Volleyball coach Sonny Lewis looks for 3rd straight OCCAC title
Story by Jeremy Schneider | Photos by Lori King
PERRYSBURG – Sonny Lewis has spent nearly 50 years coaching volleyball in Northwest Ohio, first at Springfield High School and then at Owens Community College. During that time, Lewis has sat through exactly one job interview.
When Lewis left the high school ranks, the Owens volleyball head coach had just retired. He applied for the job and had the first job interview of his life. Needless to say, he must have done pretty well during the interview.
“They hired me the next day,” Lewis said.
Now in his 24th season leading the Express program, Lewis won the 801th game of his college coaching career on Tuesday when they faced off against Lakeland. Add those wins to the 373 wins coaching high school, and Lewis has been on the winning side more than 1,101 times.
“I’ve been here a long time, so that gets a lot of that in,” Lewis said. “My associate head coach, Denny Caldwell, has done a great job of recruiting people in the area. They want to come here and play, and since they see we do well, that gets us some good attraction.”
This season, the Express is 19-9 overall after hosting Lakeland Community College Tuesday night for the Pack The SHAC Night at the Student Health and Activities Center.
“Lakeland played very well against us, especially the first two sets. You know, that was very unexpected that they won the first two sets against us. We had to come back and win the next three,” Lewis admitted after the game. “I gave our kids a lot of credit. They come back on the next three for us to win the match.
“We’ll just keep working. Right now we have a lot of things going on, like three of our starters were not playing tonight. Our No. 1 middle is out with an injury; our No. 1 outside hitter is out with an injury; and then our libero was out because she had a class she had to go to. We’re banged up a little bit right now. We’re just trying to recover from it and get back on our feet,” Lewis said.
Lewis isn’t the only one to reach a career milestone for the Express this year. Sophomore libero Lilly White (Monroeville H.S.) went over 1,000 digs this season, and sophomore setter Michaela Hahn (Fremont St. Joseph H.S.) got the 1,000th assist of her career.
“It was definitely something I was aiming for; it’s good to have goals,” White said. “When I saw that I had 600 last year, I thought it was possible (to get 1,000) this season. … I just go out and play, hope for the best.”
White ended last week with 541 digs, an average of nearly six per set. Lewis called White the “back bone” of the team.
Hahn leads the team with 416 assists, along with 148 digs. The Owens program is obviously a well-oiled machine, and Hahn gave credit for her success to the abilities of her teammates.
“It shows how good our program works together,” Hahn said. “It wouldn’t be possible without Lilly digging the ball or my hitters putting it away. It shows how good of a school we are at volleyball.”
The Express are going for their third straight Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) title. They’re currently tied with Lorain County Community College atop the standings at 7-1. They split their two meetings this year, with both schools winning their home matches.
To learn more about the Owens volleyball team, visit Owens Volleyball.
