Volleyball

In fall 2010, Blair organized an intramural program to feed a growing interest among Blair girls in the sport of volleyball; the program has since evolved into a varsity team.

Volleyball begins in late August with a week-long preseason camp that consists of several practices and team activities a day, as well as scrimmages. In season, Blair competes against other NJISAA schools. Rutgers Prep, Lawrenceville, Pope John and Warren Hills are commonly seen on the schedule.

In 2024, The Mid-Atlantic Prep League added volleyball as one of it's sanctioned sports. Blair competes against Lawrenceville, Mercersburg, and Hun during the regular season. Additionally, they compete at four team league championship event in October.

About Coach Raley

History faculty member Anna Raley joins the Blair volleyball coaching staff in 2021, serving as the assistant varsity coach and head JV coach. In 2022, she became the head varsity volleyball coach. Previously, she was the head JV volleyball coach at the Rabun Gap Nacoochee School. A former collegiate soccer and basketball player at Huntingdon College,  Ms. Raley will also serve as the assistant girls' varsity basketball coach.

About Coach Schrope

Shannon Schrope joins Blair's science department as a biology teacher, bringing to her role experience at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she began working as mitochondrial medicine research assistant in July 2022. Prior to that, she worked as a biochemistry SIGUE postbaccalaureate research fellow at Michigan State University in East Lansing from 2021 to 2022. Shannon earned her Spanish language certificate at Middlebury College in 2019 and studied abroad at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, in 2020, graduating from Vassar College with a BA in biology and hispanic studies with honors in 2021. A swimmer and squash player who has also worked extensively for Habitat for Humanity, she got her start in education as a biology and chemistry tutor at Vassar, as well as a general chemistry supplemental instructor there from 2019 to 2021. Shannon has served as an assistant swim coach at a club in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, and broke records in swimming while at Vassar in the 50, 100 and 200 breaststroke as part of the swim and dive team.

View directions to athletic events. To read recaps about past events, go to the "Team News" tab above.

View more photos from the fall 2022 season on Photoshelter.

About Coach Hodakowski

With a "Buccaneer" family lineage too long to detail, admission associate Bridget Hodakowski '99 began working in admission in 2021. She currently serves as the head JV girls' volleyball coach. Previously, she served in Blair's advancement office as special projects coordinator and as assistant director of the annual fund. She is a former member of the Board of Governors, a current rep for the class of 1999 and proud alumna. Bridget holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Dickinson College and found her passion in education while working as an assistant director in undergraduate and graduate admission at Stevens Institute of Technology. She lives with her husband, Marc, and their children, Jack and Drew, in nearby Columbia, New Jersey.

About Coach Coronado

Fluent in French and Spanish, Mateo Coronado came to Blair after working as a Climate Corps Live Interpreter at Eastie Farm in Boston. He served as the interpreter for five fellows who do not speak English, furthering the farm’s mission to educate local communities about climate change and sustainability. He also has experience translating scripts and interviews about an indigenous tribe from the municipality of Mocoa in the department of Putumayo, Colombia. Prior to that, he served as an interpreter in translation and closed captioning for Boston Public Schools, Company One Theatre, Carter’s Jazz Clinics, and Apollinaire Theatre, all in Massachusetts. Earlier in his career, Mateo served as a teaching assistant and live interpreter at Tufts University, taught art at the Brookline Arts Center, and taught English as a second language through the italki learning platform. Mateo earned a bachelor of fine arts in studio art in 2018 from Tufts’ School of the Museum of Fine Arts.

View directions to athletic events. To read recaps about past events, go to the "Team News" tab above.