Last Thursday night was a battle between two heated rivals in Webster County, but there’s a bigger battle going on that the two schools continue to rally together against.
Griffin McCarter and Collins Chrismond are students at East Webster and each of them are fighting cancer currently. At the game in Cumberland on Thursday, both Eupora and East Webster fans turned out in gold for Childhood Cancer Awareness and supported the two brave young men and their families as the fight continues. All proceeds from the night will be given to the families.
“This game of volleyball is nothing in comparison,” EWHS coach Dallas McCracken said. “Last year we had breast cancer awareness here because we had two ladies here that had breast cancer, and this year our students have cancer.
“In the scheme of life, volleyball is nothing. We can’t do anything but pray for them, but maybe that will help them to know that people are here on both sides. (Eupora coach Cody Ramer) is a great guy, and they’re taking up money at their place. The girls from Eupora had gold ribbons in their hair – it’s just so much bigger than a rivalry. Webster County has great people.”
Chrismond is currently undergoing treatment at St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis while McCarter was able to attend the volleyball match on Thursday with his family. A big turnout from both sides consisted of a table for kids to get gold tinsel in their hair, sweet tea for sale, and donations were accepted at the door.
It all made a volleyball match secondary, but when the two teams got on the court it was still East Webster vs. Eupora until the final whistle. The game was controlled by the Lady Wolverines in the first set, they battled back in the second and took a close final frame on the way to a 3-0 district win.
After rolling to a 25-12 win in set one, McCracken talked to her team about the importance of taking care of the next set. Set two is where the Lady Wolverines lost momentum in their loss last week to Grenada, and they were struggling to close out set two against the Lady Eagles.
Thanks to junior outside hitter Carmen Johnson’s dominance at the net, EWHS managed to squeak out a 25-23 win.
“I told them that it was important to get that second set. If we get the second set, that third one should be easier, but we couldn’t let them get that second set,” McCracken said. “It was stressful. We needed to get ahead. It was a win.”
McCracken said that the third set should be easier with a set two win, but it didn’t turn out that way. The Lady Eagles fought hard again in the final set and got out to a 6-1 lead. Aubree Mason had some nice kills in the set to keep the Lady Eagles in it, but EWHS would find a way to surge ahead. Jailynn Daniels would kill the final ball to cap it off with a 25-19 win.
“I think we battled hard, they just fought harder and wanted it more than we did. We had a lot of balls that we could have put in play, but we didn’t,” Ramer said. “We had a lot of momentum going (in the second set), and we just kind of fell flat. I thought we played great, but the little mistakes hurt us.”
The victory for the Lady Wolverines moved them to 12-4 on the season and made them winners of 11 of the last 12 matches. They’ve already equaled their win total from a season ago and are one win shy of the most in the three-year history of the program. Most importantly, EWHS is now 2-0 in district play. Eupora fell to 5-6 and 0-1 in district play.
This week, Eupora hosted both Choctaw County in another district match on Monday and Nanih Waiya at Eupora Thursday while EWHS went to Nanih Waiya on Tuesday and will be at CCHS on Thursday. At the next three matches, Eupora will take donations for McCarter and Chrismond and their fight, further proof that there’s so much more than that battle between the lines.
“You see what our community is. It’s our people, and our people go all out to help each other,” McCracken said. “The money isn’t much, but if it can help them a little bit, it’s a bigger fight than what’s on that court.”
