When the first day of Volleyball practice was held on Friday, August 13, Hays/Lodge Pole Thunderbird Head Coach Gemma Mount was more than thrilled. With an impressive turnout of nineteen girls for the Thunderbird team, the most in some time, things were really looking up for the program.

Mount's excitement was based in the idea that in her fourth year at the helm of the program that they were finally solidifying the base to which a solid program could be built and would be able to compete in ways that they haven't done for years.

That all changed in the blink of an eye, when on August 15 a...