View from the cheap seats
Edgar’s student section was so loud cheering on Saturday night that it seemed more like Edgar was the home volleyball team instead of Athens in the WIAA Division 4 regional championship. I no doubt think Edgar’s student section helped rally the Wildcats to the 3-2 match win against the Bluejays.
The last time Edgar volleyball won a regional championship was in the 2003 season. After 32 years of coaching the Wildcats varsity volleyball team, head coach Judy Nelson guided Edgar to its first WIAA state tournament in school history.
Edgar beat Laconia, 3-1, in the Division 3 sectional championship match in Rosholt to advance to state. The Wildcats dropped the first set, 14-16, before reeling off three straight set wins by scores of 16-14, 15-4 and 15-10 to win the match.
Head coach Judy Nelson received perfect serving from her daughter, Breit Nelson, who, following graduation from Edgar also served as the school’s head varsity volleyball coach; Brittany Tarras, Melissa Mueller, Amber Zank, Jessica Witucki and Raechel Andrea.
Breit Nelson led the Lady Cats in the sectional title match victory against the Spartans with 41 attack kills, while teammate Ashley Schueller added 26,
Cassie Brusky 24, Mueller 22 and Tarras 20.
Edgar’s 2003 volleyball team ended up losing its WIAA Division 3 state semifinals match to Grantsburg, 3-1. The Pirates were ranked third in the Division 3 Wisconsin Volleyball Coaches Association poll.
Grantsburg ended up losing to Kettle Moraine Lutheran in the WIAA Division 3 state championship match in the 2003 season.
This is Evan Krebsbach’s second season as the Edgar varsity volleyball team’s head coach, and he has invigorated the program and led it back to sectionals in 2021.
Krebsbach is a native of Milan who graduated from Abbotsford High School. He served as a varsity volleyball assistant coach for his friend, Abbotsford graduate Brooke Kafka, during the Stratford volleyball team’s back-to-back appearances in the WIAA Division 3 state championships. Stratford finshed as state runners-up in the 2019 season.
He was most recently a varsity assistant coach underneath retired sucessful Wausau Newman head coach Betty Lange, who is also originially from Abbotsford.
Before that, he conducted a summer volleyball camp for Athens’ varsity players. Krebsbach’s cousin, Cheryl Schreiner, was Athens’ head varsity volleyball coach at the time. She ended up guiding the Bluejays to a WIAA Division 3 state tournament appearance in 2017.
Casey Krautkramer Reporter The Record-Review
