JEFFERSON TWP — Their practices are more like boot camps.

Calvary Academy girls volleyball coach Jodie Osborne stands on a ladder high above the net, sending spikes speeding toward the floor.

Players run sprints, chanting "Don't do it for you, do it for the team." And, "If you lack individually, you hurt your team."

It's three hours of running, jumping, sweating, chanting, spiking and setting, diving and digging — on a court that is carpeted.

Yes, carpeted.

"Rug burns," said senior Carrie Ward. "It's like a battle wound."

Calvary Academy is unlike most schools. Tucked away in the middle of the brush off the beaten path in Jefferson Township, it has carved out its own little quaint and quiet world.

It has 52 students from kindergarten through 12th grade and they all mingle together. The gym doubles as a carpeted play area for the younger students.

The school's beliefs are rooted deep in Christian faith, and that translates to its volleyball program.

"We all have the same goals in life," Osborne said. "We're all Christians. We all love the Lord."

And they apparently love winning.

But they don't do it like most teams. They just do it more often.

In 2004, they won the National Association for Christian Athletes Division I national championship.

They compete in tournaments against public schools like Baldwin, Butler and SlipperyRock, and win them.

How do they do it?

"I would say No. 1 — well, I have two No. 1s," says junior Tianna Osborne, coach Osborne's daughter. "Unity and heart."

Most of the girls on the team grew up together and were taught in kindergarten by Jodie Osborne.

They are inseparable on the court. They are inseparable off of it. They admit to thinking of each other not as mere classmates, but also sisters.

"We love each other," said junior Emma Kile. "We have our moments when we want to kill each other, but we genuinely love each other."

From the time they could walk, a volleyball was introduced to their life.

Coach Osborne took up teaching the sport 19 years ago after rarely playing the game herself.

She said she taught herself the game and then passed it on to the girls she had at Calvary Academy.

The coach teaches more than the nuts and bolts of the sport. She chooses to take a more mental approach.

The team isn't the most physically gifted. Kile is the tallest player by far at 6-foot. The rest don't look the part of volleyball stars.

"Most of these girls did not have natural talent," Osborne said. "The first thing I do is train their minds to be strong. Even though their body might be falling apart late in a game, they are so strong mentally, they won't crumble."

That's where the killer practices come in.

The Minutemen only practice two days a week, but Osborne gets her money's worth out of them.

She sometimes brings in male former Calvary students to smash spikes at them.

She sometimes raises the net six inches to throw in a little wrinkle.

"Guys come in, some of them can even dunk," Ward said. "We had them spike on us, spike on us, spike on us. No girls we're going to see in high school are going to jump that high or swing that hard.

"It might be discouraging in practice. You might be saying, 'I can't possibly dig out that guy's spike,' but we try to figure out a way to make it happen."

Even Calvary's dress is unlike that of other schools.

No spandex for the Minutemen. They wear shorts on the court, shorts that stretch down to the knees.

"We believe in modesty," Osborne said. "We walk in and we get looks like, 'where did you get those wackos.'"

Routinely, Calvary Academy was underestimated. Routinely, it won.

A year later, no one is underestimating the Minutemen anymore.

During a summer tournament, Grove City HighSchool became the first public school to beat them.

Osborne's team is now no longer a curiosity, but a target.

"That makes it harder," she said. "But it's good for us."

If there is one star for the Minutemen, it's Kile.

She hits the volleyball with ferociousness. It wasn't always like that. She used to be timid. But Osborne coaxed the beast out of her, she said.

Now, club teams from all over want her.

But Kile isn't going anywhere.

"It's not about each person," Kile said. "It's about the team. I love this team. I don't want to play with anyone else."