The Cougar volleyball team had a fantastic season this last fall, winning the Southern Region championship and taking fourth place in the NWAC tournament. Each of those achievements is awarded a banner at the end of the season. Those banners are then displayed high over the gym floor in Randall Hall, which raises the question: why is it that the two banners from the fall aren’t flying amongst the others?

“Because of space…we are considering redoing all the sport banners in the gym – having one or two per sport instead of so many,” said athletic director Jim Martineau in an email explaining the department’s plan for the banners.

There still seems to be a bit of confusion between the athletic department and the volleyball team. The players seemed to be waiting for their banner to come all season and they’re still waiting. They weren’t sure if they were going to receive their banner right after the season or a ways down the line. At this rate players just hope to see them hang before they graduate, it seems to be a concern for the whole team.

“If they were going to do any changes, they set it before so we know ahead of time,” said CCC volleyball head coach Kathie Woods. “Don’t change it right in the middle of things without knowing, because in volleyball, for example, or any sport, we are very goal-oriented. What we want to do is we want to be undefeated and we want to win and one of the things is we want to get a banner. For us it’s been several years since we’ve had a banner. We’ve had a lot up there, but we’ve had a dry spell. So when we got close to winning I said, ‘Okay this next game is the banner game’,” she added.

The banner was a tool of motivation towards the end of the season and on into the tournament for Woods and her team. When the team hadn’t received its banner, it seemed to cause more confusion for the team about when they were going to get it.

“We put all the banners from the current year up at one time at the end of the academic year. If we don’t make any headway on the big replacement project. We will have their banners up before they start season in August,” said Martineau in an email.

It’s clear how the players feel on the subject, “We kind of talked about it in practice one day and I think we all kind of came to a consensus that we think the single banners look better,” said CCC volleyball libero Sierra VeraCruz. “It’s so intimidating to your opponent. When they come in and see your banners lined up everywhere they’re kind of like, ‘Wow. When you come in and you see five, six, seven banners and just a couple tallies, it’s not as intimidating to me.”

CCC shows off awarded sports banners in the gym, located in Randall Hall.

Story and photo by: Jack Spencer