Change is inevitable.
Times change, people change, sports change. Volleyball is no exception.
The scoring has changed, the format has changed, the championship structure has changed from one state champion crowned in Pennsylvania per season, evolving to a two-class fall system, then three, then four and now, starting this year, six.
On the court, certain aspects of the game are unreconizable to the same sport from the 1980s. But in Chambersburg, there’s been one constant: Ty Frelin.
In 1986, Frelin joined the program as a JV coach and eventually became head coach in 1988. Chambersburg volleyball is celebrating its 50th year this season; 41 of those seasons have been coached by Frelin.
“I’ve been blessed with some great people and great families, great student-athletes,” Frelin said. “I’ve gotten to touch a lot of good kids’ lives, and it’s been pretty special honestly.”
Frelin is stepping down after this season. Though he won’t be present in the gymnasium any longer, his legacy will remain.
He’s made an impact on countless numbers of young athletes that are the backbone of the family atmosphere he aims to build.
“Ty as a coach, he’s passionate about what he does and wants what’s best for the team,” senior Kasey Moser said. “He’s very funny. I dont know if it’s intentional or we just think he’s funny. We're always laughing with him, sometimes laughing at him. But he’s very passionate. He’s just Ty.”
It’s no surprise to see the family atmosphere he likes to bring as it’s something clearly important to him. When listing his best memories of his tenure, it wasn’t one of his 520 wins (against 257 losses), it was “coaching both my daughters.”
Part of the reason this was the right time for him to step away was he and his wife were both retired and they could travel together.
While Frelin might be the foundation of the program, its stability goes beyond just the head coach, existing with his staff as well. The atmosphere created is one where people aren’t anxious to leave.
“The administration, the students themselves, the families, they all make this a special place,” Frelin said. “My JV coach [Bobby Culler] has been with me 35 or so years, maybe 38. I have an assistant coach that was a former player that has been with me 20 some years. The middle school program has only had a couple coaches. We have empthasized that since the beginning, stability.”
Erin Brookens played for Frelin before graduating from Chambersburg in 2002. She’s now one of his most tenured assistants.
“Ty’s just a positive guy, and he truly cares,” Brookens said. “I wouldn’t have gotten into coaching without him. He gave me confidence and pushed me to be a head coach at the middle school. He believed in me.”
After playing in college, Brookens returned to the program as a middle school coach and has been an assistant at the high school ever since. She said it’s simple to understand why people want to be around Frelin with the passion he has for the game and teaching his athletes.
“He cares about the girl as a whole,” Brookens said. “He’s not in it just for their volleyball ability. He cares about who they are as a person, and he wants to build up that side of them, not just the volleyball side.”
Despite the age difference between the coach and his current players, no generation gap exists.
“We just have to take everything he says with a grain of salt,” Moser said. “Sometimes he’ll say stuff and it’s not the same rules. He has to remind us about things and we have to remind him, everyone has to be open minded about situations. We have to translate some things into how we’d say something.”
After all these years, Frelin is still coaching up his girls when they need it.
A four-match losing streak in late September left Chambersburg 4-5. Frelin had a talk with his team, turned the page and four straight wins followed. They entered the week 9-6 and are 1th in the District 3 Class 6A power rankings — top 12 make the playoffs.
“I told them, ‘Our playoff season starts now,” he said of the turning point. “They’ve bought into that. We take it one match at a time. We lost some close matches and some close sets in first half of the year. Now, we’ve turned that around.”
Chambersburg’s first loss of the season was a four-set match to Central Dauphin, 32-34, 27-25, 30-28, 25-19.
In their rematch on Oct. 6, the Trojans flipped the script, winning in four.
“We’re just relentless, you might get us down but we’re gonna come back and we’re gonna fight even harder,” Moser said. “We learned what they were gonna do and shut it down. Our fan support in our home gym that match was huge and was a big help. But we took the time and figured out, ‘This is what they’re doing, we have to try our best to shut it down. From a coaching standpoint and on the court, there was so much communication."
Brookens says a big reason for the turnaround has been the players’ ability to get back to the fun, family style of play Frelin encourages.
“I just feel the girls in my opinion really clicked and are really doing it for the love of the game and the love of each other,” Brookens said. “They realize if we don’t overthink and just enjoy it, have fun, then we’ll be successful.”
But it also helps have a strong home environment to play in front of. A lot has changed about volleyball has changed in Frelin’s 41 years, but one of the most recent, and most pleasing to the veteran mentor is the support it’s now getting and the opportunities opening up for the girls.
“Students are starting to get into it. Parents have been into it.,” Frelin said. “A lot of kids play offseason so they play nine, 10 months a year. Some play all year.”
“When I played, I drove to York to play club ball. Now there are three clubs near Chambersburg,” Brookens added. “This year in middle school, we had 75 girls try out and we keep 24ish. It’s a popular sport, and it’s growing more and more in the area because they’re getting more and more opportunities.”
For players like Moser, more opportunities exist now than there have been to play post-high school.
“It’s honestly refreshing to see the sport getting recognized more,” she said. “I think people are finally taking girls volleyball more serious than what it used to be. I feel like finally the girls have something. … It’s just so empowering and refreshing from a younger athlete standpoint, and I know there are younger athletes below me that now have people to look up to as role models.”
Frelin says he still loves the game and still loves coaching, but "it's time to get some fresh people in.” But there’s still gas in the tank for one more run and there’s nothing his Chambersburg family would like better than to send him out with a strong playoff run.
“That’d be awesome,” he said.
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This article originally appeared on Chambersburg Public Opinion: Chambersburg volleyball grew with Ty Frelin. After 41 seasons, he’s stepping away