HISTORY OF BREWER HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL
First Season: Fall 2017 (Club). Fall 2018 (MPA Varsity)
First Head Coach: Rich Nutter
During the spring of 2016, several female students at Brewer High School approached athletic director, David Utterback about the addition of organized girls volleyball at BHS. Prior to this groups advocacy, talks about volleyball mostly were just that, talks. Kids seemed interested in the sport, but were not necessarily interested in leaving their current fall sport to pursue this new sport. That changed with this group, made up of several students from the Class of 2018 and Class of 2019 that are pictured below as the first roster of organized BHS Volleyball in the Fall of 2017.
Back Row (L to R)- Grace Milan, Zoey Rackler, Sydney Blain, Kathrine Dalton, Juliet Stoneton, Brielle Dickinson, Jaeda Rogers, Coach Rich Nutter.
Middle Row (L to R)- ___, Amelia Mitchell, Mia Cattan, Caroline Blaine, Kate Longtin, Sierra Strang, Lauren Moffitt, _____.
Front Row (L to R)- Bakara Oakstone, Grace Robertson, Kathryn Austin, Becca Gideon, Ashley Tanguay, ____.
This group of young ladies were spearheaded by the lobbying of a few players in particular to really emphasize and rally support to prove this program would be sustainable. This core group of young lobbyists were: Jaeda Rogers, Grace Robertson, Becca Gideon, Kathryn Austin, Caroline and Sydney Blain, Ashley Tanguay, Jordan Goodrich and Grace Milan. Subsuquent surveys to the student body indicated girls would play Volleyball at BHS, and not severely impact other programming. At the annual budget meeting in the spring of 2017, Volleyball was formally adopted as a sport offered by the Brewer School Department following a presentation by AD Utterback.
The next step was to hire a head coach to lead this program and grow the sport in our community. With the formal addition of this program, Rich Nutter was hired to be the leader. (<-- BDN article linked). Coach Nutter brought with him immediate credibility as the longtime leader of the Woodland High School program (Baileyville, Maine). Woodland is one of the most successful volleyball programs in the entire state. Coach Nutter led the Dragons to 3 state championships in his time as the coach there. Coach Nutter was a great fit for Brewer High School and our program. Volunteer Coaches Rebecca Enman and Shannan Fotter were also part of this initial coaching staff and brought great perspective and insight with their playing experiences. Due to increase in roster access, the Brewer School Department added a paid assistant position to help with the high numbers. Coach Enman was elevated to Assistant Coach beginning with the 2018 season.
Expanding to Volleyball eventually was always on the mind of administrative leaders in Brewer. The construction of Brewer Community School and subsequent opening in 2011 included a regulation high school volleyball court and equipment in the gymnasium. During design, Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Daniel Lee stated it was his goal for Brewer to have volleyball eventually, thats why BCS included a set up in the gym for this sport. His vision came to fruition 6 years later, and after his retirement, but it came about nonetheless. The BCS Gym served as home to Brewer High School volleyball for the first two seasons of play (2017 and 2018). In the summer of 2019, rennovations were made at the Brewer High School gymnasium to add floor sleeves and the purchase of new posts, provided by the Brewer All-Sports Boosters club. The BHS Gym officially became the home to the volleyball program with the 2019 season at a total cost that exceeded $10,000.
Not only was longterm viability proven, but Volleyball has become the most popular of the female sports offered at BHS with the exception of Spring Track & Field. The first roster in 2017 included the 22 players in the photo above making up JV & Varsity squads. In 2018, the roster remained pretty steady with 26 players trying out for the JV & Varsity rosters, as only two seniors were part of the 2017 team. In 2019 however, the numbers balooned to 44 trying out! (<-- BDN article outlining increasing numbers) This prompted administration to offer three rosters of Volleyball- a 1st Team, traditionally made up of only freshman, a JV team and a Varsity team.
In their first official MPA varsity season of 2018, the Brewer Volleyball team proved it was a legitimate squad on the state scene. Led by Foreign Exhange Student and veteran player in her home country of Chile, Javi Mora along with a core group of players who were improving daily, earned a playoff birth with a record of 12-2 regular season record and home playoff quarterfinal match as the #3 seeded team in Class B volleyball at Brewer Community School against perennial state power, #6 Wells High School. In front of a packed and energetic crowd at Brewer Community School, Brewer prevailed 3-2 and made their way to the next round, to be ousted by eventual state champion, #2 Yarmouth Clippers 3-0. The 2018 season is marked on the wall of banners in the BHS Gymnasium as a "State Semifinalist" under the Volleyball banner.
In 2019, with a squad still developing and playing together, the season ended with a 7-7 regular season record, and #7 seed in the upcoming MPA playoffs. This season was highlighted with a win at state power, Washington Academy. Washington Academy ended up as the #2 seeded team. Brewer earned another playoff victory, this time in a preliminary round match against #10 Ellsworth. In the quarterfinals, the #2 seeded Raiders of Washington Academy avenged their earlier season loss to Brewer.
The 2020 Fall was severly modified due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but Brewer Volleyball remained, altering their traditional course and providing skills work outside on the Brewer High School tennis courts, and playing a handful of matches at local opponents, outdoors. Dozens of girls showed up three to four times per week to work on their basic skills. The official season is expected to occur in beginning in February of 2021 and concluding near the end of March or early April.