Park girls volleyball played against Mahtomedi Oct. 7, at home. Park beat Mahtomedi in all three sets—this was Park’s first time playing against this team. At the game, the Orioles took the night to honor and pay respect to their late coach, Sami Knott, who passed away two years ago in a battle against colon cancer. To represent Knott, attendees wore purple clothing, while players wore purple ribbons and shoes because it was her favorite color.
Senior Meghan Knight said this was a very special game because they were honoring coach Sami Knott. She said Knott was important to everyone on the team and greatly impacted every player’s life.
“Sami played such a crucial part for coaching in general because she had this grit to her that none of the other coaches had,” Knight said. “She made us push not just for her, the other coaches, or the people around us but for ourselves and our benefit. Her coaching was much different than our current coach Sam. I love them both, but Sami had an amazing impact on everyone she was coaching.”
According to sophomore Krychell Smith, the team dress code was purple and people watching the game were asked to wear purple to remember coach Sami. She said the purple helps to bring awareness to colon cancer.
“We are all wearing purple to honor coach Sami, who passed away from colon cancer two years ago,” Smith said. “We are trying to bring awareness to (colon cancer) while also remembering and fighting for coach Sami even though she is not with us.”
According to coach Sam Hanlon, the team made many improvements as a team during this game and will work hard to prepare for the next game. She said they practiced hard last week, and it paid off during this game, especially with the trust and spirit the team had in each other.
“Our energy and confidence levels stayed high the entire night, so that helped us push through and get the win in three (sets),” Hanlon said. ”We prepared a lot this week by practicing good passing, good talking and lots of movements.”
According to Knight, this was a very positive game with lots of good energy and many good highlights. She said even when the team’s spirit got down, they turned it around and finished the game with high spirits.
“Even though we were down sometimes, mainly in the first set, we kept our energy high,” Knight said. “Especially playing for Sami tonight, we found it in ourselves to dig out of the hole we created and were all very happy at the end.”
According to Smith, the team has many traditions that help them to bond and get closer as a group. She said the team communicates, stays in touch during and after games and tries to hang out outside of practice because it helps everyone get to know each other better.
“After games, we mostly just get together and talk about what we did and how we felt about it. We do this to make sure that we are still connected as a team,” Smith said. “We also hang out and have parties together often to make sure that we are bonding as a team.”
According to Hanlon, sections are coming up, and the team will start preparing. She said sections are tough for everyone, so they want to ensure they are in the best shape to take on the other teams.
“We know we have to just work at getting faster, keeping our movements crisp and clean, and just making sure that we are moving well to the ball,” Hanlon said. “The team did well today, and we want to keep that up for sections.”
Park girls volleyball will face Chanhassen at 7:00 p.m. on Oct. 9 at Chanhassen High School.
