Girls volleyball on a football field: Why Harker is hosting Branham under the lights
SAN JOSE — History will be made on Saturday night at Harker.
For the first time in known Northern California history, two Bay Area high school teams will play a showcase indoor girls volleyball game in an outdoor football stadium. The field at Harker will host the home Eagles and visiting Branham in what Harker has dubbed the “Battle on the Turf,” a homecoming contest held in lieu of a traditional homecoming football game.
Harker’s football team has struggled with a low number of players this year, and holding a traditional homecoming game proved to be unfeasible. With an opening on the calendar, the school decided to pivot to a special volleyball match inspired by what Nebraska put together in 2023, when the Cornhuskers’ women’s volleyball team hosted 92,003 fans for a match against Omaha at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.
The event will feature Harker Day festivities leading up to the match, homecoming spirit activities before the game and a halftime show after the conclusion of the second set. Admission is free for those who wish to attend.
“Ever since we saw Nebraska do it a few years ago, I talked to our administrators and I talked to our athletic director, and I said, ‘This is something we would like to do too. We can pull this off,’” Harker coach Theresa Smith said. “Every year, we’d toss it out. And it is quite an undertaking. So it’s not a simple task to set this up, but it was in the works.”
The devil is definitely in the details when it comes to this match. Harker AD Dan Molin said the Eagles would be installing a subsurface under the court on Wednesday and bring in a sport court material on Thursday.
Both teams will practice on the outdoor court on Friday to get used to the new surface and the elements. The weather could change on a dime, so Harker has contingency plans in place.
“We did some homework,” Smith said. “We called Nebraska, asked them what they ran into when they did it. And if it was during the daytime, the floor buckled in the sun. If it was at nighttime, the floor takes on the dew, so it gets wet. They used fans to keep that dry. So we’ve got these massive industrial fans, one on either side, just in case we start to build up condensation.”
Branham got involved thanks to Smith’s longstanding relationship with Bruins coach Heather Cooper.
“Coach Smitty and I go way back,” Cooper said. “We always have a blast playing each other, and this is a great opportunity for both teams. Both teams excel when we play each other. It’s just a fun event. So they say, ‘Hey, we’re gonna play on the field. Do you want in?’ I’m like, ‘Uh, yeah!’ This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Playing under the lights is something Harker’s players didn’t expect they’d ever have a chance to do in their volleyball careers.
“You don’t think that you could play an outdoor match, because we’re in high school, not at the Division I college level,” senior Elie Ahluwalia said. “Once Smitty told us that it actually could happen, I was so pumped, because I love the sport, and I want so many more people to watch us.”
Ahluwalia has experience playing beach volleyball, which could come in handy on Saturday. Smith said the plan is to play with an indoor ball, but the right combination of wind and moisture could necessitate a switch to a beach game ball.
“One of my main concerns is depth perception, especially in the sky,” said senior setter Keira Chang. “Because when there’s no ceiling, there’s no relative distance from the ball in the air. Being able to find the ball in the air is instrumental to my role. But both Branham and we will not be extremely used to the court outside, so it’ll be a pretty even playing field for both of us.”
It’s definitely not an indoor match, and it’s not quite a beach volleyball match. It’s something in between.
“We’re basically treating a match on the field as something completely new altogether,” senior Aline Grinspan said. “It’s really hard to compare to either of the two, because it’s just a completely different environment with a type of crowd that we are completely not used to, under insane lights. There’s all sorts of environmental conditions that we didn’t even think of as players that they’re having to work around. So we don’t know what to expect, but we’re excited.”
Smith anticipates possibly a few thousand spectators in attendance, which would be an overwhelmingly large number for a typical high school volleyball match. But there’s nothing typical about this event, and Harker hopes it will produce a special memory for all involved.
“All three of us have been at Harker for a very long time,” Ahluwalia said of the K-12 school. “I’m so excited that we get to play a game where so many people get to come and watch us, because we put in so much work and we’ve been playing together for so long.”
Grinspan added, “I hope that everyone gets to be part of this.”
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