Most people know exactly where they were when they found out about the attacks of Sept. 11, including Bluffton University Head Volleyball Coach Steve Yarnell.
“I was in my sophomore or junior year at the University of Findlay and working as a student worker in the Human Resources office,” said Yarnell. “I had gone into the lobby where there was a television and the room was silent in disbelief, no one would have ever thought that it was on purpose.”
Members of the Bluffton University Volleyball team completed the 9/11 stair climb Friday to remember the first responders who lost their lives that day.
Yarnell first heard about the 9/11 Stair Climb from a former player, Allison Schmidt ’11, who is now a head volleyball coach at Continental High School in Continental, Ohio. Schmidt played for Yarnell at Bluffton from 2007 to 2011.
The 9/11 Stair Climb is a way to honor the first responders from that day by climbing the equivalent of 110 flights of stairs, the same amount they climbed on 9/11. For the Bluffton University Volleyball Team, that equaled going up the Saltzman Stadium home bleachers stairs 41 times.
“This was something that I wanted to do last year, but it was two days before a game, and I was worried about killing the girls’ legs,” said Yarnell, “With the circumstances that we have this year, it was the perfect opportunity.”
Remaining in their three pods, the team stayed socially distanced while completing the stair challenge. Each player represented a different person who lost their life on 9/11 and wore their names as they climbed the stairs.
“I had the girls randomly draw a name and then had them do research on the person,” said Yarnell. “I wanted the girls to truly get to know the person that they were honoring during the climb.”
Once the whole team finished, they gathered around in a circle and one at a time walked up and rang a bell while saying the name of the person they were remembering.
“It put into perspective what the first responders went through that day considering we walked without a uniform and equipment and we were still physically exhausted,” said Senior Captain Logan Tabler. “I cannot imagine the kind of mindset the first responders needed in those moments.”
