Almost immediately after Western Nebraska Community College captured the NJCAA National Tournament championship Saturday, Kendra Schauermann began thinking about her grandfather, Bill Honaker.Specifically, she remembered what he told her before he passed away in September: get a national championship ring.
Needless to say, Schauermann was both emotional and elated when the Cougars put the finishing touches on their amazing season with Saturday's four-game victory over Miami Dade in the national tournament final at Council Bluffs, Iowa.
“I don’t think there is anything that can top this feeling,” she said. “I did this all for my Grandpa. Before he passed away, he told me to get a ring for him. That was the first thing I thought of.”
Schauermann said that a week before he passed away, her grandpa was just laying there and then woke up asking to call all his grandkids. When he talked to Schauermann, she said he told her to get a big championship ring like he won in 1995 as a pitcher for the Silver Streaks out of
Twelve year’s later, Schauermann gave her grandpa his wish of a national championship ring. And the team, including 12 players, two student managers, two coaches and the trainer, can remember this season as earning WNCC’s first national tournament title. Even the fans will remember this win for years to come.
“It will be something to remember for a long time,” sophomore Jennifer Eichler said Monday after the team was honored with a presentation in the gym. “The ring will show it. The pictures will show it. I am sure we will have to look back at the pictures and remember it later in life.”
The team had a short celebration Saturday evening at Ruby Tuesday’s in Council Bluffs, where the team presented Tournament Coach of the Year Chris Green a signed Cougar flag, before heading home Sunday morning.
On the way home, the Cougars were greeted by about 25 fans in
Monday, the team was formally recognized at a ceremony in
Green said the limo ride was unexpected by fun. “I don’t know if too many people in Scottsbluff knew what was going on, but it was fun to showoff and take some time to celebrate a great achievement like this,” he said.
Athletic director Jennifer Pedersen said that winning a national championship is what every one works for and this is something that the college will take pride in during the celebration.
"Winning a national title is something that every student-athlete dreams of. It is something that every kid thinks about when they start playing sports and it is the highest goal that every athlete wants to achieve,” she said. “So I think that the WNCC women’s volleyball team winning the national title is the epitome of what every athlete wants to do, and they definitely set the example for the other athletes at WNCC, as well as Region IX.”
Pedersen said that her room Saturday night in
“We had about 11 of our kids and coach Harnish and myself in the hotel room listening to the game,” she said. “The volume was pretty low so all of us were huddled pretty close around the computer. I think pretty much everyone of us got goose bumps when they announced that we won the title.”
Eicher said the last couple of days shows just how much this championship means to them as well as the community.
“We didn’t know about the Bridgeport greeting until we were a couple minutes away,” she said. “It [the greetings] were amazing and I like the fact that everyone supports us including
Green said this national trophy is not only for the team and school, but it is for the community.
“We stopped at the corner in
In fact, with the fan support they received at the national tournament, especially in the wild semi-final match against,
“One thing I didn’t mention at today’s celebration was during the Salt Lake game, I think really the crowd and the fans that came down to cheer us on in the semi-final match definitely had a part us winning against Salt Lake. We have to give them a little bit of credit because they helped us to keep positive and to keep fighting. Every little bit was necessary.”
The Cougars championship run was spectacular in deed. The Cougars had their backs to the ropes in the semi-final match against Salt Lake Community College. Many people were preparing themselves for a defeat. But, the players had other ideas and defeated the No. 1 team in the country in five games to move into the finals.
Sophomore Shawntell Jones said after the
“That was a big win because we knew we had to come out and fight,” she said. “Losing that first game was pretty intense. We knew that it wasn’t going to be easy and it was going to be a pretty intense match. We knew we had to work for it. Then, we knew we needed the second game and we pulled through [even being down 18-10]. Everybody did their part. We couldn’t have done it without anybody on the team. We needed everybody on the bench, everybody on the court, and everybody did their part.”
In the championship match, the Cougars came in as the underdogs and quickly took control of the match, claiming the first two games against unbeaten Miami Dade. And they did it with a fierce defense that kept balls in play all night to give the Cougar hitters an opportunity at swings at the net.
“It all starts with the pass and without Nayka, Daphine, Stacie and I, our hitters can’t do anything,” she said. “We have to get our balls to our amazing setter. Defense is definitely key, especially against good hitters and I think we did awesome.”
Stacie Meisner, a sophomore from Gering who saw state experience during her high school days, said this tops everything.
“We had everything it took this year to win a national title,” she said. “This is so amazing and it is such an amazing feeling. We will probably be on a high for the next month or two. This is a really good tournament and all the support that we had made it just that more special and memorable.”
Meisner said one of the advantages the Cougars had in the title contest was of their opponents they had to endure not only at the tournament, but all season long.
“You look at the number of games we played and we played twice as many games as Miami Dade did in a season,” she said. “I think that benefited us because every time we go out on the court that is our chance to get better against an opponent instead of spending time in the gym.
“Another advantage we had was we were in this game last year and we knew what it was going to take. We knew we had to come out strong. We knew we were the underdog because Miami Dade came in without any losses and we were the No. 5 seed. We knew we were the underdog and we had to come out and start fast and finish strong and really push. We had to do everything on our side of the court to make sure that we got that win.”
The Cougars finished the regular season with a 54-2 mark and were ranked No. 1 in the country for half of the season. WNCC lost only to Salt Lake Community College and Frank Phillips, who also made the semi-finals falling to Miami Dade and WNCC. Salt Lake claimed third place at nationals with a four-game win over Frank Phillips.
WNCC then finished off the tournament with the four-game win over Miami Dade, in which Green said was a pleasant win against a national power team. In fact, WNCC has never beaten Miami Dade at Nationals, going 0-3, including two years ago in the Final Four.
“We are ecstatic to win,” Green said Saturday night. “We watched film on Miami Dade and people saw them warm up, and they have some amazing hitters. We faced them two years ago in the Final Four and we kind of got wiped off the court. [Saturday] we played better then two years ago and did a great job. We almost played a perfect game.”
Schauermann, who played the tournament with a heavy heart, said she is proud to be part of school history.
“I am glad that I have been a part of that team,” she said. “We have just amazing girls this year. Every one was best friends and every one loved every one. We did everything together and we loved each other and we had amazing chemistry. This is the best feeling in my life. After coming off of last year and coming off that feeling when we lost, this is indescribable.”
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