Pioneer volley plays first ever match in PES gym

ROYAL CENTER — The Pioneer volleyball team might have made history Tuesday in playing its first ever varsity match at the Pioneer Elementary School gym Tuesday.

It wasn’t under ideal conditions as the junior/senior high school is currently out of commission and is being cleaned up following historic flooding two weeks ago.

But life rolls on in Panther Land and the Panthers easily dispatched of an overmatched Argos team 3-0.

For Pioneer senior setter Lois Layer, it had been since sixth grade basketball since she played a contest in the elementary gym.

“It’s been a long time, like a really long time,” she said. “It’s just a little bit hot. It’s hot in here.”

Layer does like the parquet floor.

“It’s nice,” she said.

Things haven’t been ideal for Layer having her senior year consisting of eLearning for at least the last two weeks and likely more. The students were let out early at the junior/senior high school on Wednesday, Aug. 12 and haven’t returned since.

“I think it’s definitely tough just not having social time, so then when you get to practice, you have to get yourself going a little bit,” she said. “So it definitely takes a while, but I think we’re getting used to it as the weeks go on.”

Pioneer has one of the best volleyball programs in the state and the current practice setup is not ideal, coach Rod Nies said. He and the players are ready for things to return to normal.

“It’s just one of those things where we’ve been practicing over here, that’s been a struggle. The girls are ready to get back in school. They’re tired of eLearning. They want to get back to school and see everybody in person, get back to the high school, have the gym and have both nets set up,” Nies said. “It’s just a lot of things that are just kind of in limbo right now.”

Nies and the players are hoping to return to their normal home court in the auxiliary gym before the end of the season.

“Nobody knows. I’ve been hearing after Labor Day, so hopefully that will happen,” he said. “They’re running equipment over there 24/7 at both sides of the school and are trying to get everything out and clean it.”

Having just one net available during practice is not ideal, Nies added.

“It’s a fun gym to play in. It’s loud. But it’s small and having 24 girls on the high school team — which is the most I’ve had in probably 10 or 12 years — it’s just 24 girls on one net is a lot. We can’t break down and work on things with the varsity on one net and the JV on another net.”

The elementary school gym was once the home of the Royal Center Bulldogs. The final Royal Center team to play in the gym is believed to be the 1963 semi-state boys basketball team. Following that school year, Royal Center High School officially consolidated with nearby Lucerne High School to open Pioneer High School in the fall of 1963. But the current junior/high school building didn’t open until the 1967-68 school year.

But perhaps the ’63 Bulldogs will give this year’s Pioneer volleyball team some good mojo.

“I think we can go a long way,” Layer said.

The IHSAA didn’t hold its first girls sports tournaments until the 1972-73 school year with volleyball and gymnastics being the first two sports.

Pioneer was an early adopter of volleyball, winning a sectional title the inaugural season in 1972.

“Both my sisters, Sharon and Pat, were on the ’72 team that won sectional,” Nies said. “Of course there were no classes. It was the Logan Sectional.”

The Panthers are currently 5-2 and 1-0 in HNAC play. They host Caston in the elementary gym Thursday.

“We’ve taken a couple of losses, but the Rochester game, we should have won that game,” Nies said. “We were up 2-0 on them and then missed five serves in that third set that cost us, and then we just kind of lost our way. So it’s just a matter that we’ve got a lot of really good players and we’re just trying to get a lot of them in and get reps.”

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