The Fountain Hills High School volleyball season ended on Oct. 29 and the Falcons finished with a record of 11-19. The team got off to a rocky start with an early COVID quarantine, but the squad was much improved by the end of the season.

The early quarantine affected the whole team, and they had to reschedule games for later in the season. The rescheduled games added stress to an already busy schedule, giving the Falcons at least three games a week for most of the season.

Sometimes the team had more than three games. In the last two weeks, the Falcons played 13 games consisting of regular match-ups and a tournament. Head coach Olivia Long said a lot of work, physically and mentally, weighed on her players. Long was very happy that her girls finished the last week 2-2, when she could not be with them because she herself was quarantined with COVID.

“It was really stressful,” Long said. “I was trying to think of ways I could be in the gym. It was hard to give up that position. I spoke with another head coach, it was actually Payson’s head coach, and she said, ‘trust that you’ve coached the skills well enough to this point that they can handle it.’ That put my mind at ease.”

Earlier in the season, the Falcons got their first non-tournament win against Payson on Sept. 23. Long said that was one of the biggest wins of the season for both her and the players. Long said that her team was amped before the rivalry game, and how they played that night was an indicator for how good the Falcons can be. For Long, she was also happy to beat her old high school coaches.

Long relied on assistant coaches and livestreams to watch the last four games of the season from her home, and she tried to help as much as she could. Long said her assistants, Kenna Garman and Jennifer Hamilton, were a tremendous help.

Long said that the last week confirmed something she’d seen since the beginning of the season: Her team was really good at overcoming adversity. Outside of COVID issues, the team lost one of its best setters early to injury, and they lost senior Neveah Mancha halfway through the season.

After a 3-0 Monday night loss to Eastman over fall break, Long said the team had a critical meeting in the Falcons Nest after the game. Long felt a shift in the team’s effort and energy from then on, and the Falcons won three in a row following the Eastman loss.

The only senior who played the whole season was Soliel Smith. Smith was an anchor for a lot of young players and started all season. The Falcons will miss Smith next year, but compared to losing seven seniors last year, the Falcons will be in good shape moving forward.

Long wants to have a winning record next season and make the playoffs. She thinks it’s possible if the talent she saw this year improves in the offseason.

Long is encouraging her players to play indoor club volleyball in the offseason or play beach volleyball. Next summer, Long will have open gym practices and get her players in the weight room. She hopes she can keep her players busy and play summer tournaments so they can start next season ready for competition.

“We have some strong players that I know within the next couple of years, especially if they play club, will be really, really good,” Long said. “That’s not even me being overly optimistic. I see the talent and also the drive.”