The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team now has a day they can call their own after Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman recognized the Cougar volleyball team for winning their second national title in four years at a Friday morning presentation at the Gering Civic Center.
Gov. Heineman officially proclaimed Friday as Cougar Volleyball Day. He said that the accomplishments of the Cougar volleyball team is something the state can be proud of.
“What you are seeing now is some of the finest athletes that we have in this fine state and they are right here in your community. You should be enormously proud of them,” the Governor said. “I have a special proclamation I want to read, but I want to say that the level of women’s volleyball in this state is absolutely incredible. You look at what this team has done, what Wayne State is doing, what the University of Nebraska Kearney is doing, and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln is doing, and it is absolutely incredible. They are leading by example.”
Gov. Heineman said that this day, Dec. 3, 2010, is now officially Cougar Volleyball Day. The Governor read from the proclamation, saying, “The State of Nebraska takes great pride in the academic and athletic endeavors of Western Nebraska Community College; and whereas, The citizens of Nebraska enjoy the high quality sportsmanship and competition of collegiate volleyball; and whereas, The Western Nebraska Community College Cougars have competed for conference, regional and national championships and played NJCAA volleyball at the highest level; and whereas, These young women are an inspiration to young people across our great state; and whereas, The Cougars’ volleyball team represents the ideals of NJCAA athletics by balancing high academic success with superior athletic dedication; and whereas, The Cougars dominated the 2010 volleyball season from start to finish, winning their second NJCAA National Championship match in four years. Now, therefore, I, Dave Heineman, Governor of the State of Nebraska, do hereby proclaim December 3, 2010, as Cougar Volleyball Day in Nebraska, and I do hereby urge all citizens to take due note of the observance.”
WNCC coach Giovana Melo and the players were appreciative of the honor.
“We are very proud of this day,” the third year Cougar coach said. “They have succeeded in the classroom and on the court and they have done a tremendous job this year. We started the year back in August with difficulties because we had kids from Hawaii, Louisiana, Colorado, Brazil, and Nebraska. They are from everywhere. They are a very diverse team and I think we put them together as a team and came out in the end, playing as hard and well as we could, so we could bring back to Nebraska a national championship.”
For the players, they took pride in being recognized as well as being honored by the Governor.
“This was pretty cool because, for one, I have never met the Governor before,” Gering graduate Sierra Schmidt said. “And, two, it is cool that they are dedicating a day for us because of our success and what we bring to the community.”
Mackenzie Westphal, a Scottsbluff graduate, said the national championship is a gift back to the community for their support of Cougar athletics.
“It [having a day named after us] was like the cherry on the top of a really big accomplishment. A lot of the people in the community look up to us and they count on us,” Westphal said. “We watched a video before one of our matches at nationals, and it was a bunch of people around the community telling us to bring home a national title. I think when we went out there at nationals, we played not only for us, but for everyone in the community, our coaches, and our families. It was nice to show them we really did bring it home for them and for us.”
WNCC captured its second National title in four years after dropping San Jacinto College in five sets at the national tournament back on Nov. 20. Since then, it has been a whirlwind of exposure for the team, and they still have to pinch themselves off and on to make sure it wasn’t just a dream.
“Winning nationals is awesome. There is no feeling you can use to describe it,” Schmidt said. “I still don’t believe that we won just because it feels like a dream. I never thought this would happen and it did. It will be there for a while; probably the rest of my life.”
Westphal said winning the national title still feels surreal to them.
“We think about it and we actually say ‘we actually won nationals and we are the best junior college Division I school in the United States’,” she said. “This is awesome. It is such a big accomplishment that we have been working for. Every day we went into practice, ran six touches, ran stairs, and it all paid off in the end. We finally did what we wanted to do for five months.”
Westphal also said the Governor invited the team to have lunch with him in the coming months in Lincoln, which is something he did for the University of Nebraska when they won the national title.
Westphal said that meeting the Governor and having a day for them is a nice way to finish off 2010.
“When we heard the proclamation, we all started smiling,” she said. “It was fun to know that we did it and it is about us. We worked really hard all year and it paid off, and we get something special this year, like a day just for us.”
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