Burlington Notre Dame shows resiliency in winning first state championship
BURLINGTON, Iowa (BVM) — Burlington Notre Dame took a timeout trailing Gladbrook-Reinbeck late into the fourth set of the IGHSAU Class 1A state championship. But Nikes co-head coaches Mike Davis and Susan Reid weren’t worried about possibly heading into a fifth set. They knew it wouldn’t come to that.
“If everyone goes out there and takes care of their own business and does their own job we’ll be fine,” Davis said.
After the timeout, the Nikes rallied to win the fourth set 26-24 and capture the state title. It was their first state championship in program history in what was also their first trip to the state tournament.
The resiliency and the ability to not fold under pressure was something that the girls had developed after an extremely tumultuous year.
“It was a good mess, but it was a mess,” Davis said.
It was a mess that began before the season even started. The Nikes had lost their head coach after last season and had hired a new one during the summer. However, right before the season started, the coach backed out in part due to concerns about COVID-19.
This left Notre Dame with no head coach with the season about to start.
Originally brought on as volunteer assistant head coaches, Davis and Reid stepped up as co-head coaches.
“We leaned on each other a lot,” Davis said. “There was a lot thrown at us in the very beginning, but we worked very well together.”
One of the obstacles was Notre Dame starting the season in quarantine. The team was also dealing with the new additions of players from Illinois who had moved to Iowa to continue their athletics careers as Illinois had canceled all fall sports.
With the added girls and the late start to the season, Davis and Reid got to work building a team. They saw the potential was there but knew that they needed to coach this team up to where they believed it could be.
“We had a lot of good players,” Davis said. “We just didn’t have a lot of girls that came from quality programs, so there were athletes on the floor but not I would say great volleyball players. That was one of our biggest challenges now we have to teach all these girls how to play volleyball like Susan and I want them to play volleyball.”
Notre Dame had to clear another hurdle when two of their new players from Illinois, Josie and Jenna Bentz, were deemed ineligible. As the twins fought to appeal the decision, the Nikes had to alter their lineup to replace two key players.
The loss of the twins was difficult and it took time to adjust, but through it all, Davis said the team stayed strong.
“It was always just one big family,” Davis. “Everyone was very supportive of each other.”
Through all the adversity, the players stuck together. They helped one another and never lost focus on the task at hand.
“They always kept their head on straight and they always practiced hard,” Davis said.
Two weeks before regionals, the Nikes regained the Bentz twins and it was then that things started to all come together for the team.
“That’s when we really hit our stride,” Davis said.
At regionals, Notre Dame swept through the first two rounds before heading into a semifinal match against Holy Trinity Catholic. This was for many at Notre Dame the biggest game of the season.
“I wouldn’t even say it’s a rivalry. I would just say that Holy Trinity for the last 10 plus years has had Notre Dame’s number,” Davis said.
The Nikes jumped out to a two-set lead but then lost the next two, even giving up a lead in one of the sets that would’ve finished the match. Heading into the fifth set, Davis could see some uncertainty on some of the players’ faces as memories of past losses to Trinity began to come up.
However, the new coaches and new players helped push the team through because to them, it was just another game.
“The team I saw last year in the stands would’ve gotten blown out,” Davis said. “But these girls battled.”
Notre Dame beat Trinity in the fifth set 15-12 to advance to the regional championship against Waco, which they beat in three sets.
After advancing to the state tournament for the first time in program history, Notre Dame entered as a seventh seed and was set to play Wapsie Valley in the first round. Unfortunately, early on the day of the match, Davis received a call informing him that Wapsie had to drop out of the tournament due to COVID-19.
“You don’t want to advance that way,” Davis said.
Without playing a game, the Nikes move on to the state semifinal match.
“I told the girls, ‘There’s only one thing we can do right now, we have a lot to prove and we have to prove that we belong here,’” Davis said. “‘You got a free pass and you don’t want to be out of it the next game and have the naysayers saying they never belonged here anyway. … We got to win the whole thing.’”
The players took that to heart as Notre Dame swept Gehlen Catholic in the state semifinal match and only lost one set in the state championship.
The Nikes faced adversity from the very beginning of the season all the way to the end. They combated outside noise and came together as a family. What they went through prepared them for state and how the players took everything in stride on their way to a championship has set the tone for what Notre Dame volleyball is all about.
