It's a major accomplishment to be on one team that wins a championship at a national tournament. It's something else again to be on two national championship teams in the span of a few days at the same tournament.
Emma Haren, a sophomore at Jackson County Central High School, returned from Florida this week as a member of two national championship teams.
Haren has been a member of the Sioux Falls-based Kairos Elite 15 Adidas team this spring and summer. That team placed first in the 15 Club Division at the AAU Junior National Volleyball Championships in Orlando.
Emma then had a great opportunity to stay in Florida and fill in on the Kairos' 16 Adidas team at its national tournament and that team would win the 16 Premier Division.
The 15s team went 13-1 in matches in the tournament and had a set record of 26-6.
"There was some good competition. It was a lot of fun to play." Haren commented. "It was fun to see teams from other places. We tried to stay aggressive and play hard."
They won their first five matches before a tough 2-0 loss to Eastside Cleveland (25-23, 28-26). Adidas would then win its final eight matches, including a 2-1 win over the Eastside Cleveland Juniors team they had lost to earlier in the tournament (23-25, 25-22, 15-10).
"That was our only loss and it was tough," Emma said. "It was a lot of fun to come back and play hard against them and get the win."
Among the other members of the 15s team are Sam Untiedt and Emma Rasche of Heron Lake-Okabena and Trystn Maras of Windom. Untiedt was named the Most Valuable Player and Rasche was named to the all-tournament team.
In addition to the Minnesota connection, there are players on that team from South Dakota schools Sioux Falls Roosevelt, Sioux Falls Washington and Yankton.
"It's good to play with girls from other schools," Emma said. "They do different things at their schools. They run different rotations and have different options to hit and the coaches from other schools have different ideas."
Then came the chance to play for the Kairos' 16 Adidas team that won the 16 Premier Division, going 12-0 in matches and 24-1 in sets. Emma's role on the older team was different as she was more of a role player, but it was also a great experience.
"That team was a lot of fun to play with," she said. "There are a lot of really talented girls on that team."
That team had five players from Sioux Falls O' Gorman along with Sioux Falls schools Washington and Jefferson; Harrisburg and Iowa powerhouse Hull Western Christian.
One of those O'Gorman players on the 16 Adidas team that Emma had the chance to play with is Bergen Reilly, who was named the Player of the Year in South Dakota as a sophomore last year and is being recruited by Division I schools across the country and will be training with the USA national team in California later this month.
"She's really, really good." Haren said. "She works hard. She's a good example to learn from. There are a lot of other girls that are good examples to learn from, too."
In fact, at the times when Emma wasn't playing at the national tournament, she took advantage of the chance to watch a lot of talented players on the nearly 200 courts at the Orange County Convention Center where the tournament was being playted.
"It was really cool," she said. "I liked walking around to the other courts and seeing the other teams, especially the 18s teams that are committed to huge colleges, watching how fast they are and how smart they are with the game."
She's home from the busy week in Florida, but there isn't necessarily a lot of time to rest. I talked with her for this newsletter at the end of her shift as a lifeguard at the JCC Swimming Pool.
On the volleyball side, Emma will now focus on the upcoming JCC season. There are some open gyms and tournaments coming up for the Huskies before the school volleyball season will start on Aug. 16.
The excitement is building for that season.
"We want to win games and get better," Emma said. "I'm really hoping that we can go up to state and compete there."
And she'll be involved in both softball and basketball in the next few weeks as well.
Other Huskies at nationals
There were some other JCC connections at the national volleyball tourney in Orlando.
Elese Paplow is also on the Kairos 15s squad along with Emma.
Andria Benson moved up the Kairos 17 Beta team that went 8-3 in matches in the 17 Classic Division at nationals and had a set record of 17-6.
That team won its first eight matches before losing its final three and placed 19th out of 98 teams in that group.
JCC graduate Abby Benson was an assistant coach on that team.
Also, Sadie Voss plays for the Kairos 17 Adidas team that placed ninth out of 139 teams in the 17 Premier Division.
They went 10-1 in matches and 21-7 in sets. Their only loss was 2-1 (23-25, 25-15, 15-12) to eventual champions NOLA Kasey.