Tampa Prep's Krusen Gym bristles with energy as the junior varsity volleyball game against rival Berkeley enters the closing moments.
Meanwhile, Tampa Prep's varsity team enters the gym, wearing formidable game faces. They're ready for The Match.
The Match is the twice-yearly showdown between Tampa Prep and Berkeley Prep, a fierce volleyball competition that ranks tops among high school events in the area. And, yes, we're talking girls here. They prove the level of performance attainable by female athletes when given the right instruction and opportunity.
Their storied rivalry takes place in an atmosphere of caviar and champagne. Outside the games, the parking lot is loaded with Beamers, Benzes and even Rolls Royces, a polo match kind of crowd. Not surprising since both schools are private and earmarked for the wealthy. Inside, the atmosphere is more like a basketball game on Tobacco Road.
Once the crowd notices the arrival of Tampa Prep's varsity team, raucous cheers erupt. Most vocal are a group of guys in T-shirts proclaiming "I Dig TP VB Because They Bang Hard." On the backs of their shirts are nicknames like Fisch, Puck Monkey, VB Pimp, Wilfredo and Yo Quiero Z.
VB Pimp stands in front of the crowd with a cowbell and begins a cheer:
"I say Tampa, you say Prep, Tampa! ..."
Meanwhile, the teams warm up on court. Volleyballs whistle through the air and thwack against the wooden floor.
Berkeley won this first match of the season, rallying from a two-game deficit to take the best-of-five contest with a sweep of the final three games. The match had been scheduled for earlier in the season but was postponed after the events of Sept. 11.
"Everyone knows about the rivalry," says Berkeley's senior mid-hitter Caitlin Reiner, noting her parents used to go to The Match long before she played for the team.
"It's really scary the first time you get to play in a Tampa Prep-Berkeley match. I get nervous the whole week before the match just thinking about it. Your adrenaline is pumping. But once the games start, you don't think about it. You just play."
By the time the warm-ups are complete, the stands are filled. Peter Shepley takes the microphone for pregame introductions. Shepley is part of the Tampa Prep administration and a beloved man, who looks like the unlikely cross between George Costanza and Dick Cheney. But when Shepley begins a tribute that includes Berkeley coach Randy Dagostino, several Tampa Prep voices question why Dagostino is getting props in their house.
Fact is Dagostino and his ex-wife Carol Chalu, the current Tampa Prep athletic director and former varsity volleyball coach, laid the foundation for the excitement around girls' volleyball today.
Girls sports were barely a blip on the radar when launched at local high schools in the mid-1970s.
Chalu moved to Tampa from Chicago in 1976 with Dagostino. Back then the only thing separating any teams in the area was the blind draw of athletes from each individual school. If you had a taller, more athletic team, chances were you would win. The level playing field would change with the arrival of the Chalu and Dagostino.
George Wolfenden, Tampa Prep's first headmaster, found Chalu and Dagostino through Chalu's sister, Loren, who taught physical education at Tampa Prep. Wolfenden told the couple he wanted Tampa Prep to open an athletic program.
Tampa Prep had "opened two years before we got here," Chalu says. "But it didn't have athletics. It was just a little private school that started because quite a few influential people in Tampa wanted more options (in private schools).
"It was a great opportunity. We were young. We didn't have much experience ourselves. It turned out to be a good fit. Both of us were willing to coach long hours."
Dagostino was the school's athletic director, but the threesome of Dagostino, Chalu and her sister coached all of the school's sports. A list that included volleyball, basketball and softball for the girls and soccer, basketball and baseball for the boys.
"It was basically just a family thing," Chalu says. "It was good for us and good for the school."
The coaching troika knew little about volleyball and the first-year team, coached by Chalu, went 1-10 in 1976. That changed quickly and dramatically.
"We've never had a losing season since," Chalu says.
However, during her first year at Tampa Prep, Chalu did manage to guide the Terrapins' girls' basketball team to a state championship.
"We happened to have a couple of really good players (on the basketball team)," Chalu says. "No seniors. We were a Cinderella story. Everybody wondered where we came from."
The feat was accomplished under Spartan conditions.
