The competition, the grit, the satisfaction; captain of the Eagle High volleyball team, Maddy Jones, feels it all while playing the game.  

Jones has been playing volleyball since she was in seventh grade. She started because her friends joined the middle school team, and she wanted to join a sport. As soon as she began playing, she fell in love with how it worked. The three touches to get the ball over the net, the teamwork and reliance it required and, most of all, the friendships made were her favorite.  

“After that, I really loved volleyball and found a club team my eighth-grade year and have continued playing ever since,” Jones said. It also helps that she is tall, which is a typical attribute of women’s volleyball players. 

Not only is Jones a stellar athlete, but she also takes rigorous classes. She’s taking advanced placement classes and concurrent credit classes. Jones has been on honor roll for all four years of high school as well.  

“Balancing school and life while trying to get recruited was the hardest part of all high school,” Jones said. During junior year of high school, students take many hard classes to appeal to colleges. Balancing that with trying to reach out to colleges for sports is the hard part.  

On top of all that, Jones moved her sophomore year from Mountain View High to the Eagle area. She quickly adapted and has helped Eagle’s volleyball teams since then. 

Last year, Jones’ club team finished strong. After the high school season, the girls from all different schools united to make an amazing team. She reported that season as her favorite out of many.  

“My favorite coach was my 17s Crush season coach. Her name is Caroline Bower,” Jones said. 

 Coach Bower made all the difference. She has been coaching at Idaho Crush since the early 2000’s and has had a high success rate for the girls on her team each year. In fact, three of Bower’s daughters play college volleyball at Brigham Young University.  

Jones’ favorite experience was finishing in the top 10 in the nation at Nationals last year. Bower led the girls on her team to victory as they traveled to Dallas, Texas to play all the best teams.  

Next year, Jones will be playing in Saint Paul, Minnesota with the Tommies. She looks forward to competing at a much higher level and meeting new girls and players. She is excited to live somewhere new that she has never seen before.  

“Go Tommies!” Jones said.