South Haven High School will mark the 50th anniversary of its girls volleyball team next week with a special Alumni Match and cookout.

Dene Hadden was the first coach for the team, way back in 1975, and remained its coach for 19 years. He tells us the MHSAA took on girls volleyball as a sport that year, prompting high schools across the state to start teams. But when he signed on to lead the Rams, he had no idea what he was getting into. Plus, the sport wasn’t well understood.

“ It was kind of a backyard sport and beach sport and internationally it was very strong,” Haden said. “But at the high school level, even throughout the country, not particularly strong or even available in many cases.”

Hadden says more than 115 girls tried out that first year, and the first matches were humble

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