School: Souderton
Sports: Volleyball, Soccer
Favorite athlete: Leonel Marshall Borges
Favorite team: Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the Quakertown Tournament
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: While playing volleyball, when I was prepared to set the ball I accidentally caught it instead, because another player fell in front of me.
Music on your iPod: Country
Future plans: Work and possibly college
Words to live by: Keeping a positive attitude
One goal before turning 30: Obtain my private airplane pilot license
One thing people don’t know about me: I was born on Christmas Day
After defeating Pennsbury on Tuesday night, the Souderton boys’ volleyball team finds itself in its first District One Championship game since 2007.
One of the keys to the Indians’ success this season has been the emergence of senior setter Gabe Clemmer.
“The setter is essentially the quarterback of the team, calling the shots, running the offense,” said Souderton coach Brad Garrett. “You have to make smart calls, it requires quick decision-making. Gabe’s done a good job with that.”
Not too shabby for a guy who was not even supposed to be the setter.
When the season began, Clemmer was playing outside hitter for Souderton. But when a setter was needed for a short while, Clemmer was asked to step in. He did so well, he took over the job.
“Gabe really sacrificed his personal goals for the benefit of the team,” Garrett said. “He’s one of our best outside hitters, but when we knew we were going to lose our setter for a little bit, he was willing to step in and be a setter and he’s really grown into that role. Now he’s our starting setter.
“He doesn’t get the publicity that the big outside hitters get, but he puts the team before himself, and that shows the kind of kid he is.”
Clemmer admits that he didn’t envision himself anywhere but at outside hitter during his senior season. After trying out for the team as a sophomore and playing jayvee, he spent most of his junior season as a serving specialist on varsity. This year would be his chance to shine and show off his talents as one of the big guns.
Instead, he’s loading up the big guns with his sets.
“At first, I told Coach Garrett, I’d much rather be hitting,” Clemmer said. “But he told me, ‘It’s for the team.’ Sometimes you have to sacrifice for the team. It made the team better. After I started thinking about it, if it makes the team better, I’m fine with that. But it is a sacrifice. When you play outside hitter for half of the year, you get used to that spot and I really enjoyed it out there.”
Still, Clemmer proved to be a natural as a setter – in fact, he plays setter in summer leagues and indoor leagues – and the results are indisputable.
The Indians knocked off Pennsbury, the district’s second seed, in Tuesday’s semifinal. It was the seventh straight victory for Souderton, which has not lost since an April 30 matchup against Pennridge, coincidentally the Big Red’s District Final opponent).
Clemmer’s emergence at setter has been a key to the Indians’ success.
“Gabe instinctively felt, when it was crunch time, he knew what to do, he knew where to get the ball and made really good choices,” Garrett said. “That was the difference between him and someone I’d have to groom from ground zero. He stepped in and really embraced that role. He’s a smart player. He’s always thinking, always getting the ball to the right place at the right time.”
Clemmer has accepted his new role on the team, dishing out assists instead of piling up kills. And that’s been a key to his success as well – accepting his role in order to excel at it.
“It was definitely hard at first,” he said. “I was used to my spot. It took a while but after the first couple games, I got used to it.
“When you don’t really accept your spot, you’re not really trying your hardest. It’s really important to understand your role and feel OK with it.”
In addition to his prowess on the court, Clemmer serves another vital role for the Indians – as a calm, cool and collected force to counter some of the more excitable personalities on the team.
“We definitely have some high-emotion, high-intensity people on the team, and Gabe’s the steadying presence,” Garrett said. “He doesn’t let himself get too high or too low, he’s really an even-keel kind of guy. That’s really important to have. It’s the setter that will calm things down when the other team’s making a run.
“We have a lot of personalities on this team, and one of our big things this year was getting all those personalities to fit together. Gabe’s been a big part of the glue that keeps us together.”
That’s a testament to Clemmer’s ability to fit in, even though he doesn’t share his school days with his teammates. Even though Clemmer is homeschooled, he found it easy to be accepted as part of the team.
“My first year, when I was a sophomore, all the older kids were always encouraging me and helping me out,” he said. “I became friends with everyone pretty quickly. They all accepted who I was.”
And just as his teammates have accepted Clemmer, so has he accepted Souderton as his adopted home while on the volleyball courts.
“Sometimes the homeschoolers don’t feel as much pride, but I think Gabe realizes that Souderton has a great tradition of volleyball and he’s proud to be a part of the team,” Garrett said. “That’s part of the sacrifice. The team’s going to be good and there’s a reputation to live up to and he’s going to do what he needs to do to be part of that.”
Clemmer, who followed in the footsteps of one of his older brothers on the varsity team and has two younger brothers on the junior varsity squad this year (“We can make a volleyball team just with our family,” he joked), has completed his homeschooling workload for his senior season.
Unlike many kids his age, Clemmer admits that he’s not quite sure where he wants to go with his life. But he will take his time in deciding.
“I’m going to take a year off,” he said. “I really don’t know what I want to do. I don’t want to go to college and not know what I want to do.”
He does, however, know what he wants in the immediate future. His Souderton team has already secured a berth in the PIAA State Championship tournament. And though he doesn’t attend Souderton High School, he’s certainly picked up on the rivalries. He’d like to notch a victory over the one Continental Conference team that he has never beaten.
Especially because to do so would also earn the team a district title.
“My first year on the team I didn’t care all that much about the rival schools and things like that,” Clemmer said. “Now I really care about Souderton.
“And I want to beat Pennridge before I leave. That’s the one I really want.”
