It’s always fun to win.
It’s even more fun to win when you’re doing it with your best friends.
That’s exactly what the Archbishop Ryan High School volleyball team did this year.
The Ragdolls are always competitive in the Catholic League thanks in large part to coach Nora Kramer. But this year they had a group of five seniors who have been playing together since high school began.
Actually, long before that.
Emily Walicki, Angelina Salera, Sadie Woods, Tori Shamanow and Allyson Mayer were the seniors and the leaders on this year’s team. They have been playing together their entire high school careers, but also spent eight years together at Our Lady of Calvary, where all learned to play volleyball.
It’s also where they became best friends.
“This season meant the most to me out of all of the years I have played volleyball,” Walicki said. “I have grown up with these girls and we finally got the chance to show everyone how well we work together. My favorite part was being able to step on to the court together for just one more season.”
“Ryan volleyball has been such a huge part of my life,” Mayer said. “This team has given me some of my best friends, successful role models, and pushed me to become a better version of myself. I had never been a setter at Ryan until my senior year, but I was surrounded by motivational coaches and encouraging friends who helped me so much, and pushed me to be better. Ryan volleyball is such a wonderful experience and will open you up to great opportunities.”
In the always-competitive Catholic League, the Ragdolls went 7-4, which was good enough for seventh place. One of their wins came over Lansdale Catholic, the defending Catholic League champion.
“This season was a lot of fun,” Salera said. “My favorite part was our win against Lansdale Catholic. Partially because of the win, but mainly because the energy on the court that night was the most I have ever seen. Every single girl wanted the win so badly, and everything was left on the court.”
“This season has been one of our best yet,” Woods said. “The highlight of the season for me was beating Lansdale Catholic, last year’s PCL winners, and putting up a good match against other top schools in the league, despite our losses.
“Besides our record, this season was also a great one for team bonding. Our varsity team had sleepovers and pasta parties, which were always a blast. We feel more like good friends than simply teammates.”
“My favorite memory from this season was beating Lansdale Catholic,” Shamanow said. “I am definitely the most competitive on the team and my teammates completely blew my expectations during this match, and it wasn’t because of how skillfully we played. It was because of how much heart every single girl played with.”
There’s no doubt the girls on this team were technically sound, and they’ve learned a lot from their coaches both at Calvary and at Ryan.
But the team was greater than the sum of its parts and a lot of that had to do with the bond this squad has built over the years.
Being a part of the team hasn’t just helped them with their volleyball skills.
“I am very honored to have been able to play volleyball at Ryan,” said Walicki, who plans on going to nursing school next year. “There is such a great legacy my coaches have made in the past years and being a part of that means so much to me. I have met so many amazing and important people the last four years and I cannot wait to be able to come back to watch the underclassmen succeed like my girls and I did.”
“To play volleyball at Ryan means to become part of a family,” said Salera, who will study occupational therapy while playing volleyball at Alvernia. “That is the best way I can describe it, and also the first thing that comes to my mind. It means knowing you have an entire team of people behind you if you need support, or even just to have a good time with. Being able to say I played for Ryan volleyball is something I will forever be proud of.”
They should be proud of the lasting legacy this team is leaving. It’s not often you have five kids from the same grade school play all four years on the same varsity team.
“Both of my older sisters played volleyball at Ryan so I had big shoes to fill,” said Woods, who will major in biology in college, but is unsure where. “When I was younger and came to my sisters’ games, I always admired the older girls and now I am one of them. However, most important to me are my coaches at Ryan. Coach Nora Kramer and Coach David Kramer have helped me these past four years to become not only a better athlete but also a better person.”
“For me, playing volleyball at Ryan has given me so much,” said Shamanow, who will study nursing and play volleyball at DeSales. “I met my best friend through this program, and was blessed with incredible people as coaches. From the moment of my first varsity practice my freshman year, my coaches have only wanted me to succeed and helped me in the best ways they could to do that.”
“Playing volleyball at Ryan means playing as a family,” said Mayer, who plans on majoring in nursing next year, but not sure where. “It means constantly picking each other up, and pushing each other to be the best they can be, while building bonds that will last a lifetime.”
