Ten teams will represent Camp Verde, Clarkdale, Cottonwood and other local towns in the Yavapai-Apache Nation to wear the coveted T-shirts of the coed volleyball league champions beginning Wednesday, Jan. 20, in the Middle Verde Recreation Center.
Beginning at 6 p.m., the Nation’s recreation manager, Darin Smith, and his assistant, 2014 Miss Yavapai-Apache, Mina Eppinger, enjoy a home court advantage at the center, located at 400 W. Datsi St.
They face off in half-hour matches in the two-week, double-elimination tournament against teams from the Yavapai-Apache Police Department, the Housing Hammers, the War Party, the Tunlii Braves, Jordan Lewis’s Lewis Gang, Libby Johnson’s T60 Regulators, Yolanda Trujillo’s Farmers, Scotty Smith’s Thunder and defending champions Notorious DIG.
“We’re going to take it,” said DIG head coach Leslie Hood, a human resources employee at Cliff Castle Casino. “We’ve been in the league for five years now, and we’ve gotten first or second every year.”
Hood’s team is composed of 10 players from Clarkdale and Cottonwood, including her 20-year-old daughter, who is one of just four players still keeping the three-loss team together.
“I’m going to make sure we all show up for the playoffs, because we work together,” she said. “Our team was undefeated for the first month-and-a-half before we briefly just started losing.
“We’ve played a lot of games, and so far we’ve only lost, like, three, so we’re way better.”
Smith’s Thunder enjoyed its highest finish last year — third place.
“We started off doing good in the beginning, then a couple of our players stopped showing up for one reason or another,” Smith said. “Our serve kind of goes out of bounds sometimes.”
The exception is 18-year-old Mary Busher, one of the top two players on the team, Smith said, along with Cicely Herrera, 13.
“She’s got really good moves,” Smith said. “She dives for the ball [and] keeps it in play.”
For the past four years, the Thunder’s nine players have been mostly related from the same Camp Verde family, including Camp Verde High School athletes Reyes and Thomas Herrera.
“We’re not really that good; we’re just out here having fun,” Smith said. “We’ve got to warm up first.”
