WILSON EXTRA : Bartley’s table is set

RICHMOND

As she watched the Strasburg players parade off the court and run toward their fans, Noël Bartley stood silent and red-eyed, watching the Rams hand out hugs.

When they lifted their arms over their heads and let out screams, Bartley bit her lip and buried her face into the pillow she carried.

Her head bobbed up and down, the tell-tale signs that the junior, despite coming of age during the postseason, was crying.

In front of the media in some horribly lit back room of the Siegel Center, Bartley joined coach Kim Claytor and seniors Tiffany Crosby and Christina Coffield.

Coffield was her usual chipper self despite the loss.

Crosby just stared ahead blankly.

Bartley was too busy trying to hold back tears, her lips quivering. He hands nervously fidgeting.

It wasn’t about her, she would go on to say. She’ll be back next year and, with a summer of Junior Olympics under her belt, she should be bigger and much better.

Nah, this was about her sisters in arms.

Those seven seniors that became seven teammates and, through the course of a season, became seven sisters.

“I didn’t want to let the seniors down,” she said, no longer trying to hold back the tears, instead letting them fall to the floor like so many kills. “It was their last match. I wanted to get them as far as I could.”

In the Region B championship against Strasburg, Bartley’s 12 kills signaled her arrival to the rest of the Shenandoah and the region. On Friday, at the Siegel Center, Bartley stepping in front of a media-lobbed bullet signaled another growth.

Though it’s a year away, in 2009, Bartley will have to chuck the Green Hornets on her back.

She started doing it Friday.

“I didn’t play very well today,” she said. Coffield quickly stopped her, tapping Bartley with her foot before leaning over and whispering, “Yes, you did,” into the junior’s ear.

That just made her cry some more.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Wilson Memorial volleyball is that they’re 5-year-old-boy resilient. Knock the Hornets down, they always get back up.

Take away seven seniors and say that the team is dead and they’ll just go out and win another Shenandoah District championship.

Graduate the fiery Candice Guy, and in steps her sister, Kala.

Now another seven seniors will walk out the door, leaving Bartley with Danielle Dove and Trisha Bruce to continue the tradition.

It won’t be the same, Bartley said, without her sisters.

“I’m excited for next year,” she said. “But they’re my best friends. It won’t be the same.”

Sorry, Noël. We’ve heard that song and dance before out of Fishersville and, for some reason or another, it always remains the same. There’s always a district title to be won.

Next year, she’ll be the one they’re looking up to.

That’s what happens when your team becomes a program and tradition begins to trump any perceived lack of talent.

Still, she cried. Unaware of what her future holds.

Noël Bartley, in 2009, your table will be ready.

Who’s joining her?