After 28 years and 521 wins as a high school volleyball coach, Ron Kidder contemplated stepping away.

It would have been an understandable decision.

Kidder had just guided the Marietta Tigers to back-to-back district titles in 2023 and 2024 and watched six key players go off to college. He was inducted into the Ohio High School Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in the offseason — there wasn’t a whole lot left for him to accomplish on the court.

Off the court, there was some instability in the school district, and nobody would’ve blamed Kidder if he decided to call it a career.

Ultimately, something about this year’s team drew him back in. After a thrilling, action-packed five-set victory over rival Warren on Saturday, Kidder felt all sorts of emotions.

“These kids were counted out,” he said. “I almost didn’t come back to coach, but I thought, ‘I’m not leaving this program just because we had six seniors we lost to college. I’m not going to do that to them. I’m coming back and coaching them, and if they want this, we’re going to work our butts off.’ That’s what they’ve done. We’ve proved people wrong and we’re going to keep doing it. We’ve got a lot of season left.”

The Tigers are 4-2 heading into tonight’s road matchup against Point Pleasant. There are positive vibes around the program after Saturday’s big win and they’re hoping to ride that momentum.

Coming into the year, the narrative around Marietta volleyball had more to do with who the Tigers lost from last year rather than who they had coming back this year. That’s starting to change as this year’s squad continues to develop its own identity.

“We really look up to the people that played before us,” said MHS junior Maevry McCombs. “We’re playing for them, basically. We want to prove to everybody that we can be as good as they are.”

Anna Ritter, Ari Buckley, Taylor Karcher, Reagan Karcher, Emma Middleton and Tori Dawson — those are the names you would consistently see and hear associated with Marietta volleyball if you paid attention over the last four years. They formed the most successful class in the program’s history and had a significant impact on the team’s younger players.

“They were all such good role models to us and showed us how to act on and off the court,” said senior Haley Wilkinson, one of the only Tigers who got consistent playing time on last year’s squad. “We wanted to be just like them and use them as motivation that people shouldn’t underestimate us. It’s not a rebuild year, but a reload for us.”

As for Kidder, he’s now in year 29 with 525 wins and counting.

“Happy to be their coach right now,” he said.