Texico volleyball has shot at state title seven-peat
TEXICO, N.M. (BVM) 鈥� The most successful high school volleyball program in New Mexico doesn鈥檛 reside in one of the state鈥檚 bigger cities like Albuquerque or Las Cruces, but rather in a town of just over 1,000 people.
The Texico Wolverines have won 16 state championships since 1980 and have finished as state runner-up six times. They鈥檝e claimed 12 of those state titles in the past 14 years 鈥� eight in Class AA and four in Class AAA 鈥� and last season they six-peated for the second time.聽
鈥淲e鈥檝e got great kids and we鈥檝e got a super tradition here,鈥� said Kristen Scanlan, who鈥檚 been the head coach at Texico since 2008 and has led the Wolverines to their last 10 state titles. 鈥淢y seniors are amazing leaders every single year; they teach the younger kids. The tradition is just huge here. We鈥檝e got a super school that really promotes a very good culture and it鈥檚 easy to transfer that to our sports programs as well.鈥�
It appears to be rather easy for the Wolverines to carry over success from year to year given the fact that they鈥檝e won six consecutive state titles twice over the past 14 seasons. But it鈥檚 an even more impressive accomplishment considering Texico isn鈥檛 exactly a factory of future Division I players. Scanlan said most of her players don鈥檛 even play club volleyball nor do they often go on to play at any level in college, let alone DI.
鈥淲e just have kids that have a lot they want to go on to do in college,鈥� Scanlan said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had a high success rate as a high academic team. They just want to have a very good high school experience.鈥�
While they might not necessarily be future college stars, Texico is never devoid of talented players, and such is the case for this season. The Wolverines return five seniors, three of which were all-state performers last year. Riley Rohrbach, who averaged 11 kills, 17 assists, 2 aces and 7 digs per match last season and Sydnee Muse, who averaged 4 kills, 7 digs and 2 aces were both first team all-state picks, while Rachel Phipps, who averaged 20 assists, 2.2 aces and 7 digs, 6 kills and 2 blocks, was a second-team selection.
鈥淥n paper, it looks like we鈥檝e got a really strong group and we do,鈥� Scanlan said. 鈥淵ou never know until you get them all together on the court, but the cool thing about the kids I鈥檝e got coming back next year is they have great experience with being in the moment before and they鈥檙e extreme competitors. They just don鈥檛 quit and that bodes well for them as we approach this season.鈥�
Even for a program as consistent as Texico, it will be a season unlike any other. Back in mid-July, the New Mexico Activities Association (NMAA) released an amended calendar for the 2020-21 academic year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, moving the start of volleyball season to Oct. 5 while other fall sports like football and soccer were moved to winter.
Scanlan said it鈥檚 been weird not being able to work with all of her athletes at once because of the restrictions still in place until the regular season officially begins next month, and she knows her players will have to adapt to the changes that come with such a unique season that鈥檚 been shortened to eight weeks. While the potential is there for the Wolverines to make a run at breaking their own record of six straight state titles, Scanlan doesn鈥檛 believe that鈥檚 her team鈥檚 focus. At least not for right now.
鈥淭hey think of it more as the journey and the experience that they gain,鈥� Scanlan said. 鈥淚f it works out that we play well enough as a team and as a group and things fall where we鈥檙e able to have another state title, great. If not, I think just the journey that they get to go on together is enough. I know in my mind it鈥檚 always enough for me. If things work out, great, if not, then we鈥檝e had great experiences with each other.鈥�
