The Susitna Valley Rams volleyball team began its season, knowing how it will begin, but not how it might end.
The Su Valley Rams volleyball team competes in the Borealis Conference for size 2A schools. Teams in the 2A division, hail from schools that typically enroll between 100 and 200 students. The Borealis Conference also includes schools such as Cordova, Unalaska, and Cook Inlet Academy from Soldotna.
Su Valley is the only Mat-Su Borough school that competes in the Borealis Conference, but this year, due to Covid-19, the Mat-Su Borough School District has prohibited its schools from playing any teams located outside the district.
In response, Su Valley will take on much larger schools, located within the Borough. Wasilla and Colony High Schools each enroll over 1,000 students, and even smaller Borough Schools, such as Reddington and Houston High School enroll well over 300 students, which is still more than double the size of Su Valley.
The Rams will host home volleyball games during the season, but with some conditions. Masks will be mandatory and not all spectators will be allowed to attend in person. Athletic Director Jimmy Sickler explains that the school will allow use a limited number of bracelets to be used as a type of “ticket” to attend the game in person.
“We’ll give the opposing team a certain number of bracelets and then our team will get a certain number of bracelets to give to their families so that they can at least get a couple of members of their families into the gym, but mostly we’re going to encourage folks to watch from home on our stream.”
Other teams in the Borealis Conference will continue to play each other, and it’s possible that a conference tournament might be held in late November. Jimmy is hoping that, if the tournament is held, Su-Valley might be given permission to attend and compete.
With the uncertainty of the pandemic, it’s difficult to predict what might happen down the road. But for now, the Rams are hitting the gym to take on those larger district schools. Su Valley’s first game will be held October 7th, at home, against Houston High School. The school will provide a link on their website for fans to stream the volleyball games from home and cheer on the Rams.
