Anna Rymer

 

Leah Rymer

Barry Rymer

By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

WINSTON-SALEM — Freshman Leah Rymer sets, senior Anna Rymer kills and coach Barry Rymer smiles and counts his blessings.

Volleyball is definitely a family affair for Salem College, a small women’s school tucked away in the Old Salem section of the metropolis of Winston-Salem.

The three Rymers from China Grove, a proud dad and his two daughters, have helped make Salem a surprising force in USA South volleyball. Salem (18-4, 9-2) is no longer a well-kept secret. Salem pounded Greensboro College on the road on Thursday, finishing a season sweep of the Pride and winning a program-record seventh straight match.

“I read 90 percent of the time you’ll get to spend in your life with your kids is before they get out of high school,” Barry said. “So being able to coach both of my daughters in college, to spend so much time with them every day, is a totally unexpected opportunity that I’m very thankful for.”

Barry is a well-known local volleyball junkie who was all over the place for years as a volunteer coach and instructor. He coached at China Grove YMCA, China Grove Middle School, Catawba College, South Rowan High and with the Rowan Volleyball Club. Cut him open and little volleyballs will spill out.

“After I retired, I thought it would be great to get paid to coach volleyball to helped supplement my income,” he said with a laugh. “I was hired by Salem.”

He came on board as head coach in July 2021, with the Salem volleyball program in a rocky place. Those were COVID days. Salem had been pretty good the previous season, but quite a few players had graduated and some who were eligible to return weren’t coming back. The pandemic brought restrictions and disrupted schedules.

“That first year we only had seven girls,” Rymer said. “I knew it was going to be tough, and it was. Games were being rescheduled. We had to play people out of position. We had setters and liberos hitting. We were 1-23 and probably did well to win the one we did. I was wondering if was going to work out for me at Salem.”

But then Rymer had a year to recruit. He was able to get some program-changing players.

One of the key ones was a girl he’s known all of her life — Anna Rymer. After a stellar career playing for head coach Jenna Horne at South Rowan (she graduated in 2021), Anna had headed to play volleyball for Ferrum College, a school in the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

“Anna said at the time there was no way she’d ever go to Salem,” Barry said with a laugh. “But after a year at Ferrum — she did well in volleyball there, but didn’t really like school that much — she was asking me about transferring to Salem. Getting Anna here really helped us. I was thinking we had added enough talent to move up to maybe winning five or six games in 2022. But then we shocked me and everyone else.”

Salem went 21-10 in 2022. The Spirits, as they are nicknamed, played five five-set matches and won all five. Rymer was voted coach of the year for the conference and for the region.

Salem volleyball hasn’t looked back. The Spirits won 23 matches in 2023. Anna was terrific on and off the court as a junior. She was second team All-USA South and was named Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the entire school.

“We’ve still got some recruiting challenges,” Barry said. “We’re small compared to most of the schools in our league. We don’t have the facilities some schools have.”

But Salem has been able to get solid players. Success on the court attracts players from winning high school programs who want to keep winning. Another important selling point for recruits is that Salem is a top-notch academic school. Most members of the student body were among the elite students at their respective high schools.

Salem added Leah Rymer, Barry’s youngest daughter, for the 2024 season. Slim and dark-haired, she looks a lot like Anna, but she’s not as tall as her 5-foot-10 sister. Leah is a natural setter, a position she handled at South Rowan, and she’s moved right into that role at the college level as a freshman at Salem.

Leah was undecided about playing college volleyball, but when she decided to give it a try, there wasn’t much doubt it would be at Salem.

“We had a returning setter, so the plan was to play a 6-2 system and use both of them to set, but our veteran girl had a back injury, so we’ve been playing a 5-1 with Leah setting,” Barry said. “Leah has thrived. She’s been playing really well. She’s been the USA South Rookie of the Week two straight weeks, and she could make it three in a row this week.”

Milestones have been accomplished. On Tuesday night, with Leah setting, Anna achieved her 1,000th career kill in a home win against Methodist University.

“That was a good moment for all of us,” Barry said. “Anna didn’t get 1,000 kills in high school because of the matches that she lost to COVID.”

On Thursday, Leah had 33 assists, Anna had 10 kills and two blocks, and the Rymer girls combined for 19 digs in the win at Greensboro.

“This is the first year we’ve been able to beat Greensboro since I’ve been here,” Barry said. “It’s a tough league. Very competitive. A lot of really good teams.”

After Anna transferred from Ferrum, the Rymers found a small house in Winston-Salem that eliminated the long commutes from Rowan County, although home is still China Grove. The Rymers return to that house for summer and winter breaks. Anna lives with her dad, although Leah wanted the dorm life part of the college experience and opted for life on campus.

For all the Rymers, life is doing some unexpected recycling.

“My dad was my coach at the YMCA when I was 10 years old,” Anna said. “I didn’t think after I committed to Ferrum that he’d ever coach me again, but things happened. It’s good. We’ve been successful at every school we’ve been together at.”

Playing alongside Leah, getting sets from her sister, is also an experience that Anna thought would be over after she left high school, but they still form an efficient team. They’re always on the same page.

“We had one year of playing together at South Rowan when she was a freshman and I was a senior,”Anna said. “Now things have come full circle. She’s setting and I’m hitting in the middle, the same roles we had at South. We won our conference that year, and we might be able to win our conference this season, as well. I’d love to win it all my senior year and be able to share that with my family and with all my friends on the team.”

Anna is a stellar student in communications, with an emphasis on writing and English, and she helps tutor students who are writing papers at Salem. She hopes to write for a living someday, although she’s also taking lots of business courses as a backup.

Leah is just getting started down the college road. Her dad plans to coach her all the way, and he could stick with Salem for years after that. He really enjoys the school, the people and the program.

“I honestly don’t worry much about us winning,” Barry said. “What concerns me is whether we’re playing well. If we’re playing well, winning will take care of itself. I love the challenge of coaching Salem and I’m looking forward to seeing how good we can be here.”

From humble beginnings, Salem has turned out to be a rewarding experience for him. He’s gotten involved with the school. He has friends in all the sports. He goes to every sporting event on campus he can get to.

They started construction on the courts for Salem beach volleyball recently. Yes, Barry will be coaching that team, as well. Another challenge, but one he’ll embrace.

Salem probably will be able to play a modified beach volleyball schedule this spring.

But for now there’s a conference championship to chase indoors.

The team is tired, but practice makes perfect. The Spirits cheerfully practiced on Friday afternoon, as they prepared for a doubleheader at Pfeiffer on Saturday.