The 14th Annual MaxPreps Tour of Champions presented by the Army national Guard passed through Arizona on Friday, January 25 to recognize
Millennium (Goodyear, Ariz.) High School and its girls volleyball team for winning a state championship and earning a high national ranking.
Having upended Sunnyslope 25-18, 25-18, 25-19 in the
AIA Conference 5A state championship contest, the 45-1 Tigers Claimed their first state volleyball title in school history, earned the No. 83 ranking in
MaxPreps National Rankings and played their way into the
MaxPreps Xcellent 25 Writers' Poll at No. 4!
Photo By Precision Sports Entertainment
As MaxPreps and the Arizona Army National Guard arrived, Millennium athletic director Remigio Gordillo greeted the Tour of Champions and directed them towards the courtyard where an elated Millennium student body awaited their arrival for a lunch hour celebration. Once it was set up, Julie Vastine, her coaching staff and the Tigers took plenty of pictures with the ‘Minuteman' trophy, or the Army National Guard national ranking trophy as it is officially known.
As lunch wrapped up, the Tour of Champions celebration moved into the gymnasium where the first of two Tiger pep rallies kicked off with a lot of hype and music playing. At the conclusion of the Star-Spangled Banner, the student government introduced MaxPreps representative Mary Lovekamp, who waited as the cheerleaders tossed free t-shirts and Army National Guard lanyards to the rowdy crowd.
Lovekamp invited the Tigers to join her as she talked stats and described how MaxPreps' National Rankings are compiled for use in the Tour of Champions before passing the microphone to Staff Sergeant Steven Champine of the Arizona Army National Guard. SSG Champine congratulated the Tigers on an outstanding volleyball season and presented them with the Army National Guard national ranking trophy and a nationally ranked rafter banner. Vastine accepted the award and spoke of the wonderful season the Tigers had, what a pleasure it was to work with such talented and dedicated volleyball players and what a humbling experience it was to receive the national, once-in-a-lifetime honor before gathering with the Tigers for a picture with one last resounding round of applause.
Not only did the Tigers have an amazing volleyball season, all eight seniors received scholarships to play volleyball at the next level. Congratulations to Coach Vastine and the Tigers for their accomplishments both on and off of the court and for placing 4th out of 17,000 girls volleyball teams nationally!
Click
here to view the Millennium TOC photo gallery and for more information about the Volleyball TOC, please visit the
MaxPreps Tour of Champions site.
Photo By Precision Sports Entertainment
Photo By Precision Sports Entertainment