Magruder
High School opened in 1971 with few varsity girls’ sports. Magruder opened in 1971 with only 9th and 10th grade students, making fielding varsity teams difficult. In addition Magruder opened during a time period where very few varsity girls sports were offered.
Magruder fielded their first varsity girls volleyball team in 1974. At the time girls volleyball was a winter sport and the teams played only 8 best of three matches per season. The coach during this inaugural season was Peggy Taylor. While extensive research of school sources has yielded no records for this team, a 1974 school newspaper article refers to their season as a “trying year”. Without a doubt this group faced the challenges of playing for a new school with a new varsity sport.
As the 1970’s continued an 8 game schedule was the standard schedule. All matches were best of three. Records from this era are irregular at best with most results that have been found coming from old school newspapers and yearbooks. School yearbooks didn’t consistently post overall team records until the 1979 season. All other records, partial or otherwise were found using old school newspapers. 1979 was the season Magruder began playing an 11 game schedule.
The early girls teams also experienced coaching changes with great frequency. Peggy Taylor coached from 1974-1975 and in 1976 future Magruder Hall of Fame Athletic Director Rick Grimsley took over the team for one season. In 1977 Chuck Bollweg became the varsity coach and served in that role through the 1980 season.
The 1981 season saw Paul Hassler begin the first of his two stints as a varsity coach at Magruder and also was the only season Magruder played their home games at
Redland
Middle School . The team posted a 4-7 record. In 1982 Coach Hassler’s team posted the best record in school history to date with a 7-7 season and made the regional playoffs for the 1st time in school history. Coach Hassler continued as the varsity coach through the 1988 season (by this time the sport had been moved to the fall and a state tournament had begun).
In 1989 Veronica McCall took over as the varsity coach. Ms. McCall also coached the successful coed and boys volleyball teams. Ms. McCall served as the girls coach for several years until Paul Hassler returned. The highpoint of this time period was the 1995 season where Magruder posted a 9-7 overall record and advanced to the regional semifinals for the first time in school history. At the end of the season Coach Hassler retired from coaching volleyball.
For the 1996 season Scott Zanni was hired away from Einstein High School where he had been the girls varsity coach for 3 seasons posting a 25-20 record. The first season was a tough transition for both the players and the new coach, but the team rallied to win four of their last 6 regular season matches.
Since that time Magruder has never had a losing season. During this time, Magruder has developed into one of the strongest programs in the area, consistently being ranked in the Top 5 polls by the Montgomery Journal and ranked three of the last five seasons in the Washington Posts Top Ten. During this time, Magruder has won three county division titles, two Magruder Invitational Championships and a regional title. The 2004 team posted a 22-3 record, winning the 4A West region and advancing to the first state final in school history. Since 1996 13 players have received first, second or honorable mention all-county honors and eight players have moved on to play at the collegiate level, while three others have played club volleyball for their college.
For more information on each season from the 1996 season on, please return to the homepage and click on the year you wish to see the information for.
