Trojans Celebrate Class 6A State Volleyball Crown

By Mike Moguin
GTR Sports Writer

Football is not the only fall sport in which Jenks won a state championship in 2021. The Trojan volleyball squad captured its first in seven years when it beat Norman North, 3-2 (25-21, 16-25, 21-25, 25-16, 15-7) in the Class 6A final Oct. 19 in Shawnee. 

As the scores indicate, the victory did not come easy. Jenks found itself down 2-1 after dropping the second and third sets of the match.

“It was definitely a huge challenge,” senior middle blocker Mikiah Perdue said. “After you lose those two sets, you know you have to give it your all for that third one, that deciding match to whether you’re going to go for five or if the match is over. We all had to come together and have a serious ‘Come to Jesus’ moment. We just needed to reset our minds and get in that mental state of ‘We can do this, if we get to work and play Jenks volleyball the way we know how to.’”

And play Jenks volleyball they did. 

“They (Norman North) were a challenge. They’re a great team.” Perdue added. “We all believe that if we’re playing our best volleyball going into the state tournament, it’s a clean slate. Anybody can beat anybody. It doesn’t matter if you beat them earlier in the season or they beat you, if you play your best volleyball, you can beat anybody. We knew that Norman North was a great team, but we also knew we could beat them if we played our best volleyball.”
Perdue also elaborated more on what took place within the team pep talk between sets three and four, in what she said was a key moment for the team.

“I got the team together and we all talked about what we need to do,” Perdue said. “We all closed our eyes and envisioned ourselves, winning that state title, playing our best, getting kills and getting digs. We manifested that win and I think after we came out of those moments, where we all just came together. You could feel that snap, that turnaround, that mental change within ourselves. You could feel the energy switch from negative to positive.”
Ultimately, it led to that glorious moment of being state champions. 

“It feels unreal. I’m absolutely ecstatic about it,” Perdue said. “Going into the season, I don’t want to say that I didn’t expect we would win, but we did. I didn’t expect the team to gel and mesh the way that we did. Throughout the season we had our ups and our downs, but towards the end of the season, we were picking up turbulence towards that state tournament. I could really feel the team coming together and it felt unreal, like a seriously amazing experience and I’m so glad to have earned that state championship with my teammates.”

Perdue will be playing college volleyball next year at Union University in Jackson, Tenn. She, along with teammate Megan Salyer, were the only seniors on this year’s team. Perdue believes the chances of Jenks winning it all again next year are favorable.  

“That means it’s basically going to be the same exact team,” she said. “I think they’re set up to win two (state titles) in a row and hopefully, just build from there and keep rolling and win more and more. All the girls on the team are so amazing and really deserve it. I’m hoping for good things from them.”