- September 5, 2026
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Inexperience is either a blessing or a curse for teams which rely on it.
It can correlate to potential, making for exciting possibilities. It can also correlate to putting the team at a disadvantage against more experienced opponents.
No curse has befallen The Out-of-Door Academy girls volleyball team yet this season. For them, an inexperienced roster has been quite the blessing.
The Thunder have cruised to a 5-1 start with victories over The Classical Academy, Merritt Island Christian, Harvest Community, Braden River and Lakewood Ranch Prep. The Pirates, who they defeated 3-1, were FHSAA Class 5A-Region 3 finalists last season.
In its most recent game, ODA dealt Lakewood Ranch Prep a clean sweep on Aug. 28 by a score of 25-20, 25-15, 25-20. The squad has now won 14 of 18 sets played with its only defeat at the hands of Lakewood Ranch High, which as of Aug. 30, boasts a 7-1 record.
Heavy senior leadership is absent from the Thunder’s winning formula, though. They’ve largely relied on underclassmen.
“We’ve been pushing the girls and they’ve responded extremely well,” said John Kwon, who serves as a co-coach alongside his wife, Sue Kwon. “There’s a great amount of team buy-in, in terms of doing it as a unit. There is no ‘me’. It’s a lot of ‘we.’”
Six of 11 players on the roster are upperclassmen, but according to Kwon, most of the team’s starters are either freshmen or sophomores. Middle hitter Elle Arslaner and defensive specialist Norah Meyer are the only senior starters.
ODA’s two kill leaders are Alex Beasley and Scarlett Vella, and both are sophomores. Freshman setter Charlie Birdsall and junior middle/outside hitter Gabi Schauenberg lead in assists and blocks, respectively.
Statistically, it’s the younger players who have stood out. They’ve been thrust into play-making roles which, at other programs, would be held by seniors and juniors.
On-paper inexperience has proved to be no inexperience at all.
“We’ve all been playing together for many years now,” Meyer said. “So it’s fun to see us all grow up and mature both on the court and off the court. We’ve reached a point where we can be super successful.”
Freshmen at most high school programs are playing their first season of volleyball together this fall. That’s not the case at ODA.
Student-athletes at this particular school can try out for varsity as early as sixth grade, and if they don’t make the cut, can still compete at the junior varsity level.
That means the majority of the Thunder’s players have shared the court at some point before this season. Meyer and Vella, for example, have been on the same team since they were in eighth and sixth grade, respectively.
Arslaner and Meyer are the reason why Vella and her younger counterparts have been so willing to shoulder considerable on-court responsibilities.
“I was always the younger one. I still am,” Vella said. “We just want to do it for the seniors, because it’s their last year and they’ve played volleyball with us for so long.”
It’s not just the fact that these young athletes had shared experiences at the high-school level before 2026. It’s also about what they did during the offseason with their respective clubs.
Their growth on the court continued — sometimes, together — in that non-school environment. Kwon said most of this year’s roster has ties to club volleyball.
As a result, he’s seen the sport taken “a lot more seriously” at ODA than when he took over the program ahead of the 2024 season.
“You have a good player (and then) someone else wants to play with them,” said Sue Kwon. “The team becomes good, other people want to join in and they want to make themselves worthy of that program.”
Last season, the Thunder finished 16-9, earning their most wins since 2022. After losing to Saint Stephen’s Episcopal in the FHSAA Class 2A-District 8 semifinals, though, the team failed to qualify for the Region 2A-2 tournament.
ODA was even younger then — only four of 12 players were upperclassmen. Any inexperience those younger players might have had entering 2025 has since been replaced by experience.
The team remains buoyed by freshmen and sophomores. John and Sue Kwon have sought to make the most of that situation.
“If we can instill the culture and the discipline and the technique at a young age, they’re clearly only going to get better with the physical and mental maturity that they gain with each year,” said Sue Kwon. “You’re starting to see the fruition of that.”
The halfway point of this season has yet to arrive, and already, success is evident.
ODA is on track for a second straight season of double-digit wins. The last time the program won 13 or more games in consecutive seasons was from 2012-13.
The Thunder continue to prove their youth is a blessing.
