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ORANGE— Buckley volleyball coach Otis Glasgow was met with repeated chants of “O-tis, O-tis” from a crowd donned almost entirely in red as he held the CIF State Division III runner-up trophy at Santiago Canyon College on Saturday.
Later on, after the trophy was passed around for selfies with players, Glasgow held the trophy again during post-game in a more sentimental moment.
“No team on Buckley’s campus has this trophy,” Glasgow said. “We have broken history and made history time and time again. The outcome is that we made history.”
Archie Williams of San Anselmo topped Buckley in four games (25-15, 21-25, 23-25, 23-25) in the CIF State Division III championships, but the Griffins are still able to walk away with a sense of satisfaction.
Buckley (28-4) was appearing in its first state championship after winning the CIF State Southern Regional Division III championship and a CIF Southern Section Division 5 title. And the team looked comfortable being there.
Tate Drageset, Adonia Anene and Sophia Wolfson worked together to form an attack that stunned the Falcons early. Drageset led the group with 23 kills, 10 digs and three aces while Anene and Wolfson each added 11 kills apiece.
“We’re just all three very competitive,” Wolfson said. “So when we’re out there together, we just want to mess the other team up. And I think that we push ourselves to higher limits when you know the other two are supporting.”
Archie Williams (21-6) dug its heels in throughout the second and third sets, refusing to give up more than a handful of points at a time. Elsa Snipes (25 kills) was scoring from multiple angles and was proving to be a challenge to contain.
The Griffins gained an early 4-2 lead in the fourth set, but struggled to maintain it. The teams went point-for-point and although Buckley was able to tie it one final time at 23-all, Snipes eventually put the match away with one final kill.
Glasgow worked to develop not only a winning culture in his first year as head coach at Buckley, but also one that’s enjoyable for the players. Especially when plays were going their way, the Griffins snuck in flashy handshakes and mini dance parties.
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“I feel like Otis always teaches us not only to be good players,” Wolfson said, “but good people, which is something I feel like all of us will carry.
“We’ve had previous experiences with other coaches where we were kind of just treated like machines, but Otis has always taken time to take care of us.”
Buckley will lose three players to graduation. It’ll bring back a hungry core group of players who are eager to keep building on the Griffins’ success.
“We don’t do things to do them. We do things to be the person that does them,” Glasgow said. “We don’t play hard to win a game. We play hard because we are the type of team that plays hard. Obviously, we want the result, but we are more focused on the journey.”