An Ode to Darci Wassenaar

In Fall of 2002 Darci Wassenaar (at 22 years old) walked into the SFC gym on South Sycamore Avenue and said, “Man, it’s hot in here, can we build a new school that has air conditioning? Also I’m going to turn this program into the greatest dynasty the state of South Dakota has ever seen.” She did not actually say this, and I do not want to get sued. But nevertheless, it’s true, we did get a new school with air conditioning and SFC has the greatest volleyball dynasty in the state.  

So rather than me trying to describe how Coach Wass has come in and created a program, and talk about tradition and winning and things of that nature, I’m just going to show you a chart of her success and then tell 5-6 stories about the last 18 years of SFC volleyball. Then I’m going to rank the top five players of all time and the worst five players of all time, as voted on by me. 

Year	Result
2002 (Fall)	Runner-Up
2003	Runner-Up
2007	Champions
2009	Season went up in smoke
2010	Champions
2011	Champions
2012	Champions
2013	3rd place but lost to the state champions
2014	Champions
2015	Champions
2016	Consolation champs
2017	Champions
2018	Champions
2019	Champions
2020	??? (this is her best team yet)

Nine championships in 13 years: crazy! Or even crazier, let’s just look at the last ten years: eight championships! 9-0 in her last nine state championship matches. My sister would also like to point out her winning percentage (which I don’t have on hand) and that’s with the toughest schedule in the state. We’re basically the Notre Dame of South Dakota volleyball with our absolute juggernaut non-conference schedule. The only difference is SFC volleyball doesn’t disappoint me by losing 42-14 to Alabama in the National Championship.

“Now that I’ve shown you the undeniable stats about Darci’s success, here are some memories I owe to Charger volleyball”- my editor, Jacklyn Nieuwendorp, helping me with my transition paragraph.

Fall of 2002, Watertown: I have to say Fall of 2002 because volleyball used to be a Winter sport in South Dakota, so there are actually two 2002 state champions (Fun Fact: Harding Country won both in class B that year). Now before you say, “Hey Eric, I don’t think it was 2002,” it was, I’m right. The Punt family argued about this for about four hours one Saturday. I was adamant that it was 2002, and Gail said it was 2003, Colin’s senior year. I presented her with facts and she ignored them and still says she’s right. Anyway, back to the story. Darci Wassenaar enters the scene and immediately Captain Phillips the situation and says, “I’m the head coach now,” demoting the previous coach to JV (wear it, Rod). Statistically, this was her greatest season. In just her first year, the Chargers were undefeated entering the state championship. If I say undefeated going into the state championship, we all know how it’s going to end. We lost to a Beresford team that we had defeated multiple times that year. I was in fourth grade and this is my second SFC sports memory. I was shocked. I don’t remember a lot from this, but here are the highlights: I watched with my friends Jared and Nick. Beresford’s coach had a goatee and gave off vibes that I did not like. Beresford’s players wore these handguard things and looked like a bunch of idiots. I don’t like to play the “what could have been” number for Darci’s state titles, but if she would have had a couple of years under the belt, she would have won this. 

2007, Eric’s freshman year, Sioux Falls Arena: SFC Volleyball is in full-on Wisconsin mode — we are really good every year, but can never really win the big one. Fast-forwarding to the state semifinal game against Harrisburg. I don’t know the origins of the SFC-Harrisburg rivalry, but there was hatred there in the early 2000s. We are in game 5 and tensions are high. Our goal for the season is to take home the title; Harrisburg’s little brother syndrome goal is just to beat us. Serving to start the fifth game, my friend Maria DeGroot serves 11 straight points, stomping the Harrisburg Tigers and advancing to the state championship. We went on to defeat Milbank who was led by the hottest volleyball player in Northern State history, Sami Nygaard. After six long years, Darci had finally conquered the beast and won a state title. 

