Sedona Red Rock High School’s volleyball team will have some different faces from 2019’s 2A Central Region champion team. Six seniors — three of whom were starters last year — have graduated. Additionally, Alex Bybee is now head coach, replacing John Parks. But even with some new faces on board, the expectations are high.
Among the goals the Scorpions have is to return to the state tournament, possibly even improving on last season’s run to the quarterfinals.
“The big goal that we have this year is to make it to state — or finals — which I think we have a high chance of doing,” junior Stephanie Medel said. “Other than that, trying our hardest every game and trying to win every single game.”
One of the root causes for the high expectations is that, while some key figures from 2019 are gone, a number of others are back. Medel is one of three returning starters, along with fellow junior Emma Beattie, who earned All-Region second team honors last year. Sophomore Bella Williams also returns as a starter.
Another help for the Scorpions has been the summer workouts. While other schools began having summer workouts in June, the second COVID-19 spike caused a number of them to shut down shortly thereafter. Sedona’s stayed, remaining in Phase 1 through the summer. Of course, Phase 1 limited what the team could do and how many girls could be in the gym at a time, but being able to work out through the summer is a potential huge edge against many opponents.
One of the things that caught the eye of Bybee was how good the attendance was throughout the summer.
“Honestly, I’ve been really impressed with all of them,” Bybee said. “Everybody who’s here right now came throughout the summer and worked really hard. There weren’t really any excuses. There weren’t any ‘The other schools aren’t doing it so why are we?’ They’ve all come to me and said they want one-on-one time and things like that. Everybody has just exponentially
improved since June.”
Getting to stay sharp in the gym could prove especially helpful at the beginning of the season, as the Scorpions aren’t easing into their schedule. Sedona will open play against Glendale Prep on Monday, Sept. 21. That will be the first of four games at home that week. They’ll host Camp Verde on Tuesday, Sept. 22, Desert Heights Prep Academy on Thursday, Sept. 24 and Chino Valley on Friday, Sept. 26. All four games start at 6 p.m.
With the fall sports season in doubt throughout the past spring and summer, getting a schedule was a big relief to Bybee.
“Especially in the past few weeks as these things have really been in talks with athletic directors and people that are obviously way above me, I feel like a weight is off of my shoulders knowing that we have a schedule, we’re going to go forward and we have a plan,” Bybee said. “I think [the players are] relieved too. I went through the summer saying, ‘We’re going to have one. Worst case scenario, we’ll still practice every day. I will figure it out for you to the best of my abilities.’”
While losing players to graduation and even having a new head coach is common in the world of high school sports, the Scorpions are unique in some respects. One is that they have a number of returning players from a successful team. Another is that the team that takes the floor in 2020 figures to be strikingly similar to the one that Sedona will have in 2021, as the 2020 team has no seniors on it.
With that in mind, the Scorpions are particularly interested in continuing to find ways to improve.
“We’re going to keep progressing as players,” sophomore Ella Philo said. “Just because you’re on varsity doesn’t mean there’s not more to learn about each and every one of us. We’re just improving. Taking our time. There’s not much we can do about this season other than enjoy the opportunities that we have.”
