By BRIAN DULIK
Staff Writer
At this point, any discussion of Cloverleaf volleyball history should be broken into two clear eras.
There are the first 28 seasons the school fielded a team, when the Colts played the role of doormat as well as any Medina County team in any sport.
And there are the last six years, when the school has become one of the premier programs in the area.
The dividing line between the two eras? The moment Jim Vaughn was hired as Cloverleaf’s head coach in 2003.
“That first year we did nothing but work on fundamentals because that’s all we could do,” he recalled. “Basic bump, set, spike, and serving. We had a lot of girls who played volleyball, but we didn’t have many volleyball players, per se.
“It’s amazing to look back on it now and see how far we’ve come.”
Indeed, it is.
The Colts’ ascent to elite program status continued this past fall when they won 24 matches, went undefeated in the Suburban League for the second year in a row and advanced to the state’s big-school Elite Eight.
Those accomplishments not only earned Cloverleaf a handful of banners for its gymnasium, they also earned Vaughn the Gazette’s Fall Sports Coach of the Year award.
“Hooray for Vaughn!” Colts junior varsity coach Courtney Tisher said. “He really cares about everyone in the program, he has great rapport with the girls and is a pleasure to coach with. We always have a lot of fun on the bench.”
The ringleader of the fun is unquestionably Vaughn, whose penchant for guzzling large bottles of Gatorade Fierce Grape during matches, his love for fly-fishing and the Cleveland Browns, and his creative ways of teaching science have made him one of the most popular teachers in the halls of Cloverleaf High.
Vaughn also has proven to be quite the promoter, encouraging students to attend tournament matches between classes by playing the Zombie Nation song “Kernkraft 400” outside his room. His antics helped the Colts draw large, lively crowds to each of their postseason matches - and prompted several opposing coaches to express jealousy over the great atmosphere they created.
“At first, he would play Zombie Nation and shout at the kids to come to the matches,” an impressed Tisher said. “He then found something on his computer that would say whatever he typed, so he typed out his announcements and had them playing together with the music. You could hear it all down the science wing during class changes.”
Just like Vaughn’s innovative motivational methods, Cloverleaf’s ascent to greatness has been impressive to anyone who followed the program from 1975-2002. During that timeframe, it posted a 141-427 (.248) record and never had a winning season.
In the six seasons since, Vaughn and the Colts have gone 82-63 (.566) and broken every imaginable school record in the sport.
“If anyone had doubts that he was a great coach, they have long gone away,” Cloverleaf outside hitter and 2008 Gazette MVP Corrin Early said. “He keeps taking the program to another level, year after year.”
The Colts finally finished on the positive side of the win-loss ledger in 2006, which was Vaughn’s fourth season in charge. They had come close the previous year, going 10-13, before breaking through with a 14-10 mark.
Those competitive clubs set the table - and whetted Cloverleaf’s collective appetite - for what would happen in the last two glorious campaigns.
In 2007, the Colts didn’t lose an SL match in winning their first conference championship in the sport. They won 22 total matches, reached the Barberton Division I District semifinals and had an unprecedented three All-Medina County selections (Early, Laura McDermott and Stephanie Buckwald).“We knew the expectations would be high after last season, but we also knew we had the potential to live up to them,” Vaughn said. “Once we won the SL, everyone knew who we were and it was kind of fun to be the hunted, instead of the hunter, after all these years.”
Instead of running from the newfound pressure, Vaughn embraced it and encouraged his players to do the same as soon as they returned to school in late August.
The mindset worked as Cloverleaf extended its unbeaten streak in the SL to two full seasons and was never forced to a decisive fifth game in its 14 victories. It recorded the best regular-season record in county history (21-1) and entered the district tournament as the No. 1 seed.
That’s when the magic truly began.
The Colts swept Green to start the postseason, then rallied from a two-game hole to beat Massillon Jackson in the district semifinals. More dramatics came in the Barberton District championship, where Cloverleaf won the final two games to stun perennial state power Wooster.
“To see everything happen the way we had dreamed it would was amazing,” Cloverleaf libero Candace Andel said. “We accomplished all of our goals this season.”
Once the Colts reached the state Sweet 16, they made surprisingly quick work of Mentor at the Hudson Division I Regional as Early set a county postseason record with 26 kills.
That victory set up a Hudson Regional championship showdown against another red-hot team in Brecksville. The clubs split the first two games before the Bees won a 30-28 thriller in Game 3, then ended Cloverleaf’s dream season with a 25-23 decision in Game 4.
When awards time arrived, Early, Buckwald and McDermott repeated as All-Medina County choices, while Kelsey Allen and Megan McCarthy were honorable-mention selections.
Vaughn also added a couple of plaques to his wall as the D-I District Coach of the Year and as the county VB Coach of the Year for the third time.The Colts - proudly known amongst themselves as the Fillies - became the fourth team in county history to reach the regional finals, while their 24-3 record was the second-best showing ever locally.
After experiencing all of that success, the 33-year-old had every right to brag to his peers, yet chose to maintain a very low profile at the District All-Star Match in order to keep the spotlight on the players.
“What people also might not know about Jim is he is a true family man who loves spending time with his wife (Dee) and kids (Claire and Ethan),” Cloverleaf assistant coach Megan Pollock said. “They are the most important thing in the world to him.”
Vaughn happily pointed out that 2½ year old Claire is an “aspiring volleyball girl” and was amused by 4-year-old Ethan becoming the world’s biggest Buckwald fan. It won’t be long before they are roaming the halls in Cloverleaf’s school district, where their proud dad plans on teaching for a long time.
“I’ve been at CHS 10 years, I live in the district, and I love it here,” Vaughn said. “Many good things are happening.
“It’s been a great ride for all of us in the volleyball program, and it’s not over yet, no way.”
Dulik may be reached at brisports@hotmail.com or 330-721-4059.
