LA CENTER — Player celebrations are a pivotal part in volleyball, and perhaps no other sport does the expression after every point serve as a barometer for how a team is playing.
At La Center, in coach Cymany O’Brien’s words, the Wildcats strive for two points earned on every play: win the actual point, and win the attitude point.
“We try to keep everything about those two points,” O’Brien said.
Those points every play often include two players who’ve had their two feet in La Center’s volleyball program throughout their high-school careers, setting the standard and lifting a program to 1A Trico League elite.
Seniors Amanda Holm and Laynie Erickson, once ninth graders searching for their footing, are in the midst of leaving a legacy that stretches into the thousands.
And they know they wouldn’t have done it without each other and their teammates.
Holm is La Center’s career assist leader, surpassing 1,500 assists, and Erickson is the 1,000 double-double for career kills and digs happening within days of each other.
The Wildcats captured their second Trico League title in three years, rallying back from a two-set deficit against Castle Rock in last week’s regular-season finale to win in five sets. That gives La Center a No. 1 seed to start districts Wednesday hosting Hoquiam at 5:30 p.m.
This season, more than ever, has Holm and Erickson growth and progression as players and leaders shined. That led to their milestones happening within a week of each other.
First came Holm’s 1,500th assist — a school record and counting — in a Oct. 11 sweep of Seton Catholic. Then came Erickson’s 1,000th kill against Columbia of White Salmon followed by her career dig No. 1,000 on a day that La Center won the Mountain View Tournament by defeating Ridgefield in the final.
“I couldn’t have done it without the team we have,” Erickson said. “I’m really fortunate to have really awesome teammates.”
And like so many times before, Holm, took part of each play in separate matches: setting Erickson up for her 1,000th kill, and also receiving Erickson’s 1,000th dig as a pass to set up a point-winning kill.
“There’s something in her that makes her hit everything so good,” Holm said of Erickson. “She saves me all the time. … I don’t know how she does it.”
For Holm, dance often overshadowed volleyball growing up. A former Junior Blazer Dancer who performed at Trail Blazers home games, it wasn’t until moving to La Center from Oregon City via Vancouver as a seventh grader did volleyball stick permanently.
“Looking back,” Holm said, “I’m glad I did volleyball.”
Holm did have a leg up on many teammates, too, with out-of-season volleyball experience. La Center’s middle school and high school programs weren’t the hotbed it is now for club volleyball players, but that number’s grown to 20 program-wide since O’Brien took over five years ago.
Erickson credits Holm for kick-starting her club experience. Erickson’s mom, January, also founded the La Center Volleyball Club.
“Club volleyball is what sparked my love for it,” Erickson said.
Volleyball continues to be on the rise in player interest not only in Southwest Washington, but across the country for high school girls. Multiple programs locally feature three sub-varsity teams in addition to their varsity level.
Gone are the days of strictly front-row players in favor of a more common approach of all-around players known as six-rotation players. That perfectly describes Erickson, a 5-foot-10 Central Washington commit.
Chalk that up to how the game’s progressed, especially at the college level, O’Brien said.
NCAA rules allow for limited substitutions, which puts an emphasis on players who do more than star as front-row attackers.
“It’s the trend,” O’Brien said. “They want to see these girls who can pass. … They need to be a six-rotation player no matter how tall they are.”
O’Brien’s in her fifth season coaching at her alma mater. As a senior in 1993, she was part of La Center’s third-place state team in the first of three straight state trophies that included the ’94 Class A state title.
She believes La Center has what it takes to not only reach state, but bring home a state trophy.
But that starts by being in the moment to win every point: the actual point, and then the attitude point.
Just like the duo’s been part of in all four years at La Center.
“There hasn’t been a point we’ve all fired at the same time,” Erickson said. “Hopefully that’s at state.”
