Coach Leans On Seniors

SCHISLER, TRIO DRIVE TEAM TO 26-7-1 RECORD

STAFF PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BEN GOFF 
Shyrah Schisler, Shiloh Christian volleyball coach, was named the NWA Media Coach of the Year for schools in Class 5A and below. Schisler led the team to a 26-7-1 mark, including 14-0 in the 5A-West Conference.
STAFF PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BEN GOFF Shyrah Schisler, Shiloh Christian volleyball coach, was named the NWA Media Coach of the Year for schools in Class 5A and below. Schisler led the team to a 26-7-1 mark, including 14-0 in the 5A-West Conference.

— Shyrah Schisler only had to look to her left for confirmation of the closeness of her seniors on this season’s Shiloh Christian volleyball team.

In a room with at least 30 empty chairs, senior Lauren Brown sat in fellow senior Brittany Butler’s lap and conducted an interview with her coach and several other teammates. It’s a bond this year’s three seniors forged through more than 100 matches and four times that many practices in three seasons.

That closeness and unity provided peer leadership for an otherwise young team and helped the Lady Saints achieve most of their goals this season, Schisler said.

“These three seniors, I don’t have a single complaint about them,” Schisler said. “They’ve always been 100 percent respectful, 100 percent great leaders. They come into the gym early and stay late. They take care of things on and off the court. They have great attitudes, and they were internally motivated.

“It made our season a lot of fun.”

Brown, Butler and libero Julia Heithoff provided the experience that drove Shiloh Christian’s 26-7-1 season, which culminated in a run to the Class 5A state tournament semifi nals.

Schisler’s guiding force earned the third-year coach the NWA Media Coach of the Year award for schools in Class 5A and below. It also marked the end of her tenure at Shiloh Christian as she announced her resignation prior to the holiday break.

Schisler said the trio provided guidance to a team that featured a lot of newcomers, which took a burden off her.

“It’s awesome to see the girls take care of things as players,” she said. “It’s awesome to see them care so much about the outcome. They took care of a lot of things. It just made it a lot of fun.”

The Lady Saints often faced long road trips this season competing in the 5A-West against teams from Greenbrier, Morrilton and Vilonia among others. Some of the road matches were three-plus hours one way.

“At first, I didn’t really think it was that much of a factor,” she said, “but the more I got on that bus, the more tired I got. So I know if I was tired, the kids were getting tired.”

That won’t be an issue next season as the Lady Saints will return to the 4A-1 Conference after a two-year stint in the 5A-West. It will be a welcome relief for at least one returning player.

“No one likes the three-hour bus rides,” sophomore Reagan Robinson said. “I think that will help us to play our games closer to home.”

Although the conference season was a grind, the Lady Saints rolled to a 14-0 mark to claim their second consecutive league title. In Schisler’s three seasons, she compiled an 81-21-1 record.

“The level of competition is so strong every night,” Schisler said. “We’re expecting everyone to play hard against us. Having high school players mentally and physically focused for long, sometimes three-plus hour road trips, it’s very impressive that we could do that and have that fi ght in us every night.”

Shiloh Christian might have been playing its best volleyball when it mattered most: at the end of the season. The Lady Saints opened the state tournament with a win over Greene County Tech, then pulled off maybe the biggest win in program history with a match win over Little Rock Christian, a team that is always in the fight for a state title.

“We’d never beaten Little Rock Christian,” Schisler said. “We never had a chance to play them since I’ve been here, but just knowing that they are a 5A powerhouse … that was a huge victory for us.

“I didn’t have to do a lot of coaching that night.”

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