Sports

Serving Up Success

Isabella AlKhouri, Staff Writer

September 22, 2025

Grace Tamburin preparing to take on a wall of defenders, in hope of scoring a point.

The Wheeling Park High School Volleyball Team has just begun their 2025-2026 Fall Season and their teams have had great wins and some losses so far.

The Varsity Team’s current overall record is 4-9-1. The JV Team is at a record of 6-3, where they won against Preston High School, and the Freshman Team is at 5-4. Coach Gentle is the Head Coach of all three teams, along with Head Coach Sims of the Freshman Team, and Assistant Coaches Brown and Schehl.

Grace Tamburin, a senior on the varsity team, is in charge of keeping the team uplifted and her position is an outside hitter.

Tamburin prepares for her games by getting everything she needs ready the night before. It is important to her to get a good breakfast, focus hard at school, then get a good meal before the game, which usually includes an energy drink to help motivate and wake her up before she plays.

“This season, we’re doing alright. I think we can do better, but we do have a lot of younger girls, so I do think they’ll be a lot better in the years coming,¨ said Tamburin.

The team’s practices contain a lot of drills and technique work, where they are encouraged to practice as they would in games.

Caroline Wack is a setter and right-side hitter for the Freshman Team and a right-side hitter on the JV Team. While volleyball is her favorite, she is also a part of the orchestra, track, and OVVC 15 Green Team. Wack finds it helpful to take a minute, and talk to her teammates before she begins to play. This makes the process of switching from working hard in school to playing hard in games much easier.

“I just really like the friendships that you build and how close you can all get,” said Wack.

Prior to the game, the team takes time to get in a circle and discuss what goals they want to accomplish and what game strategies they want to apply. This is a prime example of how they work together as a team and how they make each other better through communication.

Senior night is October the 14th, where the team will recognize the seniors and celebrate the end of their high school volleyball journey. The theme is BEACH and they will be playing Weir.

The Volleyball Team’s Instagram is @_wphs_volleyball , where you can find the schedule, information for game days, and student section themes for home games. To support the Patriots, you can follow their Instagram and go to their games to cheer them on!

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About the Contributors

Isabella AlKhouri, Staff Writer

Isabella AlKhouri, is a freshman at Wheeling Park High School and a Staff Writer on the Park Press. She is also a member of Wheeling Park’s choir, is an experienced piano player, has played guitar for 2 years, and is a big fan of the arts. Isabella has had 5 poems published through the American Library of Poetry and was a winner of the Elks Patriotism Essay Competition at the state level. She was recently knighted as a Lady of West Virginia by the governor after winning the Golden Horseshoe Competition and is a recipient of the St. Thomas Aquinas medal. Isabella played basketball and volleyball for 5 years and loves to stay active. You can usually find her hanging out with friends, playing sports outside, painting in her room while listening to her favorite playlist, and a lot of the time at TJ Maxx. Isabella enjoys writing and is excited to be a part of the Park Press.

JoceLynn McFarland, Director of Design

JoceLynn is the Director of Design for the Park Press, and this is her third year working for the press as a senior. JoceLynn enjoys stories about her favorite things such as books and films. She also likes writing deeper topics about mental health because she believes these topics are important and deserve to be talked about. Call, text, or chat: 1-844-HELP4WV or www.help4wv.com if you or anyone you know is struggling. You are not alone. Outside of the Park Press, JoceLynn is a decade-long Swiftie and an avid book reader. Her favorite albums are 1989, Reputation, and Evermore. Her favorite books to recommend are “Better Than the Movies” by Lynn Painter and “The Shatter Me” series by Tahereh Mafi. The lyric “And if you never bleed, you’re never gonna grow,” from the song “the 1” from Folklore, is her favorite.