As junior volleyball player Mackenzie Ratcliff jumps to spike the ball over the net, she makes eye contact with her volleyball coach Eric Miracle. It was weird seeing him on the other side of the net when he’s usually on the sidelines giving her feedback. But she stays locked in, rising above the net to try to block every one of his kills she can.
Students won the first Student vs. Staff volleyball game since 2019 by a score of 25-23 in both sets yesterday during eighth period in the large gym.
Student Council hosted the game to raise money for an ice machine, which was a popular demand from students last year, and to go to the Texas Association of Student Council annual conference in San Antonio.
STUCO President Nuhamin Kassahun said they decided to bring the Student vs. Staff volleyball game back because she heard a lot of teachers say they really enjoyed it and want to play again. She also wanted to get STUCO’s name out there so people next year would want to join.
Kassahun said they decided to have the game on the same day as students were testing so they could watch the game instead of going back to class after a long day.
STUCO officers went to AVID Coordinator Elizabeth Brown for help since she’s in charge of the school spirit events at RHS. She helped them plan tryouts, practices, how to sell tickets and contacted teachers to participate. The officers created posters to advertise the game to students and sold tickets for $3 during lunches.
“Ultimately, I would say STUCO, the officers, they did all of the heavy lifting, which is what we were hoping they would do,” Brown said.
Students tried out for the team on March 3 and had practice on March 11. Kassahun said they tried to limit the amount of volleyball players on the team because she didn’t want it to be students in sports vs. staff. They also had help from Miracle for reserving the gym and setting up the equipment.
Sophomore jv volleyball player Laise Freire said she decided to participate because her STUCO teacher, Ashleigh Robb, told her to. She also wanted to play with her friends and meet new people.
“I wanted to play because I want to see how the staff plays,” Freire said. “I wanted to see if they’re too old for that. I also wanted to play with my friends.”
Senior Zoë Johnson said her friend convinced her to participate, and she wanted to show off her school spirit since she’s graduating soon.
“It’s a way to go off with a bang,” Johnson said.
Ratcliff said she first thought it was for seniors only but once she found out anyone could play, she immediately decided to join. She and Freire took on leadership roles because they have the most volleyball experience out of everyone.
During practice, Freire helped her teammates by showing them strategies on how to handle the ball. She told them to keep their hands soft and push out their elbows to hit the ball hard.
Miracle said he decided to play and get involved with the game because he’s played volleyball for 40 years.
Math teacher Angel Castrejon said he heard about the game from Robb and decided to sign up since he has past experience in volleyball and wanted to play one more time.
Castrejon said he was a little nervous leading up to the game because the staff didn’t practice together until the warmup before the game, so they were going in blind. But he believes anytime teachers get together and do things that aren’t just teaching, the bond between them strengthens.
Brown said the staff team is “one big dysfunctional, fun family.” While she didn’t play because of a recent surgery, she helped the staff and was the announcer at the game. Before the game started, she sent the staff team an email reminding them to stretch and thanked them for “sacrificing their bodies and their pride for the entertainment of Richardson High School.”
During the game, the score seesawed back and forth. There were also some close calls like when the score was 22-23 and the staff was leading, freshman Jude Rosenzweig tipped the ball barely over the net and the students in the stands erupted into cheers. Ratcliff said that was the best moment of the game.
Miracle and the other coaches repeatedly gave each other high fives and pats on the back to encourage them throughout the game, which he said is natural for them.
“A lot of us out there are coaches, so it just comes natural because we always expect our athletes to do that,” Miracle said.
Johnson said the she hopes they bring back the tradition so students have something to look forward to.
“I got to see a lot of faces here I’ve never seen or a lot never met before,” Johnson said. “And I think it just strengthens the bond between upper and lower classmen more than ever before.”
Castrejon said he hopes students realize that school is a place where they can have fun alongside teachers.
“Hopefully they see that school’s not just about coming here and taking tests and taking notes and doing all that stuff,” Castrejon said. “It involves other things that can be fun. Hopefully they can see that teachers aren’t always super, super serious.”
Kassahun said she hopes everyone had fun at the game and wants STUCO to continue being involved at school.
“If you have more events like this, I feel like it’ll make people kind of excited to go to school,” Kassahun said. “And also there’s a good competition like playful rivalry with teachers as well.”
