Makayla+Ribble

Makayla Ribble

Not everyone’s coach is also their sister, but Makayla Ribble ‘22 spent her first year on the City High varsity volleyball team with a member of her family. Kenzie Ribble was brought on as an assistant coach, after having graduated from City High in 2016.

In fact, Ribble was first introduced to volleyball by her sister, and has been helping her sister practice at home since she was seven years old.

“My sister started playing her seventh-grade year,” Ribble said. “Throughout her years she got me involved with her, I played with her in the driveway a lot. I just started with that.”

Despite this close bond, Ribble was worried people would think that her spot on varsity was only due to nepotism.

“I knew some people we going to think I made it because of her,” Ribble said. “I knew I had to earn my spot. I definitely worked my way up. Mostly it was just fun having her there for me.”

After a change in head coaches, Tricia Carty stepped in to take over the varsity team.

“Trish helped me a lot. Some days I was really negative and hard on myself. She always told me it wasn’t myself and to try my best,” Ribble said. “Grace helped me a lot with setting. We had setting group every day at practice. My sister always helped me out throughout the years.”

During games, Ribble held the setter position. Coming in as a freshman, it was easy for her to see how her skills improved throughout the season.

“I’m a setter, it’s kind of a complicated position, you have to do two things; defense and work on your offense. You have to know a lot of plays. It’s always your fault. But I definitely think I became a better setter,” Ribble said. “I think my connections with my hitters were really bad at first because I had never set for them before. As the year went on they got way better I was able to run plays.”

Last year, the team made it to the regional finals before being knocked out by Cedar Rapids Jefferson. This is a similar finish compared to last year, and despite a successful end to the season, the majority senior team was disappointed that they were unable to qualify for state. But Ribble is hopeful that in the years to come the team will achieve at an even higher level.

“At first I was really nervous about maybe making a mistake and it was just getting through the last game because I didn’t want to make the mistake for our seniors. I knew they wanted to get far and have a good season. I definitely think we had a good team atmosphere this year,” Ribble said. “If we can improve that as we go on we can definitely be a good team. I definitely want to make it to state by senior year. But as an individual, I want to start taking the lead.”

This team atmosphere was one of Ribble’s favorite parts of the team.

Despite a certain level of intimidation from being an underclassmen in a group of juniors and seniors, Ribble found the team very welcoming.  As her sister had been a senior on the team when the current seniors were freshmen, Ribble had gotten the unique chance to meet her teammates before making the team herself.

“I loved getting to know everyone on the team,” Ribble said. “My first game was the best. Even though we lost to west it was fun to see everyone that came out to support us.”

Before games, the team would often gather in the locker room, speaker in hand, to psych themselves up for the game. Ribble remembers this as a prime example of how the seniors on the team made her feel welcomed.

“In the locker room we have a speaker playing really loud,” Ribble said. “We all get in a circle, a lot of people dance in the middle and sing along. At the last meet we did the cupid shuffle. It makes us feel closer because we are all having fun and bonding. Its makes you feel like we have eachothers backs.”

As a freshmen, Ribble felt a certain amount of pressure to perform. Before a match, Ribble has to get herself into a certain mindset.

“I try not to think about who is going to be there and who we are playing,” Ribble said. “If you get down on yourself you need to shake it off because it can impact your next play.”

In fact, this ability to move past mistakes is what Ribble believes makes volleyball such a unique sport.“Most sports if you make a mistake you are done and have time to reflect on that. In volleyball you have to get past it because the nextpoint is coming right away. After every play we get together and the seniors say something positive like, ‘we got the next one’, it helps us remember to move on.”

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