‘Unlikely’ crew of Trojans carry on volleyball tradition

The Troy volleyball program emphasizes a team mantra of “Pride, Honor, Tradition.”

Coach Deborah Blazzard thinks the third of those in particular was on display as her Trojans won their fourth Idaho Class 1A Division I state title in the past five years this past weekend in Rexburg, Idaho.

“I would definitely say it’s just the ‘tradition’ of Troy volleyball,” Blazzard said. “They come into this program knowing that they want to be champions.”

After the team graduated six seniors — including longtime standout Morgan Blazzard, the coach’s daughter — from its title-winning 2021 group, leaving an almost entirely new crew to lead the way this year, there was some thought that Troy’s reign of dominance over the field might be at an end, or at least facing a hiatus.

“I would definitely say this (title) has been unlikely,” Blazzard said. “I think people thought we had graduated so many seniors that we probably didn’t have what it took to go to (the state tournament), let alone win. It’s just been so fun to find different ways, different avenues and work on the mental aspect of volleyball to find a way back to that state title game.”

The Trojans finished with a 29-5 record, counting best-of-3 set nonleague tournament action in which they fell to some larger-division foes. They were unbeaten in Whitepine League Division I play, then swept the double-elimination district and state tournaments to boot, but southern foe Murtaugh threatened to force them into a loser-out situation Saturday, with Troy ultimately prevailing 15-13 in the fifth set.

“Murtaugh just is a really, really good team in the sense that they had like two really strong outside hitters, and they had some decent middles, good setters, good libero,” Blazzard said. “They kind of had the full package, and sometimes you don’t see that as often with these small schools. ... It really, really could’ve gone either way; in fact, in the fifth set, they were up by four points, so I was thinking, ‘Oh man.’ ... The girls just really started serving well, and we ended up beating them by two points.”

After getting past Murtaugh, Troy clinched the title with a straight-set victory against perennial league and state foe Genesee.

Outside hitter Katie Gray — finally getting her chance to participate at State after sitting out last year’s postseason with an injury — was the lone senior in this year’s Trojan title effort. The rest of the team, led by the likes of juniors Jolee Ecklund and Dericka Morgan, are set to reunite next season and in the meantime, many are moving on together to their school’s basketball season. Ecklund was named the Whitepine League’s player of the year in Division I and Morgan was a first-team honoree.

“I would say most of my volleyball players are now basketball players,” said Blazzard, the Whitepine League’s coach of the year in Division I. “I just love how we don’t really specialize here; we just love being athletic. We love playing sports. I love that we’re not just volleyball players; we do FFA, basketball, track. I just love that about this small school.”

Be that as it may, no other athletic team at the school, and few in all the region, can claim a tradition of excellence so deep as that of Troy volleyball.

Wendt may be contacted at (208) 848-2268, or cwendt@lmtribune.com.