Ehrke sisters to play volleyball down under
by Angie Asam-Staff Writer
Onaway High School freshman Taylor Ehrke will join her senior sister Mariah Ehrke as a member of the United States Eastern Conference Volleyball team this summer when they travel down under to Australia.
Mariah accepted the invitation to play in Nov. 2013, Recently, Down Under Sports contacted the Ehrkes and now have invited Taylor to join the team.
Down Under sports offers programs in basketball, cross country, football, golf, track and wrestling as well as volleyball. Athletes who are selected and choose to take advantage of the opportunity have to pay their own way.
The Ehrke girls will be holding a bottle drive this weekend to help their causes while plans for other fundraisers are in the works. The girls plan to have a 3-on-3 basketball tournament this month; a date has not yet been decided. Flyers will be sent to area schools when a date is decided and the tournament will be for those 14 years of age and older.
They are also working on planning a spaghetti dinner at Onaway schools. The plan is to provide dinner and entertainment. Dates will be decided once school resumes.
The Ehrke sisters will not be the first from Onaway High School to participate in Down Under Sports as Lain Veihl participated in the cross country program. They, along with Saylee Smith of Pellston, will be the only three girls from Michigan on the U.S. Eastern Conference volleyball team this year. The three will travel together.
THIS IS the 16th annual Down Under Sports volleyball tournament. The girls will travel to Australia July 14 and will be gone for 12 days. Travel will take up the first two of the 12 days but the first two days down under will be practice days, as well as days to explore the city of Brisbane.
A beach tournament will be held the next day followed by two days of tournaments all day long. The next day is a free day where the athletes can visit the Great Barrier Reef, go surfing, go to Seaworld or other optional activities.
From Australia they will travel to Honolulu, Hawaii where they will spend two days. The first day they are there they can visit Pearl Harbor if they choose and will be attending the Polynesian Cultural Centre for an island tour and dinner show. On their final day before traveling home they can snorkel at Hanauma Bay before lunch. After lunch on the 11th day of their trip they will leave Hawaii and depart for the mainland to travel home the following day.
Down Under Sports is part of International Sports Specialists, Inc. (ISSI). ISSI was founded in February 1989 based upon the dream of a New Zealander by the name of George O’Scanlon. George fell in love with athletics, especially American football (gridiron) as a young man growing up in his native country of New Zealand. His desire over the years has been to promote gridiron, not only to the people of New Zealand, but also to Australia where he lived for many years. For over twenty years, ISSI has had the opportunity to share the land down under with tens of thousands of individuals from across the United States.
The overwhelming success of the Do
From its first Down Under Bowl in 1989, when four states produced a handful of teams, to 2008 when ISSI sent athletes from almost all 50 states to compete in the Down Under Bowl, Hoops Classic and International Games, the goal has been the same; to use the common language of sports to bridge the continents.
ISSI hosts the annual Down Under Sports Tournaments which provide a forum for athletes from other countries to compete head to head in the sport they love.
The Down Under Sports Tournaments have included competition in football, cheerleading, basketball, volleyball, golf, cross-country, track and field, free style wrestling, and swimming. ISSI’s goal is to continue to provide athletes who excel in their sport the opportunity to experience the culture, beauty and grandeur of the land Down Under all within the framework of spirited and intense competition in many different sports.