‘The best I’ve coached’: High-flying St. Michael’s Skylar Towner remains grounded
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
BATON ROUGE – There’s a part of senior Skylar Towner, that when her career’s done at St. Michael the Archangel, volleyball enthusiasts will have a similar reverence for her career that’s in the same sphere as the school’s greatest player – Amber Igiede.
“I love it when people come up to me,” Towner said.
The 6-foot-3 Igiede was a generational talent for the Lady Warriors, where she graduated in 2019 and went on to become a two-time All-American at the University of Hawaii. She completed her second season on the professional circuit with LOVB Houston of League One Volleyball, earning the league’s Middle Blocker of the Year honors.
When the 5-foot-10 Towner begins her senior year on Aug. 31, when St. Michael hosts Archbishop Hannan at approximately 6 p.m., the Louisiana Tech commitment will cast a similar presence Igiede had 17 years ago.
The two-time all-state and all-metro selection will be the headliner for a Lady Warriors team that graduated eight seniors from a team that won 39 matches and finished as the Division III state runner-up.
“I was crying last year; now it’s over,” Towner said of last November’s 3-1 loss to Parkview Baptist in the state title match. “We have a new season. We had the summer, and we had to get better. Once that ends, it’s go time. One of the things I kept saying to myself was, ‘Next year. Next year’.
“You have to keep reiterating that to yourself or you won’t believe it,” Towner said. “You’ve got to keep going and understand you can’t dwell on that moment forever. It’s a new season. A new way. We’ve got to keep going.”
For the second season, St. Michael volleyball coach Latisha Wise-Jackson has the opportunity to coach Towner, a player who will take on a greater role than at any other time in her career. Towner, along with fellow senior Aubrey Smith, will serve as team captains, a nod toward her experience as a four-year starter and humble nature to get everyone involved in making this year’s team another success story.
“Skylar’s going to play a major role in our success this year,” Wise-Jackson said. “She’ll be on the same track (as 2025) but to contribute more. We’re moving her around a lot. Last year her role was to be a middle blocker for us. She went to the back to serve and came out.
“Our offense is going to see Skylar in different dimensions,” Wise-Jackson said. “She’ll swing from the middle, swing from the outside, swing her around to the right. She’ll get some back-row attack in. She’ll play a little defense after serving the ball. I would like Skylar on the floor as much as possible.”
Towner wasn’t just a novice the first time she tried volleyball. She had never touched a ball, preferring dancing until her middle school coach at Mayfair Lab, Cassandra Sims, challenged a gangly young girl with some size to try out for the school’s volleyball team.
This took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, which didn’t draw many girls, clearing a path for Towner to land a spot on the team.
“She felt I needed to try out for volleyball,” Towner said. “My mom (Erica Towner) had played volleyball, but I didn’t know anything about volleyball. I wanted to try, but I was nervous. She (Sims) said I was too tall to not be playing volleyball or at least basketball. I hated basketball, so I played volleyball.”
Sims’ roster contained everyone from the tryout – 12 girls in all.
Towner’s time on the court was non-existent. She didn’t play in any of the matches with her sixth-grade team, leading her to club teams such as Capital City and Red Storm to not only learn about the game, but develop a foundation to build upon.
“I used to dance before that, and they didn’t have a dance team,” Towner said of Mayfair. “We didn’t have a volleyball (at home). We had a dodgeball, and my mom would teach me how to pass. The ball went everywhere. I didn’t really know anything.”
Step by step, Towner slowly became someone to be taken more seriously on a volleyball court. Her summer of 13s with Red Storm continued a trajectory that pointed her toward St. Michael, where Igiede remains the standard for middle blockers and outside hitters.
What Towner also discovered was a passion for competition. While all of her mechanics and understanding of the game were an ongoing process, her determination wasn’t something she had to find.
“I like competing, and whenever you’re in that environment of constantly competing and recognizing that you’re getting better as you’re competing, you feel a lot of gratitude,” Towner said. “You realize that you love this. I loved being in the setting, I loved the students and the crowd. I love when we get a kill, and we all go crazy. You find an overwhelming sense of happiness.”
Erica Towner’s education of a sport that would have taken her to play in college had it not been for an injury became her desire to hand down the game to her daughter through self-help videos.
