Hoping for a packed gym Monday night, Salem High School’s Powder Buff volleyball tournament will begin at 6 p.m.
Powder Buff volleyball is a fundraiser for the girls’ volleyball team. It has been an annual event since before COVID-19. There will be four teams playing, one from each class: freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. Each team is coached by a girls’ volleyball player.
Former SHS volleyball coach Straton Thomas started the fundraiser as a student activity. He started it because previously boys’ volleyball was not an official IHSAA sport; it was the only way that the boys could play volleyball. He had heard of other schools having powder buff teams and decided to try it out. The IHSAA is currently making a move to make boys’ volleyball an official sport. Last year there was a boys’ volleyball team that was coached by SHS girls’ coaches Nicole Purlee, Tressie Barrett and Thomas.
The current volleyball team is in charge of organizing Powder Buff with the supervision of the coaching staff. Seniors Gabrielle Hypes and Kirsten Sexton are in charge of organizing the tournament this year. Sexton and Hypes have been planning the event for a month.
Sexton predicts that the seniors will win this year because the current seniors have won the past two years. “Come and support our boys!” she said.
Senior Josh Burton is on the Powder Buff team. He has been playing volleyball for three years in school and before that he used to play with his sisters. Burton predicts that the seniors will “absolutely” win this year.
“We will finish the three-peat on our last year!”