- April 25, 2024
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WINTER GARDEN — The change the girls volleyball program at West Orange High has experienced in the past four years certainly is not lost on the team’s captain, Stephanie Garner.
“When I started here, probably like five or six girls played club, and now, it’s everyone,” Garner said. “Fewer girls are transferring out of coming here (to West Orange); that’s cool. … More people are noticing us as a team, so they’re wanting to come here.”
As a junior, Garner was a major part of the Warriors’ breakout season in 2014 — one that saw West Orange win the district championship over rival Apopka and win its first playoff match. Now, she’s the elder stateswoman on a roster loaded with dynamic young players, including standout sophomore hitter Makala Heidelberg and junior hitter Lauren Miller, a transfer from Foundation Academy.
Garner said she has embraced her role as a captain and leader on a team that even includes a few freshmen in its playing rotation.
“It’s kind of easy — everyone is really mature,” Garner said of her younger teammates. “For me, it’s like they’re all my little sisters, and I’m like the mother of the team. So it’s kind of fun for me to help them excel in their volleyball careers.”
Garner, who started playing competitive club volleyball when she was 8, has been a part of the program at West Orange for all four years of her high school career — meaning she has been there almost as long as fifth-year coach Ross Usie. The Warriors’ emergence as a contender on a regional and perhaps even state level has been as much a result of Usie’s coaching as it has been a credit to an influx of talent on campus, and Garner said she has grown close with her coach through the years.
“(Usie) works with us not only as a coach but as a friend — so he helps us a lot with balancing high school and volleyball,” Garner said. “I think that’s really good this year with all the young players.”
Usie has raved about Garner’s leadership skills even back to when she was a junior on a team with a strong senior presence. For Usie’s program to be successful this fall, with a roster some believe is even better than it was in 2014, he will rely upon his captain to be an extension of the coaching staff on the floor and to make sure that the lessons the team learned from a season ago — including a playoff loss on the road to Boone — will not be in vain.
“We kind of learned to stay confident in our ability (from the 2014 season),” Garner said. “Last year, when we lost to Boone (in the playoffs), we kind of just let things go. … We weren’t confident in our ability. This year, we’re trying to stay positive and kind of keep ourselves level-headed but know that we’re good enough to win and go far.”
Garner has committed to play her college volleyball at Coastal Georgia in Brunswick, Georgia, leaving one less thing to stress about during her senior season. Located just three-and-one-half hours up Interstate 95, Garner said the coaching staff, proximity to home and the beach all were factors in her choice.
For now, though, Garner isn’t as concerned with her looming career for the Mariners as she is with having a senior season to remember and playing home games in front of the team’s beloved “7th Man” student cheering section. The expectations are high, the team is young and the senior captain is just taking it all in stride.
“Everyone’s kind of just seeing what we can do, but I think we have a good chance of making it to states,” Garner said. “That’s what I hope for, especially since it’s my last year and I’m playing with both my best friends. It should be fun.”
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Stephanie Garner and many of her teammates have purchased Crocs slip-on shoes to wear to and from games and at school, along with colorful socks. Additionally, the girls have each customized their individual pairs with add-ons, such as Minions and CareBears.
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Contact Steven Ryzewski at [email protected].
