There are not too many more depths from which there is to come back from in the sport of volleyball.

The ALA-Queen Creek boys volleyball team was just about done, disappointed and turned away.

Time to start the buses if you will.

The Patriots weren’t ready to take a seat as ALA-QC came back to win the 4A boys state title in an epic five-set match after losing the first two sets and trailed extremely late in the third.

The Patriots found something to change the momentum to stun ALA-Gilbert North, 19-25, 29-31, 26-24, 25-21, 16-14.

The Eagles led 22-17 in the third set – just three points from winning it all – but the Patriots (27-6) staved off elimination to score six of the next eight points to win the set and went on the win the next two for the fourth state championship in school history, including two in a row and fourth in six years.

“We had to worry about 30x30 square and nothing else,” said senior outside hitter Blake DeWitt, who had the winning kill. “We were down, but we had to worry about our side of the court. It just felt great to battle back from that and win it all.”

It didn’t help that the ALA-GN student section started chanting ‘Start the busses’ prematurely.

“We wanted it more and we showed it,” senior Johnny Reheis said. “We knew it wasn’t our last set and pushed them two more. We heard it (the chant). I heard overrated. We heard a lot of things. It’s fuel for me. I love it.”

ALA-GN coach Troy Kates had a different idea as to what happened.

“Johnny happened,” said Kates, whose squad finished 33-6. “That kid is unreal, and we took our eye off the ball for a second and he got going and we didn’t have an answer for him.”

While Reheis did have a monster match to earn MVP, there were plenty of players contributing as DeWitt had the game winner in the final set, Hayden Holden had some key blocks and Jaxon Pace had some big swings.

But the biggest move overall might have come from a player who realized and confident enough to tell ALA-QC head coach Erica Crismon to put him on the bench.

“I subbed out Luke Brundage in the back row and out Jaxon in,” Crismon said. “He wasn’t having a good game, and he told me don’t put me back in. I’m getting emotional about it because that’s the team we have – there’s trust and honesty. Jaxon saved that match for us.

“If not for him we don’t win that game, but it starts with Luke understanding the situation.”  

It’s that type of mentality and approach that allows a team to show resiliency and have the self-awareness to overcame a match that saw the patriots lose a 19-14 lead in set to and fall 31-19 and then never give in in set three – just three points from it ending.

“We expected to win it, but it’s even better because of how far we had to come,” Reheis said. “We pushed each other in practice more than any team we’ve faced pushes us and that showed tonight.

“It’s mentally hard to battle back but we had to have 100 percent focus. We wanted it more.”

ALA-GN will struggle playing the what if game – a late service error, the inability to close it set three and not quite getting enough of a block – for a few days, but at some point the Eagles will reach realize it was a good season and there is more to come with the majority of the squad coming back next year.

 “Early on were executing our offense and we weren’t making a lot of errors,” Kates said. “It we weren’t giving a lot fluff to them either. It wasn’t junk, garbage over the net, but it wasn’t clean, and you can’t do that, and they made us pay for that.

“This is going to hurt for a while, but we will be back next year and have some more fun.”

This year, however, the honor, the trophy and the banner resides in the ALA-QC camp.

“It’s my first ever in my first year here,” Crismon said. “I’ve been close on the girls side (of coaching), but it took coming here and connecting with this team. We’ve put in a lot work to get here. It’s pretty special.”

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