‘Our team is based on love’: Dublin Jerome girls volleyball thriving in the process
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
By Michael Rich
mrichnotwealthy@gmail.com
Mackenzie Palumbo, a Naval Academy commit, leads Dublin Jerome in kills. She is helping build a culture of support with her teammates. Photo: Kevin Rouch
Mackenzie Palumbo walked into the locker room after a girls volleyball practice at Dublin Jerome last fall to find teammate Rian Strickland sitting next to her locker. Immediately, Palumbo could tell that she was down. So, she sat down next to her and talked to her for a while.
“I was kind of new to the varsity practices and she sat with me in the locker room after and we talked for like 30 minutes,” Strickland said. “I’ve never felt more validated because she was just like the big varsity player Mackenzie Palumbo and she was sitting there talking to me about all this stuff that I had going on, and she had recognized that I had felt sad and felt a little discouraged after the practice and she got me laughing and then she drove me home after.”
Palumbo’s gesture provided an example of what the program is as a whole. There are things more important than winning.
“I kind of just pulled her aside and I was like, ‘Hey, you’ll get used to it. It’s fine,’” Palumbo said. “I mean, (moving from junior varsity to varsity is) an adjustment, but if you just stick with it, you’re gonna be O.K. We’re here for you. If you just need help, just reach out.”
‘We wanted a culture of teamwork and accountability’
In January, the senior class met with coach Andrea Baylin in the first of a series of monthly meetings to lay out what was important to them for the upcoming season. The group included Palumbo and Strickland as well as Maya Bleeks, Cami Holden, Madison Knox, Camden Saneholtz, Kaleigh Simmons, Audrey Taylor and Ella Weinandy.
“Honestly, that’s what I would say is the biggest part of this season is we are all so closely knit,” said Taylor, a setter who leads the Celtics with 402 assists and 25 aces through 12 matches this season. “Our whole team is just based on love. Those meetings (over the winter) – they were about how we wanted a culture of teamwork and accountability.”
The commitment to those things is the catalyst for the Celtics’ hot start this season. Jerome is riding an eight-match winning streak and is 11-1 overall and 5-0 in the OCC-Cardinal Division after defeating Thomas Worthington 23-25, 26-24, 25-17, 14-25, 15-5 Sept. 23.
Rian Stickland has added power to the Jerome lineup after making the transition to the varsity last season. Photo: Kevin Rouch
The Celtics, who hold a one-match lead over Olentangy Berlin at the halfway point of league competition, host Watterson Sept. 24.
While the record and going for championships is nice, it’s a byproduct of the Celtics’ true goals.
“We’ve had outcome goals and then we get way too focused on achieving those,” Taylor said. “Then we kind of get let down if we don’t. So, that’s why we’ve started doing more process-oriented (goals).”
Historically, the Celtics haven’t had a strong girls volleyball program. The two league titles and a district championship in 2022 are the only pieces of hardware for the program since the school opened in 2004. And while loftier goals are certainly in mind, the day-to-day is the primary focus.
“I feel like going into the season, we had a foundation of just being on the same page, wanting the same things, making sure that I’m coaching them the way that I can get the best out of them,” said Baylin, who is in her fifth season. “(We’re) just trying to focus on getting one percent better every day and soaking up the time we have together. They’ve really bought into just like, taking it one day out a time.”
One thing the team is doing more this season is journaling.
“Sometimes we’ll write in our notebooks – like, three things that we want to focus on solely in this practice,” Taylor said. “And it doesn’t have to be (a skill). It can be like, I want to make sure that I’m having a positive attitude at practice.
“It can be something mental like I want to pick up my teammate, Maya, because I know she’s having a bad day or something like that. And then every water break we’ll go open our notebooks and then look and kind of like evaluate how we’re doing at that.
“(It) was definitely something that Baylin initiated. But I really liked journaling … you can write things in your journal that you wouldn’t necessarily have to say out loud.”
‘We focus a lot on being like a family’
Before the match against Thomas, Palumbo, an outside hitter, has 1008 career kills – just eight short of the program record set by 2023 graduate Surabhi Srinivasan, now a libero at Eastern Michigan. Taylor holds the program-record for career assists had 50 assists against the Cardinals to give her 2,000 overall. They are both four-year varsity players who were a part of the two league championship teams for the Celtics.
Libero Maya Bleeks, who plans to play beach volleyball at the University of New Orleans, paces the Celtics with 197 digs in 12 matches. Photo: Kevin Rouch
But their individual and collective successes on the court pales in comparison to what they strive for outside the gym.
Palumbo is committed to play at the Naval Academy next fall. The word ‘commitment’ is more than just a recruiting word when it comes to the Navy where she’ll have to serve five years after graduation. She plans to pursue law or criminology as a student.
“We focus a lot on being like a family,” said Palumbo, who has 225 kills to lead the Celtics through 12 matches. “I mean, one of our pillars for the program is family type of love, and we strive on really being the closest we can to one another. We (did it) last year, but this year it’s just been a lot closer.
“We all go to football games together (and) we all sit with one another. We’re going to dinner after almost every single (volleyball match). We focus so much on being so close to one another, and I think that’s why a lot of our success so far has come from that.”
Bleeks, who has 197 digs in 12 matches, plans to play beach volleyball at the University of New Orleans and Taylor would like to pursue law.
“I feel like volleyball will always be a part of my life, even though I’m not playing in college, Taylor said. “I’ll probably will do a club team. I just feel like I played volleyball for so long. Obviously, I love it. It’s been such a big part of my life. I kind of want to go (to college) just to focus on my studies.”
Strickland is involved with the Black Student Union as well as Hope Squad, a peer-to-peer suicide prevention and awareness program.
“I really like to be involved in clubs in my school,” Strickland said. “Black Student Union is just something that I personally really just always wanted to be a part of. I think it’s really important to find people that you can relate to and that you can be completely comfortable around no matter what, and to have that safe space. I personally have that safe space with my friends, but maybe not every kid in that school does.
“And with Hope Squad, mental health has been something that’s really important to me, and it’s been really important to my sister (Jaylee, a 2023 Jerome graduate). It’s important to take time for your mental health and we both have times where we’ve struggled. Talking to people is one of the most important things. … To be able to reach out and have that connection is something that’s so important. It makes life easier and much less lonely to go through.”
Strickland plans to play at Tiffin where she’ll pursue biology in hopes to someday become a veterinarian.
As for this year, in volleyball, the goal remains simple.
“Our goal at all times is to get one percent better and we’re constantly meeting that goal, Strickland said. “Our goal is truly just to make a program that’s full of love and full of competition and full of being all on for one another.
“We want that to pass down through generations. Like, we want that to stay in the program. We want to come back next year and we want to hear people saying, get one percent better and we want to hear people say that they love to compete and love to be here with each other.”
Setter Audrey Taylor (1) talks with Dublin Jerome head coach Andrea Baylin during a break in the action at a recent match. Photo: Kevin Rouch