John Brown University’s junior varsity volleyball team celebrated its first senior night Wednesday, Oct. 11, graduating six seniors from the program.
Senior night started with each player being introduced to the audience with their family. The seniors were Madison Boehmer, Julia Dinwiddie, Joanna Peterson, Joanna Reyes, Skyler Robbins and Brooklyn Woods. Head JV Coach Steve Brankle gave a speech, crying as he spoke.
The game started all six seniors, including Woods, who had faced a career-ending ankle sprain three days before senior night. Woods served the first four points of the game before subbing off the court for the final time of her career. The JV team swept Southwestern Christian.
This year the program celebrated its first true four-year seniors. “A JV program rarely has seniors,” Brankle noted, adding that this makes this class even more exceptional.
Brankle chose for senior night to be a week before their last official home game, explaining that he wanted them to get the recognition they deserved. “I wanted it to be a game that I could play the seniors the whole time,” he added.
Brankle recounted the program’s start, which began four and a half years ago. “It was May of ’19,” He recalled. “They were talking about adding a JV sport, and they were thinking soccer. It just didn’t make sense to build another field for soccer, so I suggested basketball or volleyball. We have the gym space.”
When asked if he would be the one to coach a new JV team, his response was, “Dang it.”
Brankle became the head coach of the JV program, having never coached college volleyball. He laughed, reflecting on senior night, “Just looking at the families, you know, y’all came and played for a coach that never coached college, starting a new program, you guys are idiots.”
Team captain, Dinwiddie, is one of the program’s original 13. She highlighted the senior class’s role in installing culture: “I love how our team is focused on Christ.”
Reyes transferred in sophomore year. She described her experience: “It was such a very different type of culture that I wasn’t used to. Walking into this team, I just felt so much love.”
Both Dinwiddie and Reyes were asked about the culture of the team. They both acknowledged that the senior class set the standards of their culture, but they added what Coach Brankle contributed.
Dinwiddie reflected on Brankle’s coaching, explaining that, “He’s definitely created this team. A lot of how he picks his girls is through prayer.”
She added, “He has player meetings with us to learn about our life. There’s more than just volleyball in this life and having a coach that understands that there is life outside of volleyball … he’s very good at making that our culture.”
Reyes emphasized that Brankle has a unique approach to understanding his players as individuals and not just athletes. “Going into this season knowing I was seen to him as just Rey and that I wasn’t seen to him as one of his athletes, that was a very big thing to me,” Reyes explained. “I very much think of him as my dad over here while I’m not at home.”
Brankle became emotional when talking about what will happen after senior night. “Monday will be very emotional when they walk off for the last time. We still knew we had two games. Next Monday it’s it … I think it’ll be hard for them, but I think it’ll be harder on me just because I know what they’ve done for this team.”
Brankle summarized it poignantly.
“They made the program,” he said.
Photo courtesy of Brittney Ware