“A lot of memories flood through.”

Mexico Volleyball Alumni Night Photo Gallery

That’s what happened to former Mexico volleyball coach Rachel Leu and alumni as they returned to play the current varsity team Thursday on Gary Filbert Court in the second alumni night. Mexico High School held its first volleyball alumni night a year ago before the season and had its freshman, junior varsity and varsity teams play scrimmages. 

Leu coached Mexico for 10 years before coaching at Montgomery County. Her position with Montgomery County is why Leu couldn’t make it to last year’s alumni night, but after stepping away from coaching this year, she returned to the Mexico sidelines.

“It’s more fun because I get to talk to them more as adults,” Leu said about coaching former players in the alumni game. “It’s fun to see what everybody’s up to now.”

Leu said she had coached all of the alumni except one so Thursday sure felt like a reunion. She joked they were probably all shocked to see her smiling so much, citing her competitive nature back when they were players. 

Jenna Frazier played for Leu from 2004-08. She is currently a stay-at-home mother at a farm just north of Mexico with her husband, three children, chickens, horses, pigs and “soon-to-be” cattle. Frazier’s family calls Mexico home, but she was excited to return to another home of hers on the court.

“I love it,” Frazier said. “I’m going to be sore tomorrow, but it’s so much fun. It feels like I was back in high school again.”

Outside of participating in the inaugural alumni night last year, Frazier admitted she has engaged in “very little” of volleyball activity since high school. She said she has only played some intramural volleyball in college and in a YMCA league, but it felt natural on Thursday.

Frazier said she was glad to have a couple of her former teammates on the court again and coach Leu on the sidelines. She said she coached a couple years in Mexico alongside Leu so there were a couple more girls who she coached. 

Leu said it was cool to see all of the former players warm up because it reminded her of the precious times they spent together before games. She said she has remained in contact with her former players through Facebook. Being part of a night like this means a lot, Leu said.

“It is nice for me that everybody wants to come,” Leu said. “The first thing they were doing was, ‘Is coach Leu going to be there?’ That felt really good.”

Frazier said Leu taught her and others “everything we know” while making it fun. She said she has most of the alumni's phone numbers and sees them around town to this day. 

“It’s so fun to bring people back,” Frazier said. “Whether you’re still in Mexico or you’re around to come watch or play, just to get everybody back together again is pretty great.”

Head coach Tami Sells enters her first year leading the Lady Bulldogs program so Thursday was her first alumni night. Sells said she loved the energy in the gym and “wonderful vibe” of the alumni. It was easy to cheer for everybody on the court and Sells likes what her players took out of this experience.

“They learned a lot, even from watching them warm up,” Sells said. “They were considering how good they still are. They learned those skills, and you don’t just forget how to do those overnight. It’s a good lesson for them to see that this is a long-lasting sport. They were really looking up to the alumni tonight.”

As for the match, the current Lady Bulldogs won all three sets. However, the alumni took an early lead in the first set prior to dropping the set 25-22. Leu joked that was when the “tiredness kicked in.”

Leu enjoyed reliving the past with her former players and is excited to see the present and future of the Mexico volleyball program. She said the number of players has grown after not initially having middle school volleyball when she started at Mexico and not having enough players for freshmen, junior varsity and varsity teams until near the end of her Mexico tenure. 

“Now, when people tell me how many girls are coming out at middle school and I see all the numbers, it puts a smile on my heart,” Leu said. “To see it is growing even bigger here, it makes me proud to have stuck through all those years where we had to share players on teams and didn’t always have the best turnout. It’s to a point now they are becoming a good program with some good players coming through and they have been more competitive over the years. That’s neat to see.”