The importance of camaraderie

The volleyball season is underway at Wheaton College and according to Head Coach Stephanie Schmidt, the team “has a lot of depth and can compete against anybody.” This past weekend, the Thunder went down 0-2 early on in their first match against Kalamazoo College. They proceeded to storm their way back and win the match in five sets. “Not only was that a fun start to the season, but it was great to see how resilient this team is and [to] see their fighting spirit,” says Schmidt. According to Schmidt, “resilience” was a theme throughout the entire weekend. She says that they have a “fast and scrappy group that loves to play volleyball and [loves] each other.” As far as strategy this season, Schmidt says that they are “spreading out their offense a little more this year.” For that reason she thinks that their games will be “very high energy” and that “people will really enjoy watching them play.”
Schmidt is not only proud of her team on the court, but she is also very encouraged by both old and new traditions that make this year’s team particularly unique. One of the team’s yearly traditions for bonding is “costume bowling.” This is a competition where each class on the team creates a costume. They all put on their respective class costumes and Schmidt chooses the best one. Afterwards, they all go bowling in their costumes; this year, the juniors won the costume contest. A newly-formed tradition for the team this year is a small group Bible study. The team is divided into three small groups that meet weekly.