LOUDONVILLE -- One foot into the gym and it’s clear school’s done for the day. There are basketball players, coaches and random students running in and out of the gym doors.

In the midst of all the screaming, the running and the bouncing basketballs, the Loudonville Christian girls volleyball team set up a net for practice. Saturday, these girls will be playing in the State Girls Volleyball Tournament at the Glens Falls Civic Center for just the second time in school history. But two days before that big moment, the boys and girls modified basketball team needed to practice, and they have to share. 

“That’s what happens when you only have one small gym,” said Sarah Bradshaw as she ran to get ready for practice.

In a school of about 330 total students from pre-K to 12th grade, the art of compromise could fill the halls of the Guggenheim.

“It can be excruciatingly difficult,” said Loudonville Christian head coach Rosemary Burgher. “We have to (work together). There is just no other way to get around it. You have to work with everybody.”

Burgher said it would be easy to have a diva fit and demand complete use of the gym, but it wouldn’t be right.

The same kids she’d be throwing out are the same ones that have packed into the gym to cheer on her girls all season. They are the same ones making the hour-long trek to Glens Falls to watch her team start Class C pool play at 9 a.m.

So the team practices on one side of the gym, while the basketball teams practice on the other.

“They’ve given us such support the whole way,” Burgher said. “I can’t be like that.”

Loudonville Christian has been around since 1955, when it began as a nursery school. The school expanded to elementary levels in 1960 and eventually added a high school in 1995. Volleyball was among the earliest varsity sports added because, as Burgher put it, it was inexpensive. A net, a ball and six players were all you needed.

Taking advantage of their multi-sport athletes, the Eagles reached the sectional finals for the first time in 2004 as a Class D team under coach Darlene Wells.

Burgher has continued to build on Loudonville Christian’s success, taking the team to its first state tournament in 2006.

Setter Christin Henry and Bradshaw, a libero, were just freshmen at the time, but they still remember how overwhelming the experience was and those ugly uniforms. 

“We hadn’t even played a tournament that season,” Bradshaw said. “We walked in and there was, like, five courts set up and our jaws dropped. We were in absolute astonishment. We had no idea what we were doing. ... We weren’t up on the volleyball trends, we had no warm-ups and shirts that came down to our knees and shorts down to our knees. The sleeves were to our elbows, big triangle sleeves.”

Much has changed since then. The uniforms, modest in comparison to most high school uniforms, are now cotton shorts and T-shirts that no longer hit at the knees. Lots of tournaments during the regular season have made the sight of a multi-court venue a common sight.

Though pumped up to reach this far, Loudonville Christian wants to play on Sunday.

“Our goal is to get to the final, that’s our ultimate goal,” Henry said. “Our lower-level goal is that we can not come in fourth place. We have to at least come in third or better. And we want to get the sportsmanship award, that’s a big goal for us.”

With their faith at the center of everything they do, it’s not just about being “nice” on the court. For the players and coaches on the team, playing volleyball is something far more personal. They hold devotions at every practice to share what’s on their hearts. They pray at the end of practice and before every game. They have ministry days when they work for non-profit organizations and accountability partners to keep them grounded in their faith. When they huddle together before taking the court or ending practice, they cheer “1,2,3, All for God.”

“It’s a huge part,” Burgher said. “I know every single one of these kids has a great relationship with God. And we make it a huge part.”

“This is our active worship,” Henry said. “God gave us these gifts and we just use them on the court to worship Him and have good attitudes. Our ultimate purpose is to witness to the other team, kind of. How we play the game and our attitudes and whatever they see in us.”

And what people have seen is a team not very tall, not very powerful, but incredibly scrappy, with pinpoint passing and serving. They dominated the Central Hudson Valley League by going 12-0 and not dropping a single game all season.

They battled back from an 11-point deficit in the second game of the Section II Class C final to eventually sweep Voorheesville. They swept Ogdensburg Free Academy in regionals to improve to a 21-2.

“It just blows my mind that they could be so determined and want to improve so much to get this far,” Burgher said, “and I’m along for the ride.”

The ride will end in Glens Falls, one way or the other. The Eagles face three tough foes in Tioga from the Southern Tier, City Honors from Buffalo and East Rockaway from Long Island.

As one of three Section II representatives, Loudonville Christian can expect plenty of home-crowd love. Throw in the Eagles fans who have buses ready to leave at 7 a.m. from the school and there will be lots of love for the girls from the little Christian school.

“I think it’s going to be really great,” said sophomore Hattie Burgher. “I like all the fans coming in and cheering for us. We’re all really pumped because we’ve been waiting for this for so long and we’re almost there. We’ve made it there and we’re so pumped. And when we get there, it’s going to be a whole other level. It’s gonna just be crazy.”