Small Details Add Up: No. 1 STM Volleyball Covers All Bases to Foster Winning Culture That Features Three Straight State Titles
by: William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
When you examine the glistening trophy case at St. Thomas More and see nine state volleyball championships, including the last three Division II crowns, take into consideration the intangibles the Lady Cougars handle when no one’s around watching.
Conditioning drills start and finish with each player crossing each line, not coming up a step short. The time in the weight room, where chemistry can be developed, includes each player placing their own weights in their original places.
Small details, but they all add up. Just like players cleaning up after themselves in the gymnasium or locker room whether the trash belongs to them or not.
“Those are things that I’m really big on and I feel they lead to success in the long run,” St. Thomas More coach Jessica Burke, now in her 14th season at the Lafayette-based school. “I harp on the little things. At practice, nobody’s allowed to slack off. Some of our practices are more intense than our games. It’s a high standard of all things. You can’t get away with not doing something 100% whatever it is when you’re representing Cougar volleyball.”
This year’s St. Thomas More team continues to be a shining example of a program that’s not only won the state’s last three state championships, but the Cougars are riding a 21-game winning streak that includes a 15-0 start going into Tuesday’s District 4-II opener against Cecilia.
STM, the state’s No. 1 ranked team by VSN/Geaux Preps.com Power Rankings and MaxPreps.com, followed up an impressive sweep over Parkview Baptist last Tuesday with a 6-0 showing to claim the St. Joseph Academy Red Sticker Classic over the weekend.
The Cougars won four matches on Saturday, sweeping No. 7 Dominican, No. 5 Country Day, No. 4 Archbishop Hannan, and No. 2 Mt. Carmel in the finals.
“It was a fantastic tournament,” Burke said. “We were definitely tested. We saw a lot of different teams running a lot of different styles of play. For us to be able to overcome, adjust, and kind of control the game for the most part was really impressive. Our pace is fast. We’re in fantastic shape, they work really hard. They were able to execute at a high level throughout the whole day. They were really clicking on Saturday. They have great chemistry. I can’t coach that. It’s just a blessing.”
A Dynasty in the Making
STM has not only won the last three Division II state titles, but the Cougars have appeared in the last four state finals with a 3-1 loss to arch-rival Teurlings Catholic in the 2020 championship.
You have to go back to 2019 to find the last time STM didn’t appear in a state final when Teurlings upended the Cougars 3-0 in the state semifinals.
“It’s definitely a privilege that we know not to take for granted,” said STM senior setter Rhyan Miciotto, a UL-Lafayette commitment. “We’ve worked really hard to get to where we are. We just put in the work and our coaches keep pushing us to be the best that we can be.”
STM avenged its lone defeat of the 2022 season to Teurlings with a 3-0 victory in the state final to finish with a 41-1 record. The Cougars completed a 4-0 showing against their rivals last season, including a 25-21, 19-25, 25-17, 25-23 victory to cap the ’23 season with a third consecutive state title and 38-5 record.
Terrific players graduated, including three senior starters, but the tradition under Burke with nine state championships continues.
“I don’t want to let anyone down,” said STM junior middle blocker Marvel Potier, who was first on last year’s team with 94 total blocks. “That kind of drives me to keep winning and that’s a lot of the same for everyone on our team.”
A Gem of a Team has Blossomed
Miciotto and fellow senior Emma Broussard represent a rarity under Burke, having not one, but two setters returning for the 2024 season.
The results for a team that’s dropped three of 42 sets have been extremely impressive.
“They’ve both been starting since they were freshman,” Burke said. “They’ve been running our offense in their fourth year. That’s never happened in my era here at STM. To be able to come in and run an offense as advanced as we do here is really impressive. They were special coming in and have gotten better every single season.”
Burke enjoys an uncanny relationship with her “two quarterbacks”.
“Setting is so crucial at any level,” she said. “They touch every ball; they control the flow. To have them in the driver’s seat with so much confidence, we’ve just kind of gotten to the point where we just look at each other. We communicate so effectively that we don’t even have to have long conversations.
