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MCC Honoring 1980 Volleyball Team This Year
MCC Indian Athletics web site unveils ‘Championship Volleyball Season: On This Day in 1980’
hen the coronavirus pushed back the start of McCook Community College volleyball schedule until January, it also changed MCC’s plans to honor the school’s winningest volleyball program on its 40th anniversary. College officials were looking forward to bringing back members of the 1980 team for a weekend tribute this fall. That will have to wait until fall scrimmage schedules and the revised spring schedule is complete. For now, fans will have one immediate option.
Throughout this fall the MCC Athletics Website is featuring a game-by-game rewind with “Championship Volleyball Season: On This Day in 1980.” This feature will track the 1980 season -- 40 years to the date. The 1980 schedule and roster have been loaded on the website and fans can track the team in real time (40 years later) through an epic 56-match season which began in North Platte on Sept. 9 and finished up 86 days later. “1980VB” has been added to the list of sports fans can access from the “sports” pulldown menu on the Indian Athletics landing page.
Coach Stan Garretson led his team on a run that included five tournaments and 29 tournament games, 10 triangulars and one stretch where the team played 12 matches in five days in three cities.
said MCC Coach Hayley Kobza. “When our season got pushed back to January it prevented us from celebrating on the official 40th anniversary of that team, so maybe we can do it on the 40th and a half anniversary in the spring and hopefully some of that 1980 team can be a part of our alumni scrimmage this fall.”
Volleyball was the first women’s intercollegiate sport at MCC starting in the fall of 1975 and entering the 1980 season the team had complied a 106-66-1 record. The team was coming off a 16-13-1 record in 1979. Players on the 1980 team included: Barb McBee, setter Culbertson; Katrina Minnick, setter, Franklin; Kristine Mason, Sandy Creek; Shelly Hurt hitter, Loup City; Denise Garey, hitter McCook; Marian Kotschwar, hitter McCook; Lynn Krolikowski, hitter Wood River; Beverly Willems, hitter Blue Hill; Louise Koerperich, hitter, Cambridge; Jeanne Porter, setter, Crawford; Julie Quaduor, setter, Beaver Valley, Kris Thompson, Orleans; Deb Jones, hitter, Oxford; Julie Wetherington, setter, Wray, Colo.; Tammy Middaugh, hitter, Bertrand; and Cheryl Husted, hitter Palisade.“On paper, we’ve got a very good team this year,” said Garretson just prior to the start of the 1980 season. “We’ve got eight sophomores and against Mid-Plains North Platte we’ll be starting six sophomores.”
To follow the 1980 team you can view the schedule, roster and eventually game stories on the MCC Indian Athletics web site by filtering past seasons which now includes 1980 volleyball. You can also link to the season at:
https://mccindians.com/index.aspx?path=80vb
