping ability to the net.
Lenners is ready to step up and lead them, but said the new group is ready as well.
“After experiencing the state championship last year, we know the feeling of being there,” she said. “Every practice (last year), Coach White pushed those girls to go all out and make the starters better.
“Their goal was to beat the starters and do whatever it makes to make sure we didn’t win. When they went all out and pushed us to get better, it gave them the ultimate confidence and made them better players as well.”
They start the season ranked sixth in Class C-2 by both major newspapers and get a fresh start on progress — and testing out the winning streak — in their own invitational which is tonight and Saturday. Four of the eight teams in the field are state-ranked.
White said the transition over the summer and in pre-season camp has been good. But she was equally impressed with the slogan they picked for their team shirt for 2015: Tradition Never Graduates.
“(The seniors) have been wonderful,” she said. “They know that is there time to step up and lead the programs. They don’t want us to drop off at all this year.”
Lenners agreed, noting that putting on a Freeman uniform is a special feeling.
“It’s a great feeling to be a leader of this team,” she said, “and knowing that my teammates want to come together and are working so hard to be in the exact same position that we were last year.
“Our community has always been a great support towards both athletics and academics at our school. It is a great feeling to represent Freeman and our community out on the court.”
This year they’ll represent a tradition of championships. A tradition they hope to prove will never graduate.
