Bayfield High School has reached the state volleyball tournament for six years in a row.
In order to make it seven, the Wolverines will depend on a fresh-faced group.
BHS sent three players to collegiate volleyball last season – Kirstie Hillyer to Colorado State, Suzie Rhodes to Larimie County Community College and Jessie Roukema to Neosho Community College.
They represent the last two Intermountain League Players of the Year, two All-IML selections and an All-IML second team member.
They’re gone now.
The Wolverines do bring back one all-conference player in junior Maddi Foutz, their second-leading attacker from last season.
They’ll also field two seniors in Katie Hawkins and Brooke Kudelski, neither of which played for BHS last season.
Hawkins took a year off, and Kudelski previously played for Pagosa Springs.
“The bulk of our roster is quite young,” BHS head coach Terene Foutz said in a phone interview Monday with The Durango Herald. “We have moments of inexperience, no doubt about that. They’re in uncharted territory as a group. It’s a lot of fun.”
Youth does not equal inexperience for BHS, though.
The Wolverines are coming off a 23-4 season where they won the IML championship without dropping a set.
Five players on this year’s roster played for the Wolverines at state last year, and Kudelski played for the Pirates on the Denver Coliseum floor.
She’ll be eligible Oct. 1 because of Colorado High School Activities Association transfer rules.
“We took them for that very reason,” Terene Foutz said of her returners. “We wanted them to understand the grind of getting to a championship level, what it takes to be successful at a championship level and to experience the competitive pressure of Front Range teams.”
Who will play what and where still needs to be determined.
Coach Foutz, now in her third year at the helm, plans to use the team’s challenging preseason schedule to determine individual positions and roles.
They’ll open Sept. 1 at Class 4A Montezuma-Cortez and face Durango High School as well.
The Class 3A Wolverines also have Class 5A New Mexico teams Aztec, Farmington and Piedra Vista on the schedule to go along with a trip to defending 4A state champion Lewis Palmer’s tournament.
“Our outlook is to compete as hard and as often as we can. We have a wonderful, loaded preseason schedule,” Terene Foutz said. “We couldn’t have asked for a better schedule to test young athletes.”
Losing as much talent as BHS did will result in some growing pains, but Terene Foutz trusts this year’s group to figure things out.
“We saw it coming. The kids have really invested a lot of themselves over the summer,” she said. “They’ve sacrificed a lot of time and effort to the program and to each other since May. They’re really excited about embracing their new roles. It’s a new era for Bayfield volleyball.”
Durango High School
From a front row perspective, the Demons are ready to roll.
DHS brings back three out of its top four attackers from a team that went 14-10 last season and qualified for the regional round of the Class 4A postseason.
“I’m really looking forward to the offense we’re gonna bring this year,” said DHS third-year head coach Colleen Vogt in a phone interview with The Durango Herald on Monday. “We have a lot of weapons all the way across the front row, and we’re very deep.”
The Demons did, however, graduate their libero, Sarah Lawton, and primary setter, Logan Clark, both of whom were selected to the Colorado High School Coaches’ Association All-State team last year.
“We’re working really hard on defense,” Vogt said. “We want to be that annoying ream that never lets the ball hit the floor. The girls are really taking that to heart.”
If DHS can smooth out the integration of new passers, though, the Demons will have a potent lineup to set to.
Maddie Robertson is the Demons’ lone returning All-Southwestern League player after she landed on the second team with 181 kills and 219 digs.
Ali Davis, Lia Henriksen, Raven Fallon-Cyr and Sarah Waller also all averaged more than a kill per set last season for DHS.
They’ll face a challenging nonconference slate trying to get back to the state tournament for the first time since 2012.
DHS opens the 2015 season Sept. 3 when Utah Class 1A semifinalist Monticello rolls into Durango.
The Demons also will play a home-and-home with BHS, visit New Mexico Class 5A state runner up Piedra Vista and travel to Cherry Creek’s tournament in non-league play.
“We have to compete throughout the whole season, and I think we have a team that’s ready to meet the standards of our challenging schedule,” Vogt said. “It’s great in our area to have such great competition, too.”
Once DHS enters league play,Montrose is the defending SWL champion, and the Demons finished tied for second with Fruita Monument at 6-4 last year.
Ignacio High School
There are a few problems for the 2015 IHS volleyball team – too many setters, too many hitters and too many servers.
Bobcats’ head coach Thaddeus Cano likes dealing with those problems, though.
“Right now we are so solid all the way around,” Cano said in a phone interview Monday with The Durango Herald.
IHS features three seniors in Miel Diaz, Ellie Seibel and Chrystianne Valdez, all of whom can play any position on the floor.
Seibel and Valdez played all 72 sets for IHS last year, and Seibel led the team with 62 kills.
They’ll lead a team that featured five freshman last season, all of whom played significant time and gained valuable experience in a 2-18 season.
Alex Forsythe, Seibel and Shoshone Thompson have been playing setter so far for the Bobcats.
“I’m so setter heavy,” Cano said. “All three of them are great setters.”
Whoever ends up setting will be in charge of managing an up-tempo offense designed to take advantage of the Bobcats’ speed and mask their relative lack of size.
Their biggest test of the preseason was a scrimmage in Pagosa Springs with teams like BHS, DHS and Pagosa Springs, all of whom reached last season’s postseason.
“I’m taking big breaths right now because things are looking very good,” Cano said. “Right just now with our scrimmage in Pagosa, that confirmed what I was already thinking.”
The Bobcats open the season Sept. 1 at home against Kirtland Central.
They will go to Simla’s tournament in late September amidst Class 2A San Juan Basin League play and finish the regular season by hosting the Pirates on Oct. 27.
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
