(Editor’s note: We have to release our Player of the Years differently than planned because of scheduling issues. Therefore, we are releasing our Junior and Sophomore Player of the Years on Wed. and Thu. respectively as planned. Senior POY will be released next week. Freshman is TBD.)

It didn’t take long to see what type of impact Cari Spears could make for her new Prestonwood Christian team. The 6-3 outside moved back to Texas from Virginia for her sophomore year and right from the start was a difference maker.

In fact, she didn’t arrive back in Texas until late on a Friday night. Prestonwood had scrimmages scheduled for Saturday and though Coach Ryan Mitchell knew she wouldn’t be playing in them, he invited Spears to come meet the team and watch from the bench.

““That was the first time I met her in person,” Mitchell said. “She’s sitting with her teammates and when the scrimmages start she’s cheering for everyone. She’s asking me questions about what we are doing. She was breaking down the game from Day 1. The first scrimmage she was matching me in intensity. She’s wired differently. She’s just special. She’s going to get a lot of accolades.”

In a season-opening victory against Grapevine Spears delivered 15 kills and hit .737. The next day Prestonwood defeated both Highland Park and Prosper in five sets. Spears dropped 20 kills against each while hitting .400 and .486 respectively. This on a roster that didn’t necessarily need the offensive help.

As sophomores a season ago, Jadyn Livings and Mikala Young each had over 500 kills. It’s one thing to come in and lead a new team in three of the first four contests like Spears did but a whole other level to do it on a team like this one. She finished the season with a team-high 544 kills, averaging 4.9 per set and hitting .477. It included a season-high 23 kills in the TAPPS 5A state championship match, a sweep over Bishop Lynch in which Spears hit .588.

“It was a great team,” Spears said. “They were so welcoming. They made me feel right at home.”

Put it all together and it makes for Spears being vballrecruiter.com’s 2022 High School Sophomore Player of the Year. Spears was among 13 finalists. The cases for others were strong and in most seasons one of them would have been enough to earn the award. Yet, this fall Spears rose above all others, starring for a Prestonwood Christian squad which proved itself as one of the top programs in the country.

“She’s very deserving,” Mitchell said. “She’s a great kid. I think her physicality jumps off the page. When you first watch her you can see she’s tall, she’s athletic, she’s strong. Even if you don’t know anything about volleyball I think you can see that when she plays.

“What you don’t see is the coachability and her willingness to learn. Her goal is to play in the Olympics. A lot of girls say that but rarely do they have the work ethic and attention to detail that Cari has.”

Not all would handle transitioning to a new team and being an underclassman the way Spears did. It did help she was in familiar territory, having attended Prestonwood before moving to Virginia and knowing some of her teammates already. Another adjustment was learning a role that was still undefined at first but she did know she had to be prepared to play both pins.

“Coming in Coach Mitchell talked about how all the pins need to play both the way we were going to run our system,” Spears said. “I was excited about getting to work on both pins. I need the work so I can be well-rounded and versatile.”

While it remained to be seen where Spears would line up on the court, she was aware of the circumstances she was stepping into. After all, she was a new player on a successful team which finished runner up in the state championships last fall. Would she feel comfortable exerting her dominance or feel like she needed to take more of a secondary role?

“The beginning of the season I was kind of sitting back and trying to see how the team was,” Spears said. “I was learning each player and how each player responds in different ways. They were all wanting to step into the role coach wanted them to. He really talked to me about being a leader and wanting the role to be filled. It wasn’t me thinking about being a sophomore or who’s a junior. It was me thinking about being a leader.”

For Mitchell, he knew what he had with Spears from an Xs and Os standpoint. He calls Spears a “scouting nightmare” and planned on using her accordingly.

“Naturally, she’s an outside who plays six rotations, has great touch on the ball, is an above average defender and a plus passer,” Mitchell said. “She makes sense as a six-rotation outside but the great thing about her is she’s a utility belt. She’s a hybrid who brings so many mismatches on the court. As a coach, you are putting your greatest athlete in your best matchup. She hit left side, right side. She would come through the middle. There were times I would slide her in the middle just to block and create different looks. Cari understands the game. She would slide in and do her job and she loved it.”

At the same time Mitchell was working with Spears on expanding her leadership abilities. While her play spoke for itself, he was wanting her to have more of a voice and vocal role too.

“It’s no easy task,” Mitchell said. “She made something that is really hard look easy. It was really neat to see that. Obviously, it helps that all the girls want to win and are high competitors who want to be on the best team possible. But, they recognize what she brings to the court. I leaned into her and challenged her to be a leader. In any line of work you can excel but it’s a whole other thing to bring other people along with you and have everyone raise their level around you. I think that part was equal to her physical development and learning how to lead from the front.”

Prestonwood Christian ended the year 40-1. It was an agonizing sweep to Cornerstone Christian in the finals of the Volleypalooza tournament that prevented an undefeated season. The Lions only lost three sets the rest of the way, including a five-set victory over Bishop Lynch.

“Cornerstone is a really great team,” Spears said. “We came out in the first set point for point and then lost our focus in the second game. We were making silly errors and mistake after mistake. We were all disappointed but it was a great learning experience. We knew what we needed to work on to get better. We weren’t glad it happened but if it didn’t happen I’m not sure how much better we would have gotten.”

While Spears couldn’t have predicted exactly how the season would play out in winning a state championship. Or what exactly her role in it all would be, she knew the potential was there all along.

“I definitely knew we would be a strong team,” Spears said. “We have great hitters and great passers all around so I knew we would be strong coming in and I thought we’d be great once we all got on the court.”