[The Centennial Eagles in the huddle before their State championship match against Williamsport on November 16, 2024. Photo by: Kaitlyn McManus]
Story by: Aiden Lee
Each fall, 13 Howard County teams prepare for the upcoming volleyball season. This September, only one squad is coming off of back-to-back state championship appearances.
From what she’s seen in the Eagles’ preseason scrimmages, Senior Captain Hannah Shiau is excited about the group of girls who will take the court for the Eagles this year. Even at the early stages, Shiau recognizes that there is “already good chemistry,” which is aided by the sizable number of returners, with only a handful of underclassmen making their way onto the team.
Headed into her third and final varsity season as an Eagle, Shiau has been named a captain for the second year in a row. With a year of experience already under her belt, she looks to take what she has learned as a junior captain and use it to help guide the team this year.
“I think I’ve learned from last year to this year, being a captain doesn’t necessarily mean you’re your team’s best player,” said Shiau in an interview with the Wingspan. “I think it just means you’re able to lead responsibly and maturely and make sure that everyone has a part on a team.”
Fellow Senior Captain, Prakhya Chengal, explores her new role in her first year as a team captain. Chengal, having played for the varsity squad since her sophomore year, has learned what it means to be a leader through her experience as an upperclassman on the team last year.
Chengal recalls her experiences from last year, explaining, “We just tried to mentor as many people as we could.” She realizes the importance of leadership being a common factor among everyone on the team, not just a trait unique to the captains. “So, even if like, I’m the captain, really there’s like 17 captains on our team because all of us are just trying to help each other.”
The standard of leadership, accountability, and support is what has made Centennial volleyball such a meaningful experience for the student-athletes who have chosen to take part in it. To Junior Captain and third-year player Joy Dong, the volleyball program at Centennial carries “a tradition of excellence.” She adds, “It means a community that is focused on a specific and unified goal, and it’s a community in which we support each other to reach that goal.”
The Centennial Eagles girls volleyball program carries a hefty legacy. They enter the 2025 season with 15 state championship victories, enough to place them 2nd on the all-time MPSSAA records. 9 of those trophies, most recently acquired at the end of the 2023 season, came under the coaching of current Head Coach Michael Bossom. Bossom, heading into his 27th year, finds himself tied with Smithsburg High School’s Rachel Bachtell for the most Maryland state championships as a girls’ volleyball coach.
Even with a rich history of victories and success, this season’s team faces no shortage of challenges. With the start of the 2025 season, the Centennial Eagles will be moving up from the 2A Maryland region to a much tougher 3A class. The team is expected to face some challenges.
“The region is very tough,” said Bossom. “The teams that we have to play to get out and to get to the state quarterfinals or state semifinals are better, infinitely better than they were last year.”
Dong shares Coach Bossom’s sentiments about the change, comparing the standard of the 2A region, “where you can, like, not play your best game and still win,” to the tougher reality of class 3A volleyball, where “especially in the playoffs, in order to win, you have to be at your best.”
A new class division is not the only challenge faced by the Eagles as they begin their 2025 season. After graduating a core senior class of 2025, the team is left with large shoes to fill on the court. In recalling what those graduated players meant for the team, Dong highlights the way in which they were “calm in their leadership.” She details that “they had that presence where they were confident on the court, and they brought a certain level of experience to the team.”
Shiau adds that the seniors’ absence has brought positional holes, which the team has been working to fill. Shiau spoke on the uncertainty of who exactly would fill those roles for the team commenting, “We didn’t even know who our setter was going to be up until tryouts.” With gaps to fill across the court, the team looks to their experienced players to step up and learn new positions, contributing and helping out the team where they are needed.
A loss against a tough Glenelg team in their season opener proved that this season would hold an array of hardships for the Eagles. But even with plenty of obstacles in the way, defying expectations isn’t new for the Centennial volleyball program.
Shiau recalls the difficulties that the team faced at the beginning of the season last year. “We know how rough our season started off last year, it was kind of rocky. But it slowly got better. Last year, seeing how far we went, that was like a surprise for some of us.”
The team looks to bounce back from the loss in their home opener against Guilford Park on Thursday.
Though the team has previously found success in unexpected places, they learned last year through a tough loss in the state championship just how much each game matters. Learning especially from the defeat in the final game, Dong affirmed, “You really only have one shot at that game.” She felt the importance of being steady throughout each game and practice, and felt the effects of instability in their loss. “We weren’t as consistently strong as we were my freshman year,” she expressed.
The team continues to work to learn from their previous season and to build on what they were able to accomplish. One new addition in particular that is expected to make an immediate impact on the team is Senior Sydnee Peters. Peters transferred to Centennial from Atholton High School in her junior year, but found out about the move too late to try out for the team. Despite a later offer to join the team, Peters made the decision to sit out the season, as she nursed a shoulder injury. Although taking the year off from playing high school volleyball presented initial struggles, she has continued to train and prepare herself for this upcoming season.
When asked about her experiences with the team at Centennial so far, she said that “all the girls have made it really easy to, like, connect with each other.” She shared her appreciation for her teammates, saying, “We’ve all bonded and I really love them.”
Besides new additions to the team and positional changes from experienced players, what else is the team doing in order to prepare for the upcoming season? Well, according to Coach Bossom, the answer lies in a recent pop culture phenomenon, Netflix’s 2025 animated movie KPop Demon Hunters. Bossom typically has the team watch certain films in their preparation for games.
When asked about the motivation behind these viewing sessions, he answered, “It’s a fun way to talk about some of the things that we need to talk about.” More traditionally, he will share an all time favorite movie in The Wizard of Oz with the team, hoping to present the ideas of leadership and goal setting. However, in his own viewing of KPop Demon Hunters, he shares that he has found value in the film’s message, which he hopes to share with the team.
“There’s definitely some stuff in there that, if you’re just watching the movie, you don’t necessarily always catch it, but there’s definitely some things I want them to learn.” Beyond its catchy songs and flashy visuals, Bossom finds the film’s message about leadership important for his own players.
Every season, players and coaches point to a handful of games that stand out on their schedule as matchups where the stakes seem higher. Usually chalked against a talented team or a rival school, teams look to win these games to set a standard and send a message of toughness across the league.
When asked if there were any such games on the minds of the Eagles, the answer seemed to be common across the board. “I can already say, right off the bat, Howard is going to be the game to be at,” said Shiau, adding, “That’s the game to look forward to, especially because that’ll be our obstacle to get to states.”
Dong agrees. “When we play them in the regular season, it has to be a really good showing.”
Given all of the expectations, challenges, and goals in place, the Centennial Volleyball team looks to start the season off hot and to continue to build on the accomplishments of last year’s team. Plenty of questions face them, with players and coaches alike aware of the tougher competition that they could face during their playoff run.
Though various challenges and obstacles face each player on the 2025 Eagle’s roster, Peters seems to have effectively summed up the final destination that this team hopes to share: “State champs.”
