Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
state oakes moment of victory
The moment of victory in the Yakima SunDome last Saturday night: Jacey Johnson landed the last kill to sweep Pomeroy. With an enrollment of 38 high school students, Oakesdale is the back-to-back state 1B champion.
They both swept to the final. But Oakesdale had swept them in the regular season and then swept them in the final.
The Nighthawks are repeat 1B state champions, beating Pomeroy in three games Saturday night at the Yakima Valley SunDome.
When the last Jacey Johnson kill bounced off a Pomeroy arm, it was time for the Lindgren family tradition. For the fifth time in six years, Ken Lindgen, a WIAA Executive and longtime Oakesdale teacher and coach, handed a state volleyball trophy to one or both of his daughters.
For 2016, it was senior Lindsey, who was part of last year's championship and a freshman when her older sister Alexa won her third with Tekoa/Oakesdale.
Oakesdale, on its own for the second year – its 38 high school students the second smallest enrollment in the state, second to the Washington School for the Blind in Vancouver – did it again.
“Especially on Saturday I could see Jacey and Lindsey, they were on fire,” said coach Brandi Brown. “They were gonna carry their team to a championship, you could tell.”
Brown returned this fall to coach after three state titles with Tekoa/Oakesdale.
“I knew we had the athletes (this year), our chemistry is huge,” she said. “They all just get along so well.”
Championship match
It began with the Nighthawks' spirited crowd calling out each hit for their team: O! H! S!
Johnson, a four-year starter and the 2016 Southeast 1B League Player of the Year, pounded home a kill, and they were off to a 5-0 start.
“Maddy! Maddy!” the crowd chanted as Maddy Shrope stepped to the baseline with the ball. She dropped a serve over the net short of midcourt for an ace.
Pomeroy then got on the board, playing catch-up.
With Oakesdale up 24-15, game point, Lindgren stepped to serve and landed a ball right at Pomeroy's baseline for another ace.
Oakesdale won the second game 25-18.
In the third, Ken Lindgren – in a blue WIAA jacket – could be seen walking around the edge of the court to set down the gold volleyball trophy for later.
Oakesdale took a lead at 9-8.
Oakesdale led 23-16 when Pomeroy put a spike wide.
“Only two more points that we will play together!” said sophomore Brooklyn Henley to Lindgren and Johnson, counting it down.
A Pirates' mishit made it 24-16.
“Only one more point together,” Johnson and Lindgren said to Henley.
On championship point, it came down to signature Oakesdale volleyball. A set toward the corner to Johnson who, one last time as a Nighthawk, stepped one, two, leaped high and swung her palm in the air.
Bam.
“When you can hand the trophy to your team it's great, to your kid it's even better,” said Lindgren. “They're all my kids.”
Oakesdale's (30-6) path to the championship went through Neah Bay, Pateros and Almira/Coulee/Hartline, which was unbeaten before meeting the Nighthawks in the semifinals.
In the finale against Pomeroy – played Saturday night – Johnson had 22 kills while Logan Reed delivered five blocks, 12 digs and 10 kills. Shrope and Lindgren each had 16 assists. Aliya Rutledge and Henley had two aces each.
“It didn't surprise me we ran into Pomeroy,” said Brown, of the team Oakesdale upset last year in the state final after losing to them three times during the season. “Pomeroy's just extra scrappy.”
Against Almira/ Coulee/Hartline, Johnson posted 11 kills and nine digs. Shrope and Lindgren each had 15 assists while Henley had five blocks and three aces. Lindgren added three aces.
The season
The team's arrangement on the floor changed in late September after Shrope injured her shoulder in a loss to Wilbur/Creston. With the junior setter out for three weeks, Brown switched the format from a 5-1 – five hitters and one setter – to a 4-2. Lindgren, who had moved to setter in Shrope's absence, stayed when she came back, making for two setters instead of the previous one.
At state, the starting lineup featured seniors Johnson and Lindgren, juniors Shrope and Emma Perry, sophomore Reed and Henley, a new sophomore who moved to Oakesdale from Pullman this summer. Aliyah Rutledge, another sophomore, played back row.
Henley's mother, Christa Graffis, played volleyball for Tekoa/Oakesdale in the '90s.
Oakesdale is now back-to-back state 1B champions after separating from a 30-year cooperative with Tekoa in 2014.
Did Brown know the team would still be this good on their own?
“Oakesdale's a very determined community,” she said. “The fans, the school, the administration, the students. Determined people working together can do anything.”
TRADITIONS
In the locker room in Yakima, there was still time to dance – routines to “Footloose” or “JuJu On That Beat.” Each had a sequence that the upperclassmen taught the younger ones. As it was when Jacey was a freshman learning from Tekoa/Oakesdale stars Kaela DeWan, Cassie Mendoza and Johnson's sister, Maddi Jo.
Jacey now concludes her (Tekoa)/Oakesdale career with multiple accolades, someone who has never stepped into the school as a student. She has been home-schooled from the start, pushing extracurricular time on the rodeo circuit, club volleyball and basketball.
“My mom kept saying you really need to start making decisions, I just never did,” Johnson said. “I loved everything I was doing.”
Now it is part of that Lindgren family tradition.
“Between the Johnson family and the Lindgrens,” Brown said. “It's going to be strange next year without either of those families in the lineup.”
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
Reader Comments(0)