Blankenship One Of The Best Ever

Bryson City – The time has come, it comes for all of us at some point.  It is a rare few that get to choose how they end it, especially in the coaching profession.  Sonya Blankenship chose her own path and time that she would walk away from coaching at Swain High School.  Very fitting for a women who blazed a trail at Swain.  This Tuesday will mark her final regular season home match.  Oh, there will be a playoff match, or maybe more, down the road somewhere that will be the final home match, I suppose.  But Tuesday, well that’s it so to speak.

Blankenship’s coaching career has spanned 21 years, 19 of which she spent pacing the sidelines of her alma mater Swain High.  At Swain she was a standout volleyball player for Coach Michelle Barrett’s teams.  Following her high school career she went on to play for Lenior Rhyne.  After graduation from college she worked at East Henderson for two years, as their head volleyball coach. She left East with a 27-15 mark in those two years.  At Swain she became another of legendary Boyce Deitz’s hires, signing on as head volleyball coach in 1996.

The Swain volleyball program had won 13 and 14 games in each of the previous two years, not shabby by any standards.  In her first year the Lady Devils finished with a 19-3 overall mark, won the Smoky Mountain Conference Championship, advancing to the third round of the NCHSAA playoffs.  She would repeat the feat again in 2000, as the Lady Devils were 19-6, Smoky Mountain Conference Champions.

Michelle Barrett, who Blankenship played for, won 98 games in her 8 years as head coach at Swain.  It took Blankenship 6 years to surpass Barrett, winning 91 games, and then going over 100 wins in the next season.

Blankenship’s true genius came to life as the calendar rolled over to 2001. In that decade the Lady Devils were one of the most dominant forces in Smoky Mountain Conference history.  From 2001-2009 Blankenship and the Lady Devils would win 209 games while losing only 41.

The most dominant stretch was from 2004 to 2008. In that 5 year period the Lady Devils, under Blankenship, were an astounding 128 and 12. For that period it is an average record of 26 and 2. Prior to Blankenship the most wins by a Lady Devil volleyball team was 17. During the 2000s Blankenship coached teams surpassed 20 wins 7 times, and had 19 wins on one other occasion. As a matter of fact 7 times during her career Blankenship set or reset the school record for wins in a season.

If you still doubt the Lady Devils dominance, during that 5 year span they won 76 straight Smoky Mountain Conference matches.  They had streaks of not even losing a game out of best of 5 match to conference opponents that ran 61 straight games, 56, and 41 during 3 separate years.

It was basically no contest.  Most fans started showing up early enough to watch the Lady Devils warm up, why, well it was more entertaining than the matches.

Her most notable achievement by most historians came in 2008, when she orchestrated a strong willed group of girls into a state championship team.  It was the tail end of the 5 year dominant stretch, the 2008 team was determined to put the exclamation point on their dominant run.  They did just that, finishing with a 30-1 overall record.  Their only loss that season, was in a benefit tournament that most everyone there thought was a benefit scrimmage and was best of 3 rather than best of 5, to Enka. In an unparalleled show of dominance they lost only 7 GAMES all season, one to Rosman, one to Murphy, one to Smoky Mountain, one to Franklin, one to Brevard, and two to Enka.

In the playoffs the Lady Devils steamrolled their way to the title game, sweeping all four opponents.  And then in their final show they swept the State Championship match 3-0, downing Pender County.  In doing so they won the first ever women’s team state championship in school history.

Not only were the Lady Devil teams good, Blankenship was able to build an unprecedented following, a 7th man if you will.  That 7th man made Swain High School a tough place to play, and was on full display at the State Championship, where the little bitty school from almost in Tennessee, had the largest, loudest, and best fan section of all of the schools at NC State that day. To sum it up between the outstanding volleyball and environment, it was a true site to behold.

After 3 years of playing .500 ball after the state title, the Lady Devils have returned to their solid play with 19 and 24 wins in the last 2 years. And now this year, Swain has 16 wins and a piece of another Smoky Mountain Conference Championship.

For the record Blankenship’s numbers in her 19 years at Swain are 347 wins 125 losses, 8 Smoky Mountain Conference Regular Season Championships, 5 Smoky Mountain Conference Tournament Championships, 2 time Western Regional runner-up, 1 Western Regional Championship, and 1 State 1A Championship, and most importantly a multitude of players who are better for having played for her.

But for all the wins, I will remember most the passion that she is able to get her teams and players to play wit, a passion that was obvious with every point and one that at various points could bring you to tears of heartbreak, or tears of elation. I have had the distinct pleasure of covering her and the volleyball team for much of her 19 years.  There have been heartbreak and adulation, both of which her teams and she handled with class and dignity.

I hope somewhere in the next few matches she pauses and enjoys the moment, the shear joy she exudes in coaching, just stops and soaks it in, she has earned it and we are all better for it.