Mother McAuley's 1977 Championship Team Paved Way for Future Success

Whenever Donna Smith attends a Mother McAuley volleyball match, she never knows who she may bump into from the past.

That always puts a smile on her face.

“We still have players and parents come back to watch the new teams every year even though they graduated,” said Smith, who coached Mother McAuley’s first state-champion volleyball team in 1977 and is still involved with the program.

“Once you’re part of the program, you’re part of it for life," Smith said. "We have a saying that ‘Tradition Never Graduates.’ It’s always great to see people come back from many years ago.”

Smith, who was pregnant during the Mighty Macs’ title run, left the program for a couple of years after the championship season.

She returned and has been the team’s “motivational coordinator” ever since.

“I started doing what I called positive mental attitudes with the team in conjunction with the coach,” Smith said. “I wasn’t a coach, but did it as an outsider. I tried doing different things to bring them together.

"They had talent, but were just missing cohesiveness and believing in themselves. Once everyone got on the same page, the success just kept going and going and going. Even though I’ve been gone for 30 something years, I’m still part of it.”

Mother McAuley, which has won a state-best 13 state championships, won three titles in a row from 1980-82 under Mary Anne (O’Neill) Malone.

Nancy (Wichgers) Pedersen guided the Mighty Macs to nine championships during her 22-year career and current coach Jen DeJarld has enjoyed plenty of success since taking over for Pedersen in 2005, with a state runner-up finish in 2007 and two third-place performances.

“All the good players want to go to Mother McAuley,” said Cathy (Spencer) Moran, who was on McAuley’s 1977 title team. “It’s a hard to play there. I probably wouldn’t get the chance to play there now if I was going into high school. It’s such a good program every year.”