“We’ve been at this for a long time,” she said. “We’ve built an awesome coach-athlete relationship. We kind of think the same. It’s kind of like having an extension of yourself out there on the floor when you’ve had a setter with you for so long. And I have two of them and that’s even more unique.”
Miciotto, also an outside hitter, is the team’s leader in three categories: assists (204) to kills (101) and service aces (34). She’s second in digs (139). Broussard is right behind Miciotto in assists (170) to go along with 84 digs and eight service aces.
A year ago, Broussard compiled a team-high 531 assists with Miciotto tallying 506 with 315 digs, 197 kills (fourth on team), and 33 service aces.
“We have a lot of the same values as a team,” Miciotto said. “We build our team chemistry, and we all work good together. We’ve also built our friendships on and off the court.”
With Miciotto and Broussard at the controls of the team’s offense, STM has maintained a healthy hitting percentage of .256 with 434 kills or 11.1 per set.
Potier’s hitting at a .352 clip with 91 kills and a team-high 36 total blocks. Her older sister Beverly, who was previously a starter for two years before joining a rotation in ’23, is back in the starting lineup. She had a .294 hitting percentage and 79 kills 18 total blocks, 40 digs, and 11 service aces.
“It wasn’t always easy for us last year,” Burke said. “We had pretty much the same core players and then we struggled to find discipline and doing the little things well. We had some highs and some very big lows as well. That growth throughout the season last year has turned into this beautiful little gem this year.
“They are all weapons in their own right,” Burke said. “We don’t have one star we have to depend on. At the high school level, they say, ‘Give the ball to that one person.’ We don’t have to do that.”
Burke credited the play of senior middle blocker Ava Roger (.304 hitting percentage, 51 kills, and 25 total blocks) who has come to the forefront this season.
“She has come so far,” Burke said. “She works hard to be an effective force for us and to draw the block. She’s kind of an unsung hero for us.”
Senior Ella Broussard (44 kills, 24 aces, 120 digs) has evolved into more than a serving specialist from a year ago, while senior Remi Guins (39 digs) and junior libero Eleanor Guidry (team-high 167 digs), a three-year starter, have played key roles along with junior Marissa Billedeaux (28 kills, 8 total blocks, 25 digs).
“Remi has been a real good fit chemistry-wise,” Burke said. “Ella has come in and been a six-rotation player. She’s maybe 5-5 and she’s been phenomenal, a real special player who has come into her own. She’s always kind of flown under the radar but has been a special player in our gym since she was a freshman.”
Opening Five-Set Win Sets Tone for Season
Thus far STM’s most resistance in a match took place in its season opener against Westminster Christian of Opelousas, last year’s Division IV state runner-up and a team currently ranked 14th statewide.
After a 25-19 in the first set, the visiting Crusaders built a 2-1 lead with back-to-back 25-20 and 25-23 victories and were on the cusp of upsetting the Cougars.
“That’s a unique team that plays a different style,” said Burke, whose team closed the match by winning the fourth and fifth sets, 25-17 and 15-12. “It was good for us to kind of see that because we don’t see that in practice. Going up against somebody different, where all you had seen was yourselves, that was a little obstacle for us to overcome because it had not been what we were seeing in our gym.
“We had to make the adjustment,” Burke said. “We struggled for two games and once I said, ‘Hey guys this is what’s going on. This is what we need to do. They had it the next two sets. This is a really mature team that you can talk strategy to, and they make the adjustments immediately and they just fix it.”
Marvel Potier believes this team is open to constructive criticism that helps promote improved play.
“That helps how we play,” she said. “We can tell each other something to fix, and we agree on it, and there’s never a problem when we tell each other something. I think we have really good chemistry.”
STM accumulated five wins over ranked teams, including No. 8 Parkview Baptist, before returning to Baton Rouge last Friday to begin its title quest in the Red Sticker Classic. The Cougars embark on an eight-match district schedule today at home with Cecilia but also compete in two more tournaments at Hannan (Oct. 11-12) and Episcopal School of Acadiana (Oct. 31-Nov. 2).
“In the moment our summer workouts feel very tough,” Miciotto said. “But they get us ready for the moments when we play big teams, and to have the endurance to stay on the floor and keep competing.”