“The videos showed me how to set, how to pass, how to block,” Skylar said. “I had a good connection with girls older than me, and they all played with Capital City and Southern Premiere. You get in the culture, and once you’re in the culture it’s impossible to not keep going.”
The experience of playing club volleyball with Red Storm unlocked a side that tapped into Towner’s natural ability, making her varsity-ready by the time she arrived and started as a freshman for coach Rob Smith.
“It was still developmental, but it grew tremendously,” Towner said of her volleyball acumen. “After 13s, it was great. I was able to start on varsity as a freshman because of my background with Red Storm. I had experience, and it made it better.”
Smith guided the Lady Warriors to a pair of Division III state quarterfinals, falling to Catholic-New Iberia and Parkview Baptist, a core group of girls that grew together and had a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for one another.
When Wise-Jackson took over for Smith, now the school’s athletic director, she was presented a senior-laden team with a future star in Towner who started in both of her first two seasons.
“When she steps on the court it’s something different,” Wise-Jackson said of Towner’s demeanor. “She’s humble, very meek-mannered. For volleyball, she is more outward. Since I’ve known her in the last two years, she’s more of an introverted person. She’s pretty fun to watch on the court. Very competitive, works very hard. She’s always the first on the court and the last one to leave.
“She will definitely go down as one of the top players that I’ve coached in 16 years,” Wise-Jackson said. “She’s very explosive. Her reach with how high she can touch a ball is pretty dynamic. If she was 6-foot, 6-1 doing this, people may be impressed. I’m impressed that she’s 5-10 and can play above the net as well as she can.”
Towner’s counted on a strong bond with her teammates to fit in and flourish during her career.
“I’d been playing with those girls forever,” she said. “I’d known them forever, and they were like my sisters. They were so welcoming because I didn’t go to any of the (St. Michael’s) feeder schools.”
Club volleyball remains a constant in her development, actually playing up a couple of years in age with Red Storm, before finding a role on last summer’s 17s, a team combined with some younger players, with coach Donna Pixley of St. Joseph’s Academy.
The exposure against top-level teams and Division-I bound players in national competition in such places as Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Chicago, and in the state of Arizona placed Towner in some uncomfortable positions that brought out the best in her ability.
She teamed with a trio of standouts from The Dunham School – Kennedi Owns, Zadi Huggins and Catherine McDonald – to compete favorably against the nation’s best teams.
“They were dynamic,” Wise-Jackson said. “She plays year-round with Red Storm, and they’ve been very instrumental in Skylar’s success. She’s had some good instruction over the last four years.”
Towner is better for all of the travel, practices, and matches.
“It kind of grows you as a person,” she said. “You’re seeing these different places, you’re seeing all of these different players from all over. You’re playing against people you’re going to play against in college if you want to play in college. It grows you personally, and it challenges you.”
Towner managed to stand out during her junior season in a crowd of seasoned veterans.
Her 343 kills and 71 blocks increased her career totals to 667 kills and 155 blocks. She’s third on the school’s career kills list behind all-time leader Igiede’s 1,656 kills.
“Being a part of that is cool so people can look up to you,” Towner said. “People like Amber Igiede, they look up all the time. I’m really appreciative of this school. To come here and have a great volleyball experience.”
Wise-Jackson had an advantageous situation waiting in her first season with St. Michael. With eight seniors, a junior standout in Towner, the Lady Warriors were built for the long haul and rose to the top of the Division III power ratings during the regular season.
Amongst a talented front row of hitters, any of whom could have been the central threat on other teams, Towner commanded respect from the opposition, and her 343 kills more than doubled the output (324) of her first two seasons.
The Lady Warriors won their first 10 matches before tasting defeat against Dominican in the Sacred Heart-New Orleans Tournament. They responded with 19 straight wins until a 3-1 setback to Parkview Baptist in a match that decided the District 5-III championship.
St. Michael, the top-seeded team, didn’t drop a set in the playoffs until the semifinals against Haynes Academy with a 3-1 verdict. A rematch with Parkview Baptist produced an intense match befitting of a state championship contest.
The two teams split the first two sets when Parkview broke a third-set tie to win 26-24 and finished the match, which was tied at 10-all in the fourth, with a 25-17 triumph.
It was the second state runners-up finish for the Lady Warriors and the first since 2017.
