Recommend This StoryThe good sister: Sherando star to play senior year without older sibling
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By Jeremy Stafford -- jstafford@nvdaily.com
STEPHENS CITY -- Megan Sirbaugh glances over to her younger sister, Morgan, who sits propped against a wall in a dim hallway at Sherando High School.
Slung over Megan Sirbaugh's shoulders is a burgundy and orange Virginia Tech backpack, verifying once and for all that the recent Sherando graduate and three-sport athlete will in two months live in Blacksburg. Her eyes don't blink, and her smile doesn't fade.
"She's my best friend, so we're really close," Megan Sirbaugh said of Morgan. "I'm going to miss her a lot."
In the fall, Megan Sirbaugh will study meteorology at Virginia Tech. Morgan Sirbaugh, a rising senior and The Northern Virginia Daily's Female Athlete of the Year for the second time, will for the first time in three years play volleyball without her older sister.
She will do the same with basketball in the winter and soccer in the spring. And thus her senior year might at first glance lack the allure of the first three. It might seem odd. It might seem foreign.
But considering so many of Morgan Sirbaugh's career numbers are on the fringe of setting Sherando school records, this coming year may prove to be nothing but alluring.
In volleyball she ranks third all-time in career kill percentage, third in kills in a season (260), third in kills in a career (535) and third in career service aces (103).
In basketball Morgan Sirbaugh ranks fifth in total points in a game (36), fourth in total points in a season (445) and is tied for fifth in career points (1,085).
She is only 205 points away from Sherando's all-time scoring record (1,290 points), which was set by Cassie Carter more than 15 years ago.
And yet Morgan Sirbaugh doesn't believe she would be on the brink of Sherando history if it weren't for Megan Sirbaugh. It was the older sister, after all, who first played soccer; and it was the younger sister who admiringly followed.
That trend continues even now.
When Morgan Sirbaugh loafs idly at home, Megan Sirbaugh takes her for a run; and when Morgan Sirbaugh ever slogged through a practice, Megan Sirbaugh implored her to hustle up.
"And I always did," Morgan Sirbaugh said. "I don't think she gets enough recognition, and she's one of the main reasons for my [success].
"... Every sport that she tried, I tried, and so I probably would be playing no sports if it weren't for her."
There was one stretch in the last three years when the Sirbaugh sisters didn't play together: the 2009-10 basketball season -- Megan Sirbaugh's junior year, Morgan Sirbaugh's sophomore year -- when the Warriors failed to win a single district game. Megan Sirbaugh spent that winter focusing on travel volleyball. She felt lost not being with her sister on the basketball court.
Morgan Sirbaugh felt just as lost.
"I feel like I didn't have any fun memories," she said, "All of my memories are with her, and that was a down season for me."
Morgan Sirbaugh's most recent seasons have been nothing of the sort.
Here's her 2010-11 resume: In volleyball, she ranked second in the area with 260 kills, and was named first team all-Northwestern District. In basketball, she averaged 17.8 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.8 steals and was named second team all-Northwestern District.
In soccer she was a first team all-Northwestern District defender.
But the all-district honors were to be expected. They were precisely the same honors she won last year. And leading the Warriors in kills and contributing nearly 20 points a game and anchoring Sherando's defense was nothing new to her.
What was new, what at times came as even a surprise, was the rampant success her teams saw: Sherando's volleyball team won the Northwestern District regular season and tournament championships for the first time since 2006; the girls basketball team, under new head coach Kevin Reed, set a school record for most wins in a season, advanced to the Region II tournament for only the second time in school history; and the girls soccer team, despite losing nearly all of its scoring from last year, was one goal away from playing in yet another tournament championship game.
But if Morgan Sirbaugh, who so often gives credit to her coaches and to her teammates and to her sister, and who never truly enjoys talking about herself, could indulge in one moment of individual accomplishment, it would be Sherando's Feb. 2 basketball game at Skyline, when she scored the 1,000th point of her career.
She had entered last season with 640 career points, and she had averaged just under 15 points a game over her freshman and sophomore seasons.
To nab 1,000 points by the end of her junior year was certainly feasible. But it wasn't a sure thing. She calculated the number of points she needed to average to reach the milestone, then she surpassed the averages.
A lot of her sudden improvement, she said, came from Reed's coaching style. She wanted to win more because of him. She wanted to score more because of him.
And yet, on that night, when Morgan Sirbaugh became the first Sherando junior to score 1,000 points, it was Megan Sirbaugh who was most emotional.
"I think I was crying more than she was," Megan Sirbaugh said. "Just being able to play with her when she scored that was awesome; and I was so proud of her because it's something she's been working on for three years."
And now Morgan Sirbaugh has one year left. There's no telling what might come. Maybe school records, maybe not. Maybe district championships, maybe not.
But it will bring multiple phone calls and text messages, and occasional visits, from Megan Sirbaugh. It will bring the fresh feeling of independence and the odd feeling of foreigness.
It will compel Morgan Sirbaugh to be more of a leader than she ever was; it will compel Megan Sirbaugh to be more of a fan than she ever was.
"It's going to be really tough for me, just not being able to watch my sister," Megan Sirbaugh said. "I'm definitely going to be at every game that I possibly can.
"I'll make sure I stay in touch."
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