JEFFREY REINHART jreinhart@LNPnews.com

Another L-L League boys’ volleyball award to pass along …

Manheim Central’s Ryan Strait was presented the ‘Sue Wood Sportsmanship Coach of the Year Award’ at the league’s annual banquet last month.

The award is presented in honor of Sue Wood, who was Cocalico’s boys’ volleyball coach from 1985 until 2000, and it goes to the L-L League coach who has best exemplified the qualities that have become Wood’s trademark: sportsmanship, class, integrity, vision and a genuine love for the game.

Wood’s desire for her players, and for the league, to exhibit good sportsmanship and compete with class is a mark that has touched many lives around central Pennsylvania.

Wood was a physical education teacher at Cocalico for 36 years before she died at the age of 59 of pancreatic cancer in 2001.

She created Cocalico’s boys’ volleyball program in 1985 and started the Eagles’ girls’ volleyball program in 1994. Wood was also a cheerleading coach at Cocalico for 25 years.

Strait, who, interestingly, coaches his twin sons – Jeff and Steve – guided Central to an 8-4 mark in Section 2 and to a 10-7 overall record this past season. The Barons finished third in the section behind Lancaster Mennonite and Garden Spot, and advanced to the L-L League playoffs and the District 3 Double-A playoffs, where they bowed out in pool play.

Strait previously coached at Hempfield, where he was the architect of some of the earlier Black Knights’ state-championship teams.