Family ties bring Orange Beach’s Young to Webber volleyball

Mako libero set to join Warriors’ indoor and beach squads, play for sister in the sand

By Cole McNanna
Sports Editor
cole@gulfcoastmedia.com
Posted 2/8/23

After playing her final high school season with her parents as coaches, Orange Beach libero Leyni Young will soon play for her older sister after signing with the Webber International indoor and …

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Family ties bring Orange Beach’s Young to Webber volleyball

Mako libero set to join Warriors’ indoor and beach squads, play for sister in the sand

Posted

After playing her final high school season with her parents as coaches, Orange Beach libero Leyni Young will soon play for her older sister after signing with the Webber International indoor and beach volleyball teams during a Feb. 8 ceremony.

Young’s parents, Sunne and Eric, were the Makos’ varsity coaches for the 2022 season where Orange Beach went back to the state semifinals after jumping two classifications. When Leyni makes the jump to the college ranks, she’ll play for her sister Baylee who was named the interim head beach volleyball coach at Webber in October.

“She’s my best friend in the world and it’s so different, I did not expect to play for her at all. At no point in time would I have ever thought about playing for my sister,” Leyni said. “Then I realized I did want to and she’s a completely different person when she’s coaching than she is at home, she’s very intense.”

That point when she realized she wanted to play volleyball collegiately came on the court during club action.

“I was actually playing in a club tournament and I was in the middle of a play and thought, ‘I don’t know my life without this,’” Leyni said.

Now she’ll continue to play volleyball and be around some of her favorite people including her sister and brother, Peyten, who also plays both indoor and beach volleyball for the Webber Warriors.

“He’s awesome and he’s amazing at volleyball, he’s one of my favorite athletes of all-time,” Leyni said.

It will be the reunion the Young siblings had been looking for since the elder two went off to college.

“We grew up really close together and never really spent time apart,” Leyni said. “We were traveling around a lot so I had no other choice other than for them to be my best friends so I’m happy that we were best friends because we’ve been inseparable since.”

Before Leyni lives out her dream of playing volleyball and seeing her siblings every day, she reflected on her Orange Beach career where she said she hoped to see the same determination in those carrying on the tradition of Mako volleyball.

“I just hope everyone is motivated and I hope they want to do the same thing and have the same motivation that we all have had in the past of wanting to go to the state championships,” Leyni said. “I just really hope they bring that on and if not, that’s OK too, as long as they try their best.”

While she’ll also be leaving some of her best friends by way of their different college choices, she was thankful for the support shown in the media center Wednesday afternoon.

“We’re all going separate places so it’s definitely going to be hard at first leaving them but we’re all going to hopefully stay together and meet up in the end,” Leyni said. “I was a little nervous at first but I’m so happy that these are the girls that came to support me because they’re all amazing.”

At the end of the day, Leyni was still in disbelief.

“I can’t believe it’s real,” she said of her biggest takeaway. “If I would have seen me here a year ago today, I would have never believed it.”