YORKTOWN, VA (WTKR)- Building a winning high school team does not happen overnight. It takes years of work and has to have all the right ingredients.
Grafton girls' volleyball has come up with a near-perfect recipe, with the only missing piece being the one thing that's been just out of reach in a state championship.
"There's always pressure, but pressure makes you do things you've never done before," noted Clippers' head coach David Keeter. "That's what we try to preach."
It doesn't take long after one walks into the gym at Grafton High School to realize they're at a volleyball school. The bleachers are near full, the student section is rowdy and loud, creating a home court advantage that's just a fierce as the home team.
"They're a big part of our success," Keeter said of the crowd. "They come in and they cheer the girls on, the girls get fired up, it really affects the other team a lot."
"The principal at my school, the parents and the student section, the students on the bench, it makes you feel like you love this sport and you're here for a reason," junior libero Allyson Burke added.
For the better part of the last decade, that crowd has had plenty to cheer about. Grafton has dominated the Bay Rivers District, only losing one district game in the last six years. The team's victory Tuesday night over Jamestown clinched yet another district title, improving the Clippers to 138-17 overall in that six year span. How does the program sustain that success? Keeter says it starts in middle school.
"The culture here runs all the way through to the sixth grade," he pointed out.
"When I came up, I knew it was going to be challenging," said Burke. "I knew the competition was going to be great, I knew the legacy that I was going into, the expectation from Coach Keeter. He just expects the best and that's what I believe."
"Everyone that's next up, they know what's coming up and they know what's expected of them," added senior setter Kaylie Klemm. "They know that when you come in, you give it your all and you leave a legacy when you go."
That legacy has included being a staple of the state championship game. The Clippers are on a remarkable streak of seven consecutive state runner-up showings. Sure, they may be falling short of the ultimate prize, but they've shown they can consistently do enough to put themselves in position to be the best in the commonwealth.
"I don't think we're frustrated with losing in the state championship," Keeter said. "It's an amazing feat to get there and we've always been excited to be there and be in that battle and we've been so close. We went four sets a few times. We just have to make a few plays when it matters."
"It's part of that legacy," Klemm said. "You have to go to states and it's always a little bit stressful once we get to the end of the season, but as long as we stick together as a team, everybody knows we can do it."
Grafton takes things one step at a time, focusing on what's in front of it, but the Clippers also enter the playoffs feeling confident that this is the squad that can hang that banner that has, so far, eluded them.
"It would mean the world to us and the school and all the people who put in the time and the effort, all of our coaches, even the people before us because they know that they paved the way," said Klemm.
"Any year that you win, it's going to be amazing," the head coach echoed. "We have eight seniors and if we could do it with these eight seniors, it would be great for them."
"They've worked through the program ever since they were in seventh grade, sixth grade," Burke pointed out. "It would just be so great to see all that hard work come together. It would be the best feeling in the world."
Grafton is 20-2 on the season, 17-0 in the Bay Rivers District, and heads down the street to visit York on Thursday night.
