Sunrise Mountain boys volleyball became a serious program when its players got serious about the sport — outside of the program.

Like many West Valley teams, the Mustangs started off as an up and down collection of athletes gathering in the offseason of their main sports. Some years this grab bag turned out well, and some years it fell flat.

However, two years ago, more Mustangs started playing club volleyball in the offseason. Now they are upperclassmen and more young club players have joined the varsity, pushing Sunrise Mountain to the rarified air of state title contention, previously enjoyed locally by only Deer Valley and Ironwood.

"The buy-in has been that a couple years ago, we got more kids to play club volleyball. They’re playing close to year-round," Sunrise Mountain coach Tony Gale said. "Our captains John Igo and Nathan McKinley, and Ben Furlong and Chad Stewart, are all club players. Some of our younger players that made it as sophomores have the club experience. They’re getting more touches in the offseason, which is really where you’re going to develop. During the season, you’re getting ready for matches and trying to work on rotations."

The team is off to a 5-1 start in regular season play and 10-3 overall. The first two losses came in the Kellis tournament to a solid 6A team Gilbert Perry and Las Vegas Palo Verde (Nev.).

Gale said the team actually learned most from those two early tournament losses, and competing with those schools gave the Mustangs confidence that they can match up with the best of 5A.

In 2017, the team claimed its first region title in 11 years, tying Nothwest Christian atop the West Valley Region at 4-1 and beating the Crusaders for the tiebreaker.

Yet the team left the playoffs unsatisfied after beating rival Liberty in a play-in and losing to Tucson Catalina Foothills in the second round.

"Last year we had the potential but I feel like we didn’t execute. We still have that same potential. We lost a few seniors but we also gained more experience in some new players that have definitely stepped up," senior outside hitter John Igo said.

The coach joined his returning players in thinking 2018 could be a breakout year.

Igo and Furlong are a pair of 6-7 bookends up front. Stewart is another potent senior outside hitter. McKinley directs the offense as the setter.

"I really thought that even though we had a lot of success last year, the core of talent was really our juniors. Their potential was untapped," Gale said. "I knew we had to find a couple new pieces and fortunately, so far, we have."

The experience of those four seniors and several newcomers has made a differnece. Even volleybal newcomer James Hansen, a junior, has played a role in the rotation.

The current seniors benefitted from a more technical approach in 2015, their freshman year. Even though the Mustangs had a losing record that year and just scraped into the playoffs in 2016, there now was a foundation.

"Ever since my freshman year, I played on varsity and I realized these guys are serious. When my sophomore year came around we got more guys who wanted to be part of this program and we became a competitive team," Igo said.

In addition to uncommon height — Sunrise Mountain’s roster features seven players 6-2 or taller — the team now gets the nuances of the game better than its opponents.

"It’s the little things that you get from club that really matter — talking, calling seams and quicker sets. You start getting the hang of the sport faster," McKinley said.

After making the field as the No. 10 seed in 2017, this year’s club has a secondary goal of earning a top eight seed — second only to another region title.

The top eight seeds get to avoid the play-in round and host a first round game.

Even the Mustangs’ straight sets loss to O’Connor last week should actually help the their standing thus far. The Eagles are 22-1 and have dominated their 6A competiton other than perennial power Phoenix Brophy Prep.

"O’Connor is one of those top teams. It’s just gives us another chance to test ourselves," McKinley said.

Following its loss to the 6A contender, Sunrise Mountain can get back to the business of being a 5A contender. They resume play with three road games next week.

Gale mentioned defending champion Vail Cienega and fellow Northwest Valley power Deer Valley as contenders.

As the coach admitted, though, 5A always tilts heavily toward Tucson-area teams so some rivals for the trophy will be new to his team. Thus far Marana Mountain View, Oro Valley Ironwood Ridge and Tucson Salpointe Catholic have played like worthy rivals to Cienega and the Valley teams.

"I know that we’ve been mentioned because some teams have been impressed with us. That’s very nice. If things fall right, we can be in the mix," Gale said.

Sunrise Mountain senior Jon Igo serves a ball over the net during practice on March 14 at Sunrise Mountain High School in Peoria. [Jacob Stanek/West Valley Preps][/caption]