On a sunny Saturday afternoon, members of the Washburn High School volleyball teams washed cars in the school’s parking lot to raise money for all sorts of things for the organization.

“To help support us getting new equipment, to pay our coaches, transportation, getting to games, to get better, go to State,” Hazel Christensen, a Washburn volleyball player explained. Christensen plays on the B-Squad, which is the sophomore team.

A group of four players stopped washing cars on Aug. 26 to explain why they were running a DIY car wash. They had been there since 10 a.m. and were about to close up shop at 2:30 p.m.

“I think one of the most important things is paying the coaches,” Gabriella Wucherpfennig said. “Our varsity coach is paid by the school. But any lower coach is not paid by the school.” Wucherpfennig plays on the JV team.

The volleyball players started rattling off all the volleyball teams’ coaches who are not paid by Washburn (For the record, it’s three teams: C-Squad, B-Squad, and JV).

“It’s important to us that our coaches are getting paid because they're doing a really, really good job with us,” Christensen said. “We love our coaches.”

The 2023 Washburn volleyball teams’ car wash, an annual fundraiser. Photo courtesy of Washburn Volleyball.

Washburn’s Volleyball Varsity Coach Dan Cervantes affirmed what the team members shared.

“It’s a bunch of stuff for sure,” Cervantes said. “It's coaches’ pay. It's our end of season banquet and award ceremony. That's usually a catered event. It goes to all of these shirts that they're wearing. It goes to training equipment.”

This was the first year that the teams could take online donations through Venmo and Paypal, which made the event an even bigger success.

“My family's out of state, so they could Venmo instead of giving cash,” Wucherpfennig said.

The players listed all the ways they collected money outside of the carwash, expressing excitement for the online options and the ability to sell car wash tickets to neighbors ahead of time.

“We always need this event to be really good,” Cervantes said.

The volleyball season starts two weeks before school starts, so it goes by fast, Cervantes explained.  The teams’ first games are at home on Sept. 7 against Edison High School. The non-varsity teams also have tournaments the following weekend.

“We’re rockin’ and rollin’ in the season,” Cervantes said.

The best way to keep up with the Wasburn’s volleyball season is via their website. The regular season goes through the middle of October.

Thanks also to Kate Newton, a JV player, for her contributions to this article.