BUMP, SET, SENIORS
Columbia’s volleyball seniors reflect on getting their Senior Night, look ahead to what’s next
EAST GREENBUSH, NY » Earlier this week, the Columbia girl’s volleyball team celebrated their seniors prior to a game against Saratoga. It was a moment all four seniors had been anticipating for some time, yet didn’t know if they’d be able to get.
“I was really bummed coming into the school year because I though I was going to miss out on everything,” said senior Tristyn Valenze. “Last year the seniors missed out on their spring season, so having this day is huge for us and I’m really thankful to the school that they were able to pull it off.”
The four Colombia seniors include Valenze, Jess Drzymala, Madison Prior and Taylor O’Brien.
The Blue Devils made the most of the day, defeating the Blue Streaks in four sets. They would go on to defeat Guilderland in four sets as well, later in the week, to go 6-3 in their shortened season so far.
“We’re used to a preseason in August and then going all the way until November,” said Jess Drzymala, on the
strangest part of playing volleyball in the spring. “Now we have like a month and a half, so that’s probably the strangest part.”
Valenze added that she misses the full gyms and being able to go to games to support her classmates.
“Definitely the strangest part is playing in masks, as well as not being able to practice the same times as other people or going to other team’s games to support them,” Valenze said. “It’s definitely been different.”
The ceremony itself was what you’d except out of a Senior Day, complete with family pictures, flowers, gifts and many posters.
“It means a lot because we didn’t think we were going to have it. Our school tried its best, but because we were only going in two days a week,
we really weren’t sure. It means a lot to even get a portion of what we’d normally get,” said Madison Prior. “We all went out and got a picture with our parents. I didn’t think we were going to have a season at all, let alone a Senior Day. I’m just really happy that everything has worked out.”
“It makes me really happy seeing all of the posters and all the support that we got, all shown in one night,” Drzymala added. “Everyone was really happy and I’m glad that we got to do it.”
Each of Columbia’s four seniors were patiently waiting during the fall for volleyball to get approved, though that didn’t happen until the winter.
“In the fall, I was just waiting to see if we were actually going to get to play or not. Obviously we didn’t then, but it was worth the wait and I’m happy we get to play now,” said Taylor O’Brien.
“We did get to practice a couple times as a team at our coach’s outdoor sand court over the summer.”
Drzymala considered trying a new sports, but eventually decided on waiting for volleyball.
“I thought about doing cross country in the fall because it was weird not doing an activity after school and not moving around as much. I just wanted to wait for volleyball because I was so excited for this.”
For O’Brien and Prior, the pair will go from the volleyball team to the softball team in just about a week or so - a sport they missed last spring.
“Right now I’m also getting ready for softball, that’s kind of my main sport. I’m really excited to be starting that up too,” O’Brien said. “It’s really special getting to play volleyball and softball, as well as getting a ceremony, since this year has been so rough for so
many of us. It’s one of the normal things that we can actually do.”
In the coming weeks, Valenze will be returning to the girl’s lacrosse team, the season she missed in the spring of her junior year. Drzymala will go from volleyball to the track team as well.
Without actually saying the words, Drzymala highlighted the positive mental health aspects of being able to return to playing sports.
“Getting to play volleyball, we just are really good at supporting each other,” she said. “If you’re having a bad day or are stressed out from COVID or anything, at the end of the day we all get to come to practice and see each other, which is nice. This was definitely all worth it, even though we had to go through more to get to this point. Seeing Senior Nights over the years, it just gets you so excited to have your own.”