Houlka volleyball reaches milestone with first playoff win

Once Cody Turman figured out the whole volleyball thing, his team soon followed.

Turman began Houlka’s program in 2022, not long after the MHSAA began phasing out slow-pitch softball in favor of more volleyball programs. Five seasons in, the Wildcats just achieved a milestone: their first playoff win, a 3-0 decision against Ashland on Saturday.

“It was nice, especially (being) at home, first time we’re ever hosting,” Turman said. “It’s kind of a little bit of symmetry, too, because five years ago our first ever win was 3-1 versus Ashland.”

Houlka (13-4) will host Wheeler (17-7) for a Class 1A second-round game on Tuesday.

Like a lot of area volleyball coaches, Turman had to learn the game along with his players when he took the reins. When asked if he wanted to lead Houlka’s program, he said, “Well, let me get on some YouTube and figure out what to do.”

One of the biggest initial challenges was learning about rotations, which Turman said is “way more complicated than you could imagine when you first start it.”

As with any new program, there have been plenty of growing pains. But the players quickly embraced the sport, and Turman has been able to get them into the program early. After going 5-14 last season, things started to click into place this fall. The Eagles went undefeated in Region 4-1A and are currently on a 10-game winning streak.

“We’ve worked on it since (2022) and got some younger ones in the fold, and it’s looked a lot more like volleyball this year,” Turman said. “We weren’t just OK with digging it back over and wanting the other team to make the mistake. We wanted to score the point in the volleyball way to do it.”

This year’s team has been led by senior Yasmin Buchanan and junior Peysley Russell, but the Wildcats’ strength lies in being more of a complete team than in the past.

“But honestly overall, I never feel bad about anybody getting the ball,” Turman said. “In years past I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s going to this person, I’m a little worried.’ But this year, I don’t care who it went to, I felt pretty confident that they’d get the job done, which is a nice feeling to have.”

Up next for Houlka is Wheeler, which finished second in Region 1-1A behind Pine Grove.

“They know they’ve got to play some mistake-free volleyball if they want to hang with them,” Turman said of his team. “I think we’re capable of playing those mistake-free games, but we are still pretty green to it all, and sometimes the mistakes like to snowball. Didn’t look like that against Ashland, had a pretty clean game. I think if they have another clean game, we can compete with them, but it’ll be tough.”

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