Trojans JV volleyball breaks ice against El Dorado High School
Earlier this week on Monday night, the gym at El Dorado High School buzzed with a different kind of energy.
The banners on the walls were old, the bleachers familiar—but what unfolded on the court was something entirely new.
It was the first-ever scrimmage for the school’s inaugural volleyball program.
Pahrump Valley High School’s junior varsity volleyball team finally got to step on an opposing court after years of pushing for an NIAA sanctioned team.
Not too long ago, the idea of boys volleyball was little more than a conversation in the athletic department.
Now, under the guidance of first-year head coach Andi Bishop, student-athletes got to show off their new threads for the opening season.
Playing in two 25-minute scrimmages back-to-back despite the first set being dominated by El Dorado, Pahrump quickly shook off the cobwebs and put together many fuel-charged rallies.
There were no referees in striped shirts or an official scoreboard (even though I kept one off-record) .
Just teammates eager to coach each other, a handful of parents in the stands, and a renowned sense of history in the making.
The opening serve—slightly nervous and a little long—drew laughter and applause. But it didn’t take long for the nerves to settle.
Leadership quickly arose from Trojans junior Emery Miller-Rocha as the outside hitter was very vocal on the court and during timeouts to help his teammates find their positions during returns and sets.
It was one of those games where as a journalist, you can’t help but to just smile as a team slowly but purely gives 110% effort to get better when no one is watching.
By the final whistle, the score still didn’t matter.
What did matter was that the Trojans have taken their first big step as a program.
As the players gathered at center court for a closing team huddle, coach Bishop smiled at the group she had helped assemble from scratch. “This,” she told them, “is how programs start.”
The JV and Varsity program anticipate kicking off their first official regular season in the 3A Mountain League on March 4 against Coral Academy Sandy Ridge.
Junior varsity is set for game time at 4 p.m. while varsity will follow at 5 p.m. in the Pahrump Valley High School gym.
Contact Jacob Powers at jpowers@pvtimes.com. Follow @jaypowers__ on X.
