>This is your Legacy

IPFW volleyball’s season and hopeful run for a third straight Final Four came crashing down with a 3-2 loss on Friday night. After two straight trips to the nation’s top stage with many of the same players, this IPFW team finished 12-15, losers of their last four.

And for seven very special seniors, that is how your college careers ended. That is not your legacy. That is not how you will be remembered.

This group will go down as one of the best teams, of any kind, in the history of this institution. Josh Stewart, Brock Ullrich, Dan McNerney and Steve Rogers have shown that there are kids who buy into programs will be true team players for all four years. Graydon Ainsworth has filled the most important role in the program by moving in at setter in 2008. And C.J. Macias and Jason Yhost have transferred in, hit hard and restored faith in a program that had its share of struggles in years before.

These seven seniors have left an amazing mark on this school, their sport, each other and every fan who has watched them over the past two, three or four years.

Going to matches at Gates, and in some ways life, will not be the same now that they must move on. And that is a legacy.

On the court, who is going to hit from the outsides? Who is going to be a permanent ball stopper in the middle? Hell, who am I going to have to cringe at regarding ball control?

On the sidelines, who is going to always be smiling? Who is going to be the clapping-nazi? And what will it be like without errant yells of “Yyhhooooosst!” before a serve?

Overall, what will life be like without seven guys who have done amazing things for IPFW and always done so with a smile, a laugh and without taking it all too seriously?

Yes, they faltered when the pressure was actually on them. I don’t think that any of them will argue with that. But why in the world would that be their legacy?

Anybody who has seen them play, anybody who knows them personally will carry their own distinct, and I’m betting, positive memories of these guys. And that is what we should remember them for.

From the first time I watched any of them play, on January 28, 2005 in a loss to Lewis, you always had a feeling that the original core group of five (then including Mike Morici) was going to be something special. Later that year I cheered against Macias as IPFW bounced him and Findlay from the postseason. The next year, I did the same to Ainsworth as the Mastodons dumped Rutgers during a big final weekend at Gates. And last year, I remember very vividly wondering “who the hell is Jason Yhost” when he appeared from nowhere as service specialist and was in the starting lineup a few aces later.

I will remember these seven seniors for those things.

I will remember the first time I interviewed any of them. Brock Ullrich sure was cool and collected the first time I stuck a recorder in his face when he was a freshman. Goofy? Yeah. Serious? Never. He was Brock. The same Brock that ripped Pepperdine in the 2007 National Semis, the same Brock that adorns a towel on his head on the sidelines when we are down and spikes his hair in crazy ways when the momentum is going our way.

I’ll know that C.J. was always willing to swing by for a quick interview anytime I needed just one more quote for a story and I’ll always know that he made having the mens volleyball beat during their first Final Four run the easiest thing in the world.

And I’ll always know that two of these guys, while never playing as much as their peers, spent four great years at IPFW filling two of the most crucial roles, as I see it, on this mens volleyball team. In the form of Mike Daiga (Class of 2006), Steve Rogers was a true team player who was always smiling and always happy to be part of this program.

And Dan McNerney? What really would a match be like if he was not there? Loud, vocal, leading and the life of the party in the Gates Center, it will be awfully quiet (and not in a good way) without him.

We all have our memories of the seven of you. You all have your memories of each other and your time at IPFW. Good, bad, funny and even sad, that is your legacy. And it is worth remembering.