'It was just devastating'
BUFFALO TWP — May 28 started out like any other day for Tom Phillips.
He ventured out to the three sand volleyball courts situated on his sprawling property, the Little Buffalo Creek snaking through the heart of it, and tended to them in preparation for another summer volleyball league as well as tournaments at his handmade courts.
For nearly three decades, his facility has drawn players of all ages from three counties.
Nearly 150 girls played on those courts on a typical summer evening, honing their skills, learning the game and getting valuable workouts from the resistance of the sand, which was nearly 15 inches deep.
Then, the rain began. Steady and hard. Unrelenting.
Phillips noticed the creek rising. Then it spilled over its banks.
“It was scary,” said Phillips, a 1971 graduate of Freeport High School and the school's volleyball coach for the past 19 seasons.
He had lived on the property since he was a child and never had seen the creek rise so quickly and flood so profoundly.
Worried, he and his wife, Jamie, gathered up the family dogs and retreated to her classroom at nearby Freeport High School to spend the night.
When they returned the next morning, both of the lower courts were submerged.
When the floodwater finally subsided, Phillips was shocked by what he saw.
“There wasn't a speck of sand left,” Phillips said.
Hundreds of tons of the special sand he had trucked in from the North Hills and Ohio was gone. In its place was a post-apocalyptic scene of several tons of large rocks, tree limbs and other debris.“A lot of trees,” Phillips said. “Some with the root balls still on them.”The light standards he had installed so that play could continue on his courts after dark were mangled, twisted and leaning.“We spent two and a half days cleaning it up,” Phillips said. “It was just devastating.”It was a perfect storm of sorts that led to the flood of the Little Buffalo Creek on his property.The waterway had become jammed with fallen limbs and toppled trees because of the raging storms and already saturated ground.Phillips estimated that more than 6 inches of rain had fallen that evening and overnight on his property.Only one of the three courts survived — barely.An upper court managed to stay relatively unscathed by the flooding.But for the first time in 29 years, the Big Valley Volleyball summer league he ran on his property had to close up shop.For Hannah Mason, who played on the courts for six years in her youth and for Phillips for four years on the Freeport volleyball team, news of the flood and the massive damage to the courts saddened her.“Heartbreaking,” she said. “Absolutely heartbreaking.”Mason, who was a key cog in the Yellowjackets' PIAA Class AA championship team in 2017, learned about the game and fell in love with the sport on those sand volleyball courts, she said.“It was so much fun,” said Mason, who is entering her sophomore year on the Saint Vincent College volleyball team. “It was physically exhausting too, but there was nothing better than playing hard, sweating and getting covered in sand on those courts.”Mason said the summer league is one of the main reasons Freeport volleyball has been so successful over the years.“(Coach Phillips) always had the nets higher — he put in men's nets — and I would play down there and think I was terrible,” Mason said, laughing. “When we got back into the gym on the normal nets and without that sand resistance, I felt like a rock star.”
Claire Crytzer played seven years in Phillips' sand volleyball league and was a team captain and leader of the state championship squad at Freeport in 2017.When she heard of the flood, she said she was heartbroken, especially for her 12-year-old sister, Kate, who was champing at the bit to play for the first time on the courts this summer.“A lot of us look forward to playing there,” Claire Crytzer said. “We also know how much time and effort (Coach Phillips) puts into the courts. It was just so sad.”Crytzer, who will be a sophomore on the Juniata College volleyball team this fall, said some of her fondest volleyball memories were made there.“I just learned how to be a smart and fast volleyball player in that sand,” Crytzer said. “I just remember playing the Beach Blast, the big tournament (Coach Phillips) always holds on his courts and making it to the finals. That was a big deal. I had a smile on my face so big. It was a hot day, and the sand was sticking to us everywhere, but we never wanted it to end.”If Phillips has his way, it won't.Despite the damage, Phillips intends to rebuild the two courts and have them ready for next summer.“What I'll miss about this year is getting a lawn chair and sitting all day and watching the kids play,” Phillips said. “We'd have kids ride up on bikes to play. We'd have kids pile out of a car when a parent would drop them off, and they'd play all night here. That's why I have to rebuild them. I've called the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to come down here, so I can get advice, so it doesn't happen again. We'll be back. We have to come back.”
