By Collin Bolebruch
Bridget Ryan, a junior for Plattsburgh State women’s volleyball, makes herself known on the court. Often wearing the libero shirt, she’s constantly in the center of team celebrations and big plays.
The team is yet to find its winning ways, but the squad is still building under new head coach Eimile O’Brien, who was previously an assistant coach at SUNYAC rival Buffalo State.
Bridget is a leader for a team without a senior class. Off the court, she serves as the beloved mascot, Burghy, at hockey games and various events.
This question-and-answer was conducted with Bridget over email on Oct. 2.
Question: What were the first steps in developing a relationship and culture with O’Brien?
Answer: It took me a while to develop a comfortable relationship with our previous coach so when hearing of our new coach I knew I had less time to form a good relationship. Coming into this season I decided I would just be myself fully and see how it worked out. Over the summer she had individual meetings with all of us to try to break the ice and get to know us a bit before preseason. She really wanted to take the steps to continue to get to know us outside of volleyball. During preseason she had us all over for dinner at her house and we were all able to find out more about each other. Coach O’Brien has been very welcoming of me and my teammates. She understands that we are all different and have different ways of expressing ourselves. She wanted to keep our team culture as a base and now restructure and build to better our team culture and ourselves.
Q: What’s your favorite on-court chant and why? How was it created?
A: One of my favorites is when Kyleigh (Ganz) dumps the ball over the net it’s “Dump that ball (clap and stomp at same time), dump, dump that ball (stomp stomp stomp).” My other favorite is: “Who do you think’s gonna get that ball? Melina (clap), Ma Ma (clap), Melina (clap).” I love all of those chants but those are my favorites because of the beat in Kyleigh’s and just how happy everyone is when saying Melina’s (Morillo). The chants were brought as a tradition coach O’Brien had when she was playing and coaching at Buffalo State. She had me and Kyleigh assign everyone on the team a teammate that they got to make a chant for. Those chants were made by Liya (Girma) and Darby (Collyear). They both also were the ones that passed on our ace chant, block chant and pre game chant, so it’s no surprise they were so good at making some for their assigned teammates.
Q: What were your initial thoughts on the new NCAA rule allowing some double contact? Have you seen it affect play since?
A: When I first heard of the rule, I was skeptical and kind of caught off guard. Changing one of the biggest rules that we have all followed our entire time playing the sport was not something I saw coming. Initially I was unsure if it would affect play for the better or the worse, but I did feel bad for all the setters who dedicated so much time to perfecting their hands. After starting this season I can see a shift as we go on in the season that everyone’s more comfortable with their hands. If it’s an out-of-system ball you will see more non-setters try to use their hands, which I think is cool. It also keeps the game moving more and makes the game less in the referee’s discretion and more on solid rules. It used to vary in the past what would be called based on each ref and each team, which always caused arguments and frustration. I’m also seeing how in the start of the year some teams and setters would hesitate to keep playing after an obvious double contact, but as the season progresses, I see that hesitation fading. I know some people were initially concerned that setters would purposefully double and do some crazy plays, but as far as I’ve seen, the setters want to keep their sets as controlled as possible as that’s still the most effective way to run a strong offense.
Q: What’s your favorite story you have about being Burghy?
A: My favorite story about being Burghy is funny, but I felt bad for those involved. At one of the hockey games, as the game was going on, I heard some yelling and I turned to the DJ table to see a man trying to rip the chair away from the DJ. They were tugging back and forth and then that turned to punching. I was freaked out and more people started to notice and record him but also record Burghy’s reaction, which was freaked out running around waving my arms. I ran to find help to stop the fight because if I stepped in, all I could imagine was the videos of Burghy getting beat up that would go viral. After the police got involved, I had to make a statement as Burghy through the suit, which had never happened before that I know of.
