Upon Further Review

It’s true.

Sure, the season isn’t over yet. And yes, the Waynesboro volleyball team hasn’t won a darn thing yet, other than the rest of the Southern Valley District’s respect. And, of course, the tournament still looms.

But, and let’s be honest here, what the Little Giants did Tuesday night at Fort Defiance was more than just coming back from an 0-2 hole and win the final three games to take the match. It was much more than taking a half-game lead over the Indians for second place in the district. It was much more than pushing it’s record to 6-2. Yep, it was so much more than even surprising the living get-out of second-year coach Lori Aleshire.

It was the 2008 Little Giants giving the 2007 season the Rocky V treatment — it never happened.

So let’s revisit, for a brief moment, the 2007 toilet fest that was: Some selfish play, no leadership and a general feeling of What-the-heck-happened-to-our-once-proud program. Add a first-year coach, a legendary player for the Little Giants back in the day, thrown into a program that lost all of its great players to graduation and, well, like we said, fuhgetaboutit. OK? Good.

There’s no way in heck that version of the Little Giants comes back after getting spanked 25-16 and 25-17 in the first two games.

There’s no way in heck that version of the Little Giants jumps out to a 24-11 lead in an elimination Game 3.

There’s no way in heck that version of the Little Giants wins a tight-as-dry-skin Game 4 26-24.

And, there’s no way in heck that version of the Little Giants wins the deciding game 15-10.

No. Way. In. Heck.

But the 2008 version of the Little Giants (you know, the team that has three leaders in Norah Curtis, Haley Quesenbery and Rachel Binda. You know, the team that, get this, plays as a team.) did just that.

And you need to look no further than Game 4 to see how far this Waynesboro team has come. Down 20-18 with, once again, the end of the match staring them right in the kissers, Quesenbery goes all old-school on the Indians (you remember, back in 2005 when you used to chant, “She’s a freshman. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. She’s a freshman. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.“) and pummels the Fort floor with back-to-back kills. The Indians implode and the Giants live to fight another game.

“She’s a senior. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. She’s a senior. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.“

Goodness gracious. The Giants win Game 5 and Binda, who many moons ago played volleyball like she didn’t want to break a fingernail, turns into a beast. Pummels the Indians with 24 kills. (Twenty-four kills for the love of all that is good and holy!) Taylor DeWitt hands out 33 assists and, well, you know how this ended.

What a turnaround. Not for the program (though yeah, it kinda was) but also for Aleshire who spent the first two games going all Apollo Creed on her clipboard and throwing it all over the gym. Then she sits and watches the fruits of her labor after spending all of last season and part of the beginning of this season getting this team to gel.

“I did not think that we would win,“ she admitted. “They proved me wrong after the third game. It did not seem that they wanted it as bad.“

Think she’s smiling now? Sure she is. You can bet she is.

Lock. The. Oh, you get the idea.

In the loss is a lesson for the Indians, a quality team that is no fluke and earned every match to find itself in the title hunt. The lesson? Don’t get complacent.

“We got too relaxed,“ said Fort coach Lynn Alexander. “And that’s when everything fell apart.“

So Fort gets ready for bed too early and Waynesboro is ready to stay out all night? Yep, that’s how you complete a turnaround.

“We needed to win,“ Binda said. “We weren’t ready to go home.“

Nope they sure weren’t. But, in a way, Waynesboro is kind of back home. You know, back where this program has belonged no matter if it’s a new coach, and old coach or no coach. The Little Giants don’t have a volleyball team, they have a volleyball program.

Always had it. Always will.

So, remember how bad Rocky V was?

Of course you don’t, because it never happened yet, at the same time, it was needed to make Rocky Balboa as good as it is.