THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Seven was enough for Horseshoe Bend in volleyball

A small bus — not a whole lot bigger than a minivan — sat in The Press parking lot late Saturday night (actually, early Sunday morning) as we left the office at the end of a lonnnnnnng state tournament weekend. 

From the markings on it, we assumed it was transporting the Rockland High volleyball team, in town to play in the state 1A tournament at Coeur d’Alene High. 

Rockland, located in south-central-eastern somewhere in Idaho, got its volleyball’s worth this weekend in the Lake City.  

The Bulldogs played in the second match of the tournament on Thursday afternoon, then played two more matches on Friday, then three more on the final day, culminating with a five-set loss to Horseshoe Bend in the championship match which ended in the evening hours of Saturday. 

So you couldn’t blame the Rockford team for not wanting to make the 561-mile trip home that night, instead bunking another night downtown. 

SEEING THAT bus reminded me of one of the teams I saw on Thursday, the aforementioned Mustangs of Horseshoe Bend. 

Rockland’s roster listed 11 players.  

Horseshoe Bend brought just seven players to state, meaning that smallish bus/large van that transported Rockland would have been plenty big enough — maybe too big — for the Mustangs team. 

Anyway, seven players were enough this weekend for Horseshoe Bend to win its fourth state title in five seasons, and fifth under Sharsti Moore, in her 12th year as head coach. 

"Last year we had seven as well,” Moore recalled, after Horseshoe Bend’s three-set victory over Coeur du Christ in the first match of the tournament Thursday afternoon. “And we graduated three, so we had three freshmen who had to step into some pretty big roles.” 

Horseshoe Bend finished second at state last year, losing to Grace Lutheran in the title match. 

This year ... 

“We did have to play two matches with six players, because a girl was out sick,” Moore said, “so our libero had to play some front row, and she stepped up and did well. So far, it’s worked for two seasons now.” 

Prior to last year, nine was the smallest number of players Moore has had on one of her Horseshoe Bend teams.  

With one of the players being a libero this year, all seven players play — and they probably would anyway, even with no libero. 

On Thursday, three other folks sat on the bench, keeping stats and/or helping coach. There were enough empty chairs for a red basket holding a drink bottle and some towels to sit comfortably. Moore mostly stood, wearing a black T-shirt with “WEOFEO” on the back. 

It stood for “with each other, for each other,” the motto selected by the team for this season.  

IT WAS the first state tournament match in program history for Coeur du Christ, in its fourth year with a volleyball program, and second year eligible for state as a full member of the Idaho High School Activities Association. 

The Saints may have shown the expected first-match jitters, but overall gave a respectable account of themselves in a 25-11, 25-18, 25-15 loss to the eventual champs. 

“I was very impressed, especially being a No. 8 seed team,” Moore said of Coeur du Christ. “I watched some film on them, and I had a little bit of a game plan going in. 

“They put up a fight,” Moore said of the Saints. “I was very impressed with their defense, very impressed with their composure. Yeah, I’ve got to give it to them; they played very well.” 

Back to her team, there’s actually a positive to only having seven players. 

“It brings that grit out of the girls,” Moore said. “There is some benefit to having low numbers because the girls realize they have to step up. They don’t have a sub, so they have to work through some adversity and just figure it out sometimes.” 

Which Horseshoe Bend did on this weekend, which made for a happy trip of only 350 miles back to its home just north of Boise. 

By whatever transportation the Mustangs needed.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.