Calvert to celebrate 50 years of volleyball Friday

For half a century, Calvert has played volleyball and to mark the 50th anniversary, the Senecas will host an "Alumni Recognition Game" against Old Fort Friday night with JV starting at 5:30 p.m. Calvert coach Lori Rombach said she realized the 50th year was coming up a few years ago and wanted to make sure Calvert volleyball and everyone associated with the program up until this point would be recognized in some way."I think I had it written down about two or three years ago, so it was a good thing I remembered since I saw the first team was in 1974," she said. "I was just curious who coached Calvert over the years and I found a stat sheet and a list of all of the past coaches and I saw the year the program started, so I soft circled it to try to remember. "It's just a great thing to recognize for women's sports and to honor it you know 50 years with having a team and representing women's athletics here at Calvert."Friday night will include a commemorative regular season match with rival Old Fort, an alumni reunion – all Calvert and Fostoria St. Wendelin volleyball players, a recognition of all the past coaches that built the program and a special recognition of the 2018 and 2020 state championship teams before the varsity match.Refreshments will be provided during the match in the band room that overlooks the court."I've listed that there are 17 past coaches over the 50 years that coached at Calvert, so we wanted to acknowledge them and have them stand up, which I know several of them will be there," Rombach said. "Then we'll recognize the 2018 and 2020 state championship teams and any other volleyball alumni present and then we'll have the match with Old Fort."We'll also have t-shirts, free popcorn coupons, air freshners and other trinket things. Over the past several months I've collected yearbooks over the 50 years and taken pictures of every team for a slideshow we'll put on Facebook, but that was such an enjoyable process to relive all of the history for Calvert volleyball."It's only fitting the Senecas will take on rival Old Fort for the 50th anniversary match. The two have had some battles over the years."We wanted to do this early in the year to kick off the 50th year," Rombach said. "It's always a good game against them and it's a great rivalry we have with Old Fort. Erin Rau (Old Fort coach) and I have a great relationship and I know she's a strong supporter of volleyball, so I knew she would be in support of this. It just seemed right to do it with Old Fort."