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In their first season as a sanctioned sport, the boys volleyball team took second place at state.
“It was a good first year for the program as a whole,” said Warren Jones, senior on the team. “We proved to everyone that North Sanpete is able to compete and win games.”
The hawks soared through their season, besting teams throughout 3A with a regional record of 6-0. They entered the tournament as the second seed behind distant rivals Grantsville and were the highest ranked team on their side of the bracket.
The first game of the state tournament proved to be no real test for the hawks, as they swept their opponents from Camp Williams of the Utah Military Academy, and they mirrored their performance against Hill Field.
The hawks faced Morgan in the state semifinal, where they came out on top once again with a score of 3-1, but the state championship game was a different story.
In the span of a remarkable journey that unfolded before our eyes, this team, filled with extreme camaraderie and true team spirit, gifted NS hope for the future of its athletic programs, securing runner-up in the 3A state boys volleyball tournament.
Throughout the entirety of the season, the Hawks emerged triumphant in their games. However, a loss in the state championship game left NS in despair, as the Hawks had beaten their state-final opponents, Grantsville, three times prior to losing the big game.
Unraveling this Cinderella story is no easy feat. It is one of success, hard work, passion, and overcoming challenges. But it all had to start somewhere, and the story begins with Austin Ison, head coach of boys’ volleyball at NS.
Ison played volleyball in high school, even though there wasn’t a team at NS. Because of the absence of teams in Sanpete County, he traveled to TimpView and played for club teams at their high school for about five years, after which he decided to play college ball.
Upon returning from college, Ison’s brother was a high school student at NS, and he wanted to play volleyball. Fueled by his passion for the sport, Ison decided to start up a club team at NS, not only to help his brother but also to allow students and community members to play the sport that he loved.
The formation of club volleyball at NS sparked the fire which led to the overall success of NS’s first-ever volleyball team, as the sport was officially sanctioned by UHSAA this year.
“Each year I saw more and more kids [on the club team] determined to get better, so when they were voting to sanction boys volleyball, I went gungho,” says Ison. “I wanted to push this thing forward and be ready so that once volleyball became a high school sport, we could jump in with an experienced group that knew how the game is played.”
Preparation for the season started in August, where Ison would run open gyms so that his athletes could develop their skills.
“We wanted to be the first team in 3A to bring home a state championship in boys volleyball ever,” says Ison. “The kids bought into this idea. They were excited and motivated from the start. I think that their drive to win is why we did so well.”
Another element that added to the success of the Hawks this year was the formation of team goals. The main focus was to develop meaningful relationships with teammates, to foster team unity.
“That was a big focus that we talked about the entire time,” says Ison. “I told them that if we want to compete, we’ve got to become a family, not just kids that play a sport together.”
Because of their success on and off the court, NS boys’ volleyball fiercely entered the state tournament.
“The team felt pretty confident going into state,” said Daniel Lewis, libero for the Hawks. “We knew we were there to take care of business, and we did that for the first three games.”
Lewis reflects on the state final.
“The things that didn’t go well ended up happening in the championship game,” said Lewis. “We ended up playing timid and falling apart under the pressure. We forgot how important the little things were such as covering, talking, blocking, etc. Although I have to give it to Grantsville, they played the best game that they’ve ever played.”
Even though the end-of-season loss was a tough one, Ison gathered his team to reflect on what they learned throughout the experience.
“We all had a really good chat after the championship match and I think that we set the precedent for all of the returning players that this is the kind of season that we want every year,” says Ison. “We want to push ourselves to be in this situation over and over again, and even though we lost in the state championship, if we walk away realizing that we learned something from this failure, then it wasn’t for nothing.”
“I’m so proud of our team and how far we have come,” says Ison. “The kids worked their butts off, especially the kids that never played before. I think that they knew that they had to learn and improve at an accelerated rate, and it was hard, but they did it.”
Throughout their impressive, colorful season, Ison and his team teach us a profound lesson that can be adopted not only by athletes, but by everyone. Perseverance, teamwork, and learning from failure are the cornerstones that uphold success.
