Root beer has mostly given way to orange soda for Michael Christiansen.
But the Kent-Meridian volleyball coach couldn’t be any happier with the change in soft drinks. It simply means the Royals are winning. Drinking an orange soda after victories has become tradition for Christiansen. And root beer?
Well, that comes after defeat.
“You never do get sick of orange soda,” said a smiling Christiansen, Kent-Meridian’s enthusiastic and energetic third-year coach. “You get sick of root beer, but you never get sick of the orange soda.”
Indeed.
And with the quick and steady rate of success the Royals have enjoyed this season, Christiansen might just be finding himself buying stock in Orange Crush by the end of November. That’s because just five matches into their South Puget Sound League North Division schedule, the Royals already had clinched a playoff berth.
To put it in perspective, Kent-Meridian hasn’t made the playoffs in volleyball — nor even been very close — since 2001. Between 2002 and 2007, the Royals managed a grand total of 11 league wins.
This year?
The Royals entered play Tuesday night against second-ranked Kentwood with a perfect 5-0 league record.
The key is a simple change in mentality and focus, Christiansen said.
“It’s easy to focus on the losing and to talk about the losing,” Christiansen said. “My mentality always has been, you’ve got to move forward. If you want to get better, you have to put the effort in.”
And though the Royals were unable to knock off Kentwood, falling in three games (25-13, 25-14, 25-11), it’s clear the program has turned the corner.
“They run more offense. They get the ball at you with more pressure,” Kentwood coach Bil Caillier said. “They’re a different team.”
Along with the wins and the playoff berth, several K-M players have found themselves among the league leaders.
Senior setter Davina Fuiava ranks third in the North in aces per game (0.79) and is second in kill percentage (37.9). Senior outside hitter McKaley Brewer ranks first in the league in serving percentage (99.3) while sophomore sensation Cherene O’Hara is second in the league in stuffs per game (1.06).
“Players are starting to get more serious about the game and we’ve developed better skills than we had before,” said Brewer, who’s in her fourth year on the varsity program. “Before, we also had a lot of different coaches in and out of the program. Now (under Christiansen) we’ve built up this big family community of girls who are all here to win and work hard.”
Numbers also have helped.
In Christiansen’s first year with the program, roughly 30 players turned out.
When practice rolled around at the beginning of this year, the coach estimates he had between 60 and 70 players.
Coupled with Christiansen’s unrelenting glass-half-full approach, the Royals have turned the corner.
“We were tired of losing,” Fuiava said. “All of us as a team … we just stopped talking about it.”
And, in the process, have helped Christiansen get his fill of orange soda.
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