Garden Plain feels ‘deja vu’ with 2018 volleyball state championship

On Sept. 13, Garden Plain commemorated its 2008 state championship volleyball team as future champions watched on.

The 2018 Owls held a banner with the former players’ team photo on it. They handed out gifts, and everyone in the arena rose to their feet.

Ten years from now, the 2028 team will be doing the same things.

Garden Plain won its fourth volleyball title Saturday in Hays. The Owls won the Class 2A title with a 27-25, 25-11 win over Wabaunsee as coach Gina Clark captured her third with the Owls.

“It’s a little bit of deja vu,” she said. “When we won in 2008, my daughter was a junior, my oldest. And now my youngest is a junior. That’s what made it special is that I got to share it with both girls.”

Clark’s oldest, Kaylie Bergkamp, is now the coach at Andale. She is in her first year with the Indians and earned a fourth-place finish in Class 4A.

Clark said she is proud of what her daughter has been able to achieve since winning that 2008 title.

“I can tell by what the kids say that they love her,” she said. “She’s not only great in the gym, but she’s great in the classroom. ... I told her, ‘The most valuable thing you gained is that your kids love you, and that’s something you guys will share forever.’”

Clark has make a name for herself around the Wichita volleyball community. Her three titles are the most by any coach in the area since 2008. And she has done it efficiently.

With the Owls’ difficult sub-state tournament, they have only reached state five times in Clark’s tenure. They have three titles, a runner-up and a third-place finish.

In 2018, Garden Plain was put into likely the tougher of the two 2A pools. The Owls were matched with No. 4 Maranatha Academy (29-7) and No. 8 Valley Heights (24-15).

And to top it off, Garden Plain had to reach the semifinals while dealing with undefeated No. 1 St. Mary’s Colgan (40-0).

Although the Owls dropped their match against Colgan, they picked up wins against the other two teams in the pool to face the winner from the other side of the tournament, Smith Center.

After trading sets to start the match, Garden Plain pulled out the third game to reach the championship with a 25-14, 17-25, 25-18 win.

Clark said it came down to the “pass and serve game.”

But 2018 wasn’t always glorious. The Owls started hot, going 9-0. Their first loss came to two-time defending state champion Rose Hill.

Garden Plain held it together until it reached the McPherson and Goddard tournaments. Facing teams sometimes three classifications higher, the Owls suffered seven losses in seven days.

“The girls, I think, were even starting to question themselves,” Clark said. “But I guess what’s impressive to me about this group is that they stayed in their beliefs, and they rallied.

Clark said she picked a tough schedule by design so that her group had seen competition they wouldn’t have to in the state tournament.

It paid off Saturday, Clark said.

“It’s going to be something they’ll always remember,” Clark said. “And it’s just going to build them as people as they go through life.

“It’s just a start to great things they’re going to do.”