Editor's Note: Check News Tribune sports reporter Tony Hawley (@tony_hawley) on Twitter for his updates during the games.
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After the Helias volleyball program got the monkey off its back and made it to its first Final Four, this season might have come as a surprise to some.
Not so for the Lady Crusaders' coach, who definitely saw this coming.
"Not just four years ago, but I coached some of the girls when they were in fifth and sixth grade, and you could tell this class was going to be very good," Helias coach David Harris said. "It was deep, it was athletic and they had the commitment and dedication that's required. As freshmen, five of these girls played JV, so we knew they were good. And four of our seniors, this is their third year as starters, and one of them, this is her fourth year.
"... I knew they had the chance. I hate using the word potential, but they had it. This year, everything has come together like we hoped it would."
It's actually come together better than he could have hoped, as Helias is one of only two unbeaten teams in the state. The Lady Crusaders are 39-0-1, while Class 4 qualifier Liberty is 31-0-2.
"I think keeping the unbeaten record would be amazing, but I think our goal has always been to be state champs and to get to the Final Four," Helias senior Tory Wiley said. "If we happen to lose a match (in the round-robin semifinals) and still get the championship, so be it. It's our goal to get a banner on the wall."
Helias will be joined at the Show-Me Center in Cape Girardeau by St. Pius X: Festus (32-5-1), Villa Duchesne (29-8-2) and St. Pius X: Kansas City (29-5-3).
The teams will play in the round-robin semifinals at 3, 5 and 7 p.m. today. The two teams with the best results advance to the championship match at 6 p.m. Saturday, while the third-place match is set for noon.
"This has definitely been a goal on our list for a long time," Helias senior Molly Sandbothe said. "This is the year we all thought, "We've got a ton of experience and we just need to work for it.' We thought it could be a big year for us, but it's nice to go this far."
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HARRIS IS IN his 14th year with the program, and he better than anyone else understands what a momentous accomplishment this is for the team.
"Some years you would look at things and you have a really, really good team, but somebody is just a little bit better," he said. "Then the next year, if we would have had that previous team, we probably would have made it. I thought at the beginning of the year we might have to get a little luck or some breaks along the way (to make it to state), but I don't think we did. We just played very well and the girls have earned this. Nothing was given to them."
That work ethic has been in this group all along.
"A lot of times, players can plateau out, but this group continued to get better each and every year," Harris said. "That's what coaches like to see. They continue to improve, they continue to work on their weaknesses. It's always easy and fun to work on what you're already good at. But to work on your weaknesses is a unique characteristic, and this group has that."
When Helias topped Logan-Rogersville last Saturday in a quarterfinal match to qualify for the Final Four, it set off a big celebration.
"We were kind of all over the place," Wiley said. "It was like, "Did we really just beat them? Are we really going to state? Did we finally make it?' A lot of us were crying, a lot of us were screaming. It's definitely something I'll remember forever."
Sandbothe said she's glad to be part of the team that finally got Harris to the Final Four.
"It's really rewarding," she said. "He was full of joy when we won our quarterfinal game. He deserves it, he's coached forever and I'm glad we can make him proud of us."
Harris said he didn't think it would take quite so long to reach a Final Four.
"It's a little bit of a relief that we have made it over this hump," he said. "Dropping down to Class 3 (this year) helped us a little bit, we're playing schools more on equal footing.
"I think now that the underclassmen and the freshmen have seen what it takes to get there, I think it will be in their mindset and their expectations down the road.
"I've always thought this was a reachable goal. In fact, the very first year I was here, I thought we could go, because I had coached several of those girls in club ball for several years and thought they could make it. We didn't quite do it that year. But you continue to learn and grow and talk to other coaches and find out what's made them successful and you try to build on it each and every year."
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NOW THAT THE Lady Crusaders have made it to state, they don't want that to be enough. The toughest part of preparations might have been simply getting to today.
"I'm already nervous for it," Sandbothe said. "It's hard to focus on homework and going to school, it's so exciting."
Wiley said the first few days this week were crazy at school.
"You just think about it all day," she said. "Everyone has so many questions about it and I get so excited every time I talk about it that I can barely speak."
Harris said having to wait almost a week between matches is hard at this time of year, but he's confident his players will come out ready today.
"I think everything that we've done, not only this year, but in previous years, has helped prepare us for this," he said. "I think they will handle it fine, they'll probably handle it better than I do, because they have so far. They've taken everything in stride and I think there will be some adrenaline flowing the first game. But after the first few minutes, I think the rest of the day will be fine."
He said attention to detail will be the Lady Crusaders' main focus.
"This is not an idea original to me, but sometimes we focus too much on the end result and not the process or the journey," he said. "The last few years, we've been trying to focus more on the journey and doing the little bitty things right, the fundamental things correctly, and then winning takes care of itself.
"So we don't talk about winning, we don't talk about the winning streak, we don't talk about a lot of things. We talk about, "Let's make sure our toss is good on our serve,' and, "Make sure our footwork is good on our hitting or blocking.' If we do all those little things, the winning will take care of itself."
Sandbothe said the Lady Crusaders should be fine because of the level of competition they'll face.
"When we struggle in games, it's because we're playing at a lower level like some of the teams we're playing," she said. "When we play at our high level, we just win games. I don't know how it happens, it just does. We just go out there and play and it turns into rewards."
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