“I don’t take vacations. So this is my vacation for the year, coming to the state tournament. This is just such a great experience. I hope these kids really understand what a great deal this is,” he said, fighting emotion.
Part of playing volleyball for Marshall is growing up dreaming of playing for the Tigers.
“My family would always come up when I was little and watch the state tournament. It’s so fun to see those girls be successful, and you want to follow in their shoes and go along that path,” junior Resse Drake said.
Westby made sure the players recognize their responsibility to younger members of the community.
“I always worry, as a father and a grandpa, that, ‘Hey, are you taking care of the younger kids?’ ” Westby said. “And these girls do such a good job of that. When you get to the state tournament, you want the older players to show the younger ones this is how we do things when we get here, like going to bed on time, housekeeping, things like that.”
When Mayer Lutheran’s Marley Martin was asked about how it felt to earn a career high in kills during a state tournament semifinal, her answer was a bemused “Was it?”