Several of Kevin Geary’s former players were in the bleachers for Cedar Rapids Prairie’s home match Tuesday night against Linn-Mar.

After nearly 30 years at the helm of the Hawks’ program, Geary has announced his retirement at the end of the season. The group of former players honored their coach following the match.

Geary’s final Prairie team made it a night to remember for the returning alums.

The Hawks (13-9, 2-3) were convincing winners in the first two games, but fell behind 20-10 to the Lions in Game 3. Prairie roared back to score 15 of the final 17 points in the match to complete a 25-20, 25-16, 25-22 victory.

“They’ve been special kids all the way through,” Geary said following the ceremony. “You know, just like some of my current players, they don’t like you at times. As a father figure, you have to be tough on them, but you still love ‘em.”

One of the current players who has a love for her coach is sophomore Kaitlyn Busswitz. The 6-foot-1 middle hitter was in the middle of the action in all three sets.

She was in the middle of several solid blocks that resulted in the ball going back to the floor on Linn-Mar’s side or forcing a Lion hitter to launch a spike long or wide.

“I was pretty patient tonight,” Busswitz said. “I was trying to take it easy and not get too excited. I just wanted to get there and put up a pretty good block.”

Coach Teresa Kehe’s Lions (15-11, 1-4) actually had early leads in each of the first two games only to see Prairie take control. Linn-Mar’s offense never really found a rhythm and the Hawks were quick to take advantage.

Busswitz and her teammates expected a tough battle from a Lions team that had been playing well in recent matches.

“We came into it knowing it was going to be a tough match,” Busswitz said. “We stuck to our plan and were able to get the win.”

Prairie came in off a strong performance Saturday where it took second in its own tournament after a rough outing in a loss to Cedar Falls last week.

“The team was not pleased with their effort against Cedar Falls last Tuesday,” Geary said. “We got after it in practice and raised our intensity.

"Through that, we had a little gut check and had a good tournament. Right now, we are gaining some momentum at the right time.”

Busswitz agreed with her coach about the impact last Saturday’s strong play had against Linn-Mar.

“That was an exciting day for us,” she said. “We went into practice this week all excited and I think it showed in the match tonight.”

With Busswitz and senior Rachael Butz helping Prairie control the net, the Hawks took a 2-0 lead. But Linn-Mar got things going in Game 3.

The Lions’ offense, led by Sarah Renner and Kristie Sommer, came alive and built that 20-10 cushion. Prairie scored the next seven points. After Linn-Mar broke the string, the Hawks scored another seven straight with Busswitz and Butz leading the way.

The Lions did get one more point to make it 24-22, but a hitting error by Linn-Mar completed the Prairie comeback.

“We worked really hard to get back in that game,” Busswitz said. “It was a great effort by everybody.”

Geary was pleased with the blocking performance by all of his front-line players.

“You notice, we didn’t have many solo blocks,” he said. “We did a good job getting a good team block up in front of them."

The veteran Prairie coach believes this team is beginning to put things together.

“I really love the kids that I work with,” Geary said. “Sometimes it is hard to push them to do more than they think they can do, but in the long run it is going to be worth it.”

Being just a sophomore, Busswitz had no qualms about wishing Geary would reconsider his retirement.

“Would I mind having him back? Not at all, not at all,” she said with a smile.