-
Hannah Rouse (Courtesy: Steven Christy) -
Kelsie Schiefelbein (Courtesy: Steven Christy)
After 37 years, a group of young women at Oklahoma Christian University is making history.
For the first time since 1983, OC is fielding a women’s volleyball team. The Lady Eagles wrapped up the regular season March 18 and are set to open Lone Star Conference tournament play Tuesday night.
OC announced its plan to revive the program in July 2018. OC hired Barry Wheeler as head coach in January 2019. Wheeler said building a program is a daunting task.
“Everything has to be figured out,” Wheeler said. “You gotta figure out equipment. You gotta figure out how much equipment, what to buy. You gotta figure out uniforms, I mean, everything. There is nothing in the program that was already here. Zero. No equipment, no anything… That first year, I spent 14 weeks straight on the road recruiting.”
The Lady Eagles made their return Jan. 24 on the road at Southwestern Oklahoma State. OC impressed in its debut by defeating SWOSU 3-2 to win its first match in 37 years.
Wheeler said he did not know what to expect heading into the first game.
“I was probably pretty nervous, on edge,” Wheeler said. “I didn’t know what was going to happen. I knew Southwest was pretty good. To come out that day with a victory was like, ‘Woo!’ I literally was on my knees, I go, ‘Thank you, Lord.’ We didn’t know what to expect for sure. We knew we could compete, but with a bunch of freshmen trying to get this thing started… We didn’t know. We looked OK in our scrimmages, but they’re scrimmages. To actually get out and compete, it was pretty cool.”
When OC first announced its intention to bring volleyball back, the original plan was to debut in the 2019 season. That was quickly pushed back to 2020. When the conference pushed its fall sports to the spring due to the pandemic, the Lady Eagles were forced to wait yet again for their season to begin.
This meant the freshmen who signed with OC out of high school and redshirted in 2019 went two and a half years without playing in a competitive match.
Hannah Rouse was one of the first to sign with OC. She comes from Newcastle, which started volleyball when she was in 8th grade, so being part of a new program was familiar to her.
“I was the first graduating class through that went through the whole program throughout Newcastle,” Rouse said. “I really enjoyed that process, just being able to set the tone and establish the program there. I saw that same opportunity here, and I thought that would be really cool.”
Most of the Lady Eagles’ roster is redshirt freshmen, but OC also brought in a few transfers to add some experience to the team.
Kelsie Schiefelbein is one of those. The junior transferred from Glendale Community College in Arizona. She said being one of four non-freshmen is odd.
“Most of the time, I don’t feel older than the girls,” Schiefelbein said. “I think that they do look up to us and rely on us in times of struggle where we’re down in a game. Who can stay calm on the court? Who has that experience? Who’s been through those hard times in the games? I think that I have a calming presence just because I have that experience.”
OC finished its first regular season back with a 6-9 overall record, 4-8 in conference play. The Lady Eagles finished third in the LSC North Division ahead of in-state foe Cameron, meaning the Lady Eagles qualified for the conference tournament. OC will face Texas A&M-Commerce in Kingsville, Texas, on Tuesday, and the winner will take on host Texas A&M-Kingsville on Wednesday.
Wheeler said the debut season has gone well. With a team of mostly freshmen who will continue to play with each other going forward, he thinks the next few years will be fun to watch.
“We’re already fun to watch as it is because of the effort these guys put out,” Wheeler said. “But to know that we can increase our talent level, increase our experiences and get better with our talent level, it’s going to be pretty exciting.”