SANDUSKY (Crawford County Now) — On a recommendation from retired coach Greg Hendrix, Seneca East made the trek to Cedar Point Sports Center for the Summer Spiketacular.
New coach Lindsey Rellinger knew it would be a difficult learning experience for her youthful team.
Rellinger, who coached and taught at Barberton prior to moving to Northwest Ohio, has been at Seneca East for the last 11 years as Director of Student Services. She has coached SE junior high volleyball for the last six years and played in high school.
“I love the sport,” Rellinger said. “This group of seniors is the group that I started coaching with, so they are a special group. I was a part of Greg’s program, so it wasn’t completely foreign to me. It was stepping into a role with a special group of kids. The love of the sport and the kids.”
Hendrix wrapped up his coaching career last season after 25 years. He noted that he knew when coaching became more of a job than a passion, it was time to walk away.
The Tigers were 9-14 overall last season and 7-7 in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference, good for fourth place.
On day one of the Summer Spiketacular, the Tigers finished 0-4, falling to Division I schools Toledo Whitmer (25-8, 25-16), North Lexington (25-16, 25-11), and North Royalton (25-10, 25-18) in the pool play. In the re-pool after the morning results, the Tigers fell to West Muskingum 25-20 and 25-21.
“We knew we had a young team coming in this year,” Rellinger said. “Most of them have not seen varsity court, so we have had to do a lot of shuffling at open gym. We have had to try and figure out who makes sense where and in what spot.”
The Tigers graduated their main setter and have the new setter that hasn’t set before now. They have six seniors coming back and four freshmen, along with others. Mandatory practices will start on August 1.
“I told the girls,” Rellinger said. “You have to stay positive. They have been doing a lot of the things that we have been working on. We have had a hole in the middle of the court, and it’s been a strong focus for us in open gym. We did a good job covering it today. It’s a great experience for us because it tells us where to go from here.”
Initially, the Tigers were in the American division but were then bumped to the National division due to tournament overbooking.
The notes and stats will be telling about how the Tigers stacked up against the Division I schools.
“Moving forward, I don’t know if this is the tournament for us,” Rellinger said. “Knowing that we are seeing these hard schools only makes us better. These schools challenged us every single serve and every single volley and that only makes us stronger and allows us to see where the holes are.”
The Lady Tigers will need to be prepared as much as possible for the competition. The ever-competitive N10 expanded to 14 schools, splitting into two divisions of east and west. West division is comprised of Tiffin Calvert, Carey, Hopewell-Loudon, Mohawk, New Riegel, Old Fort, and Upper Sandusky. The East division consists of Buckeye Central, Bucyrus, Colonel Crawford, Lucas, Willard, Wynford, and Seneca East.
“I am excited to get into league play,” Rellinger said. “When we had our welcoming social to welcome the new teams, we split off into our sport pods. The coaches were amazing. They are so accepting of me being so new after taking over for someone who has been here for a while. We aren’t walking into a cupcake walk in the East, especially with CC and Wynford. West isn’t easy either, especially with Calvert. I’m excited to see how we measure up for sure.”