2010, Eric’s senior year, Aberdeen, SD: Expectations for the year: maybe make it to state and turn up in the great town of Aberdabber. We were ranked the whole year, but never that impressive. An October game against Elk Point-Jefferson showed me that we weren’t good enough to win it all. It was an absolute shellacking, the only time I’ve ever seen a Darci Wassenaar coached team get destroyed. In between the second and third games, she took her team out in the hallway and gave them the biggest butt chewing ever. (I’m just guessing, I don’t really know, I wasn’t there.) They came out the third game on fire and…lost 22-25. Skip ahead to November, we’re in the coldest place on earth for the state championship, Aberdeen, South Dakota. Match one, SFC vs. Platte: it goes to five and we somehow come out victorious. Match two, SFC plays the Wagner Power Painters and it also goes five sets. At the end of the match, there was a ceremony at half court where Darci was crowned the queen of Charles Mix County and awarded the coveted 17 crown. (If this doesn’t make sense to you, you need to learn how South Dakota license plates work.) Championship Saturday would arrive and there were two battles: one would be a rematch between Sioux Falls Christian and EPJ and the second would be between Eric’s bowels and the HongKong Buffet. My friend Andrew convinced the senior boys that we should eat dindin at the sketch Chinese restaurant. The teriyaki mussels were really good, however we all got sick. In between bathroom breaks we were able to watch the volleyball game. Hoping for the best, but expecting the worst, I thought we’d be in for a short night. I was sorta right. We got off to a quick 2-0 lead. I didn’t expect to be in this situation, and as the student section leader, I was going to do everything in my power to help close this out. In between the second and third games I gave the greatest speech of all time to the student section crowd. (Shout out to my quarterback who is sitting in the front row hyping me up after every sentence.) No one has told me it was a great speech, but it helped us with the match, so I will take credit. My great Auntie Mae told my mother didn’t hear my speech, however she said it was fun to see Eric on the TV…kinda a celebrity. The Chargers would take the third game and win the title. The 2010 State Champion Sioux Falls Christian Chargers was Darci Wassenaar’s greatest coaching feat of all time. One of her least talented teams and she was able to bring home the hardware. It was incredible (and I’m only taking partial credit.) Also, while attending Northern State University the following year, I was informed that the HongKong Buffet would be shut down due to a salmonella. 

So this is where my personal SFC volleyball stories mainly fall off. However I now have a mole on the inside. My favorite sister Jacklyn would become an assistant coach for Darci, so I would know all the hot SFC volleyball gossip. My two current favorite SFC volleyball traditions are every August after tryouts my sister says, “Darci doesn’t think we’re going to be good this year.” The second is like it, every November Jacklyn, Eric, and Craig take a picture with the state championship trophy.

One last state tournament story from 2013, Aberdeen: Sioux Falls Christian had just lost in the semifinal to Dakota Valley.  The game got over late. I was a junior attending Northern State at the time and needed to feed my dear parents. The late night eating options in the Dirty Deen were limited so I took them to iHop where we received the worst service of all time. We still laugh at how bad it was. Our server was not very good. I lived in the same dorm as her for two years. She was an odd duck and bad at her job. The highlight for my father was when he asked what kinds of toast there were. Our options were “white, wheat…dry” we waited until she left then laughed for a long while. The service was bad and the food was worse, but we got a kick outta the whole situation. Before I graduated from Northern, iHop would end up with the same fake as Hong Kong buffet: permanently closed. I think that building is now the Dairy Queen? I don’t know, there’s no way to tell, I’m banished from Aberdeen forever.

Before we start to wrap up, I have one more semi-volleyball related thing I’d like to say that has nothing to do with Darci Wassenaar. The Watertown High School gym is my favorite high school arena in the state. I’ve never played in it. I just like how it looks.

Now the Moment you’ve all been waiting for: the five for the best players in SFC history. (In no particular order)

Dana Vander Haar: She was the best player when I was in fourth grade, so the nostalgia takes over and makes me think she was the best player of all time.

Shelby Zomermaand: Junior Year Shelby was probably the greatest player of all time. She averaged 8 kills a set in the state tournament, the most all time in a state tournament. It’s 1.2 kills per set more than the second most all time…which is also Shelby.

Kylee Van Egdom: Dual threat, went to Shalom CRC for church and played volleyball at Northern State University.

Hayley McCarron: Best setter and on the best 3-year run in school history. She likes my Robbie Hummel tweet (almost) every year and her brother always wishes me a happy birthday. 

Emily Strasser: she follows me on Twitter, one of JP’s favorites, and the best defensive player.  

My mom says I can’t do the Five worst players, but we all know who you are.

The only way Darci can really add to her legacy is to sub on my sand volleyball team. I’ve been asking for three years, and she has said no…for three years.

We’re at the end of the story where we would normally wish Darci good luck in the upcoming state tournament, but Darci’s Calvinistic upbringing doesn’t believe in luck, so here’s to hoping you were predestined to win!