Lewis-Palmer is the two-time defending Class 4A champion in volleyball. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
COLORADO SPRINGS — The Lewis-Palmer Rangers are about to find out that they’re a tough act to follow.
The back-to-back defending state champions finished the year undefeated and were named as the MaxPreps national champions.
Not a bad year’s work.
But the departure of the Class 4A player of the year, Alexa Smith, and a first-team all-state outside hitter, Nicole Montgomery, will give the Rangers a significantly different look in 2015.
Still, with four Division I prospects on the roster, the expectations are high.
Head coach Susan Odenbaugh took time to talk about the team’s mindset going into the season and how the players want to continue to uphold the program’s winning tradition.
Q: In the time since last season has ended, have you had time to really take in what you and your team accomplished?
Susan Odenbaugh: In all honesty, no. The awards kept coming, even into late June and I think with us all — and Alexa included with all the awards she got — it still seems really surreal. We just went out and worked very hard as a team and we had some goals that we established and to get all the awards we got was so unexpected.
Q: With everything coming in as late as you’re saying, have you been able to focus on the upcoming season as much as you would like?
Odenbaugh: Yeah, I think the focus for the girls is still to prove that they’re a solid contender even with Alexa and Nicole being gone. They’re really excited to uphold the tradition. We haven’t been able to do a lot of stuff this summer because kids have been doing club stuff and visiting camps and everything.
We’re gearing up for a team camp that we have Aug. 3 and that’ll be the first time that I’ll have had all the kids together. We’re really excited to see what this next season holds.
Q: With all the awards and accomplishments from last year, is there an almost unfair set of expectations on this upcoming year, at least from an outsider’s perspective?
Odenbaugh: I really think that’s true. There’s such a strong tradition at LP that anytime you talk to anybody, they talk about a third-straight championship. Honestly, with the girls and myself, that’s not even going to be our focus. We just want to go out and work hard and be unified as a team. You just take it one game at a time because to win a state championship, it takes a lot of luck. You have to be injury free and all the pieces have to fall together.
We’re not going to gauge our success next year by any means, by winning the state championship. We just want to get better every single game and keep working hard and play to our potential.
Q: You said after your state title last year that your internal goal was to go undefeated. Is it safe to say this year that you’re resetting things with Alexa and Nicole gone?
Odenbaugh: When we talked about that goal last year, of going undefeated, it was said at the beginning of the year, kind of in a team building meeting that we had. Really, that was the only time that we mentioned it. We talked about how we thought this team had the ability to go undefeated, but to do that we were going to have to work really hard and we did.
Most of our practices were going to be more intense and more difficult than any match we played in. We’re going to have that same focus this year to go out and play hard and take everything one match at a time.
Lewis-Palmer players celebrate winning the 4A championship last season. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Q: Between you, Cheyenne Mountain, Rampart, Pine Creek and Manitou Springs, it seems like Colorado Springs has a really competitive nature when it comes to volleyball, probably more so than a lot of other sports. From your standpoint, why do you think that is?
Odenbaugh: I think there’s a lot of reasons. A lot of the schools that you mentioned are teams that have had the experience of going to state year after year and established a long tradition. So when kids play for those schools, kids want to uphold that tradition.
I think the club program in the Springs is really strong and that helps and supports the development of our high school teams. You just have a lot of qualified, experienced coaches. I think all of those factors contribute.
Q: How much of a rivalry situation does that create between the schools in this area?
Odenbaugh: I think it’s really strong. There’s always a rivalry with the big schools like Rampart and Pine Creek because we want to be able to prove that we can play up a level. You don’t have to say anything about the rivalry with Cheyenne Mountain. It’s a healthy rivalry.
I think when you talk to the athletes and coaches, when we walk away from those matches, it doesn’t matter who won and lost, our focus is that it was good, solid, fun volleyball to play. The kids always get up to play for those rivalry games.
Q: Do you see that dynamic changing this year kind of like with team expectations with Alexa and Nicole leaving?
Odenbaugh: No, I think the rivalries will stay in place. The times that we’ve had with our players in open gym, we’re still pretty solid. This year, we’re pretty solid all the way around the front row and I think we’ll be just as competitive because we’ll be able to run an offense where it’s going to be difficult to block us. We’re going to have so many equal players front row that can terminate the ball.
I’m probably stronger back row than I’ve ever been. I think the one weakness that’ll we have in stepping up without Alexa and Nicole is when Alexa was servicing. She was just so solid. If we’re going to struggle with anything this year, it’s going to be our servicing.
Q: From a community standpoint, I don’t know if I went to any Lewis-Palmer game this year where I either didn’t see you from afar or bump into you. How important is it for you to remain involved with all the athletic teams the same way they come out to support your girls?
Odenbaugh: The support that we get from the different teams, the football team, the boys’ basketball team, is very important and it’s really important for me to be there and support those kids as well. I work. I sell tickets at the football games, I’m the game manager for the basketball games.
I think we’re not just one program, I think the kids and coaches alike, if we can go out and support the whole program, it’s going to contribute to the success of our school.
Q: When you travel, do you see the same involvement from other schools?
Odenbaugh: Yeah. To a certain extent, I think there are some programs where you know you’re going to step into that gym and there’s going to be a big crowd. They call it ‘the sixth man’ in basketball, I don’t know if you’d call it ‘the seventh man’ in volleyball but I think there’s a lot of schools, you step into Pine Creek’s gym, you step into Rampart’s gym, Cheyenne Mountain, the crowd is there to try and take the players our of their game and help their respective teams win.
I don’t think that’s exclusive to Lewis-Palmer, but I think sometimes it’s more consistent at Lewis-Palmer because our kids are there for all our matches, not just the big ones.
Q: What’s been the most intense or memorable moment that you have faced during the last two years as you have won two state championships?
Odenbaugh: Probably the state championship against Ponderosa last year. I didn’t think that anybody expected that we would be able to only drop five sets (on the year).
When we dropped that second set to Ponderosa, honestly they ran a faster offense than we had seen all year, as a coach and as players we had confidence that we could come back and compete and rebound after that second set loss. You looked up in the stands and it seemed as though there was a look of panic among the fans.
I think another one which was a turning factor for us is when we played Grandview in the championship game at the Cheyenne Mountain Invitational. They took us to five and that fifth set was 15-13 and that was a pivotal point for us as well. Grandview is a very good team so that gave us confidence to carry over into state.
Q: How much are you looking forward to that first set at home when your students get to come back and cheer you on as a two-time defending state champion?
Odenbaugh: It’ll be nice. Again, I love our home games because of the crowds that we get. Our kids, unfortunately, talk about how we need to lay for ourselves and have internal motivation, but it’s fun to see them rise to the occasion and play for their home team.