GW trying to turn volleyball program into contender

Jonathan Fain strolled the hallways at George Washington High every afternoon the Eagles had weight room training and conditioning, looking for girls willing to give volleyball a try.

“I probably did that for 75 to 100 girls,” Fain said. “I got five of them.”

There wasn’t a lot for the coach to use as a selling point.

The Eagles had just completed a 0-21 varsity season. The junior varsity squad failed to win a game, too. And GW hadn’t posted a .500 season since before any of the current students were even in high school.

But the influx of new players and the hard work and determination of the girls who stuck with it are beginning to pay off for the GW volleyball team, which opened the season with three consecutive victories and holds a 3-3 record after a slim defeat at Dan River and a pair of losses to local powerhouse Tunstall. The Eagles even have between 20 and 30 students who regularly show up to cheer on their classmates, and the early season success has helped to change the atmosphere around the team.

“Last year I thought it was a lot of fun … but I just hated to lose, and we lost every game, so it was terrible,” said Rose LeKwuwa, who is in her first year on varsity after playing JV last season. “It felt like we weren’t getting anywhere. But now that we’re winning I feel like we worked hard for the wins that we do have. … Last year we expected to lose every game. And this year everybody is surprised when we win. And we’re surprised ourselves, so we’re trying to keep it up.”
Amber Sulter, one of three team captains including Erika Saunders and Austin Holley, has played volleyball for two years and agreed with LeKwuwa that all the losing has been difficult, but feels things are turning around.

“It was hard to keep going, but we had to stick together as a team and work hard,” Sulter said. “You can see the difference on the girls’ faces. They actually want to be here. We have athletes and people are working hard.”

Kurtise Wilkes, who played volleyball and basketball at GW before graduating in 2006, has returned this season as an assistant coach.

“As a whole I think they are a very talented group of girls who have a lot of potential,” Wilkes said. “I think that they are definitely underrated by the community, by the other schools that we play. I think that we should give them more credit than what we do. They come out here and they fight and they work hard every day.”

The Eagles certainly have taken their lumps over the years, but it appears as if the days of GW being a doormat may be coming to an end.

“Everybody in school is talking about going to the volleyball game,” said junior Natalie White, who like teammate Morgan Oakes switched from cheerleading to volleyball this season. “They expect you to win, and that’s the only thing that we have. All we have is our school respecting us. Every other school just thinks we’re like the old GW and we’re not. We’re new. And improved.”