After she was named the first-ever Seacrest Furniture Athlete of the Year, Fairhope’s Libby Rogers will celebrate in Las Vegas with a national club volleyball tournament.
That’s just …
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After she was named the first-ever Seacrest Furniture Athlete of the Year, Fairhope’s Libby Rogers will celebrate in Las Vegas with a national club volleyball tournament.
That’s just part of how she’s gearing up for an important season on the court both for the Pirates and for her recruitment as a rising junior. Similar to her difficult bracket matchups, Rogers will have to put in the work and lean on her support system as she navigates her next set of challenges.
Gulf Coast Media spent an afternoon with the star volleyballer from Fairhope and got to know her beyond the stats, and all of the votes that helped crown Rogers as the inaugural Seacrest Furniture Athlete of the Year. Follow @GCMSportsAL on social media for more sights and sounds.
An MVP performance at the Labor Day Classic tournament helped lock Rogers’ place for the 32-athlete year-end bracket with a win in Week 2 of the contest. She said that hanging with top teams early helped the Pirates build confidence out of the gates.
“There were two tough games before that so it was a battle the whole tournament, there were some really good teams in that tournament so after that tournament we were on the run there at the beginning of the season,” Rogers said during a June 27 interview. “The first few tournaments we won so it was getting our confidence up. We played some of the same teams, so we had some strategies for those games and there was a bunch of (local) rivals.”
With some of those top early finishes, she knew this squad had a chance to do something special.
“After the Bodie Tournament (earlier in August), because we were competing with a bunch of the top teams and even beating some of them so that’s when I thought, ‘OK, maybe we can make a run in the playoffs,’” Rogers said. “We bonded together as a team and said, ‘We’re going to do this with us, we’re going to hold each other accountable and we’re going to win as a team.’”
They went on to set a single-season win record with a 41-16 overall mark after a sixth consecutive trip to the South Regional Championships.
Once the 32-player Seacrest Furniture Athlete of the Year bracket was finalized in May, Rogers noted that her path to the finals started with three football players.
“I had a lot of football players, and I went to find them on Instagram and I was like, ‘Dang this guy’s got offers from here and here, I’m not going to make it past this week,’ and then it kept going but then it was another football player,” Rogers said. “People will definitely vote for the football player over a volleyball player and they were probably going to have a bigger fanbase and following.”
But she kept on winning and kept sending it to her friends and teammates virtually since they were out of school.
“My club coach was like, ‘Is this ever going to end, how many rounds is it? How many times are you going to send this to our group chat?’” Rogers recounted. “But then at the end it all paid off so thank y’all.”
That network of voters helped Rogers cruise through the matchups with the most votes in all five rounds to eventually earn the title of Seacrest Furniture Athlete of the Year.
“I feel like volleyball is a big community around here,” Rogers said. “Everyone loves football but they were like, ‘We’ve got to support the volleyball girl.’ Even girls from other schools that we’re going up against — I’m not saying they went against their own team — but you’ve got to support the community.”
Rogers was sure to share her appreciation with those who helped her reach this point.
“I was very thankful for everyone because they’re the reason that this happened. It was a voting thing it wasn’t you have better stats than this one because it was different sports,” Rogers said. “I’m very thankful for everyone who voted and reshared.”
In the recruiting calendar, Division I coaches aren’t allowed to have in-person or digital contact with recruits until the summer and fall leading into a student-athlete’s junior year of high school. At that point, coaches start to fill their teams and many recruits will end up committed before their senior years.
With that in mind, Rogers has taken a step outside the local circuit and has helped her club team build toward a national berth where their play will be on display for a host of scouts.
“This year is the big recruiting year for volleyball and I really wanted to put in work for club so I went to a club in Pensacola instead of staying local,” Rogers said. “There are a few girls from Alabama, a few girls from Florida and we’re actually about to go to nationals and that’ll be my first nationals so that will be a good experience. I really like the girls so being in Vegas with them will be fun, we’ve been training really hard.”
The new club team has also allowed access to not only working out with current college athletes but also sharing insights with someone who’s done it.
“We’ll have UWF (University of West Florida) players practicing with us, we scrimmage a lot now because we’re about to play so we try to find college players but it’s really good to see because this is what I want to be when I grow up,” Rogers said. “You can always ask the girls that come questions, they’re super nice; ‘How do you feel about this,’ or ‘How did you get where you are today?’ And the girls are from all over.”
That will lead her into the fall where she’ll rejoin the Fairhope Pirates in search of a seventh straight trip to regionals.
“I’m really excited for this high school season, it’s my junior season so it’s not like I’m the freshman on varsity anymore, not that I have power over anyone or anything but it’s my grade of people,” Rogers said.
However, with a new rotation of teams to square off with in the regional round, Rogers has high hopes for the Pirates’ end goal in the Class 7A postseason.
“Make it to state. We’re going to match up well in regionals, I think we match up with the Auburn area this time,” Rogers said. “So if we can get first place in area, if not come in second hopefully, and make it to regionals then you only need to win one game at regionals to go to state.”
Stay tuned to gulfcoastmedia.com/sports for full coverage of the fall sports season and follow @GCMSportsAL on social media for immediate updates.
Gulf Coast Media once again shares its thanks to the presenting sponsor, Seacrest Furniture, for helping promote Baldwin County student-athletes.