With eight seniors walking off the court at the Lafayette Cajundome for the final time, the shift toward 2027 would take place and thrust Towner into a new role.
“We noticed when we started our spring training, and that was natural,” Wise-Jackson said of Towner becoming more of a leader. “She was part of our leadership group last year. She’s been playing varsity since she was a freshman. She kind of blended in with them. The only thing that’s changed is the year of her grade. She’s in 12th grade now.”
Wise-Jackson said it became apparent this summer that the mission Towner was on to lead her team. The Lady Warriors enjoyed a standout performance at LSU’s team camp by defeating Archbishop Chapelle, last year’s Division I state semifinalist, for the title in their bracket.
“You could see her immediately rising to the occasion,” she said. “She just stepped into her role.”
Wise-Jackson acknowledges that her second St. Michael team will look dramatically different than her 39-3 team a year ago.
“We’re very versatile,” she said. “We have a lot of weapons. We’re going to be younger, but we have that big-time boom in Skylar, a rising (5-foot-11) junior Aliza Gary who is a college prospect.”
Sophomore Marcelle Sessums will be part of St. Michael’s front line, along with freshman Liv Gray, with senior Camille Kinchen ready to step into the team’s libero spot.
“We’ll be bigger height-wise than we were last year,” Wise-Jackson said. “Now it’s (offensive firepower) going to come from every angle. You’ve got to pick what you’re going to stop.”
Following the team’s Aug. 27 jamboree, which includes matches with Central and Parkview Baptist, Wise-Jackson has built another difficult schedule to challenge her team instead of presenting false hope against lesser competition.
The opener with Hannan would be defined as a headliner anywhere on the schedule, followed by four tournaments, home matches with Dutchtown (Sept. 8), Dunham (Oct. 6) and St. Thomas More (Oct. 26). The Lady Warriors travel to Chapelle (Sept. 3), Dominican (Sept. 15), Parkview Baptist (Sept. 28), University (Sept. 30), Assumption (Oct. 1), Westminster-Opelousas (Oct. 13) and Mt. Carmel (Oct. 22).
“I didn’t do us any favors with this schedule,” Wise-Jackson said. “It’s a good thing. Coming from having eight seniors, a very experienced team, to having a team that’s inexperienced, but in a sense experienced. They’ve all been there. They haven’t had that luxury of actually being on the court because of those eight seniors that contributed. We have our work cut out for us, to say the least.”
Towner and Wise-Jackson have already shared conversations about the senior’s role, enjoying her final season without adding any self-induced anxiety.
“There were times last year I would get very frustrated,” Towner said. “This can’t happen this year, and I know that. I’ve prayed about that so much because I want what’s best for the team. Getting mad or getting into my head isn’t going to benefit the team. Not putting that stress on myself; I have the most experience here.
“Aubrey’s another captain, and we have two other seniors in Camille (Kinchen) and Sarah (Leblanc),” Towner said. “I have other people that I can depend on and rely on. You have to breathe when you feel you have to be that other certain person. Your mental (health) will be destroyed, and you’ll never want to play volleyball again. Once you get that mental right, it’s relaxing.”
An area of the game that’s brought Towner a sense of comfort for nearly two years is her selection to attend Louisiana Tech.
That objective appeared foolish when Towner made her first volleyball team as a sixth grader and didn’t play in a single match. From that point, she’s done everything in her power to transform herself into one of the most athletic players in the state who can regularly exceed 10 feet off the floor.
“It will really be full circle,” she said of her November signing. “It’s what you’ve literally been working for your whole life. The stress you go through in recruiting, the pain you go through when you don’t get certain colleges (scholarships). I love that school, and I know I get to spend four years there with people I would hope to grow to love.”
Towner’s voice has been more prevalent when no one’s been watching. The offseason and summer gave her the opportunity to bond with her teammates and establish the type of example it takes to make the season memorable.
Towner’s on-court connection with Kinchen has grown during their careers and is a great luxury in the heat of battle. She’ll play more of a varied role for a team that counts adaptability among its greatest strengths.
“I have certain leadership responsibilities that I’ve never had before,” she said. “I’ve always kind of had it when people kind of looked up to me when I was a freshman. My main focus is on how I can not only help the team but also have fun in my senior year. That’s what it’s really all about.”