TEMPERANCE — Expectations for the Bedford volleyball team are high this season.
Three seniors who are committed to play at Division I colleges are part of a core of seven seniors returning from a team that suffered a heartbreaking loss to the No. 2 team in the state in the Division 1 Michigan playoffs last season.
The reality is when expectations are high, it is usually for good reason. Bedford coach Bree Russow has a simple request for each one of her players and members of her coaching staff each time they are in the gym this season:
Never lose sight of the reason you are in the gym in the first place.
“Our motto this year is, 'What is your why?’” Russow said. “When you walk in the gym every day, why are you here? If we are all here for the same reason, then I think we will get the end results that we are hoping for.”
Last year, Bedford led 12-9 in the fifth set against No. 2 Northville in a regional semifinal, but lost the final six points to fall 15-12.
It was a crushing blow to finish off a great season, but it also highlighted how close Bedford is to having something special.
“It just shows how far we came as a team,” senior Alivia Brown said. “We worked so hard the whole season, and it came down to just a few points, but we battled that whole game. That's going to carry over to this year.”
With Brown, a Bowling Green commit, Victoria Gray (Indiana), and Kaylin Schroeder (Eastern Michigan), there is a strong core of leadership returning.
Each part of the trio plays a different position with Gray as a middle blocker, Schroeder as a setter, and Brown as an outside hitter.
Russow described Gray as a force on and off the court in the way she provides energy and is always there for her teammates. She said Schroeder is a tireless worker who organizes everything on the court much like a quarterback in football.
Brown is well-respected among her teammates, Russow said, because she has taken on any role asked of her, including primarily a defensive role before she switched to outside hitter last year.
“I think all three being different positions and bringing different styles of leadership in their own way and having a different skill that they bring to the team has just helped tremendously for our underclassmen and the returning seniors that look up to them,” Russow said.
The personality of the team can be described as family-oriented.
“A lot of us have been together for most of the years,” Schroeder said. “I feel like we are finally at the point where we are jelling really well together and we have really built that bond.
Gray said she is ready to transition into being one of the team's main leaders after she was guided by others early in her career.
She is the No. 5-rated senior player in Michigan, according to Prep Dig.
“It always feels like I've been the younger person looking up to the older girls,” Gray said. “Now the positions have kind of switched, and it's other girls looking up to senior leaders like myself. It's surreal but I'm so excited for my senior season. It means a lot because you go places around Michigan and it's like, 'You play for Bedford?' We always have a target on our back, and it's always been a known thing. So it's really an honor to be able to play for this school.”
Russow played volleyball for Bedford and won a state championship during her time in high school. She uniquely understands the history and expectations.
After taking over the team last year on an interim basis on Aug. 20, she is headed into her first season as the permanent head coach after longtime head coach Jodi Manore's contract was not renewed after an investigation by the school district into complaints from a former player.
Russow wants to keep the program progressing, but doesn't want to lose the tradition and the core values that have made it so successful over the years.
“My No. 1 goal is to keep the program moving forward in the right direction,” Russow said. “I think the biggest change is the flexibility of the team being able to adapt to me because it is different. … My thing is, we have to be efficient, so when we are here in the gym for two or three hours we have to train hard, because that's just what it takes to be successful.”
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