More Than a Scoreboard: Local Volleyball Programs Forge Culture and Chemistry at Moriarty Tournament

MORIARTY — For high school volleyball coaches, the dog days of summer aren’t about the scoreboard. They are about building culture, rotating rosters, and maximizing “touches” before the official season even begins.

Those differing philosophies were on full display July 9-10 at the Moriarty Summer Volleyball Tournament, a massive 24-team, six-court warmup event held before varsity squads have even held their official tryouts.

‘We Over Me’: Lady Timberwolves Turn Heads, Outlast Tension

For East Mountain High School coach Claire Rose, the tournament provided an invaluable opportunity to forge a team-first identity for her Lady Timberwolves.

“We have been able to build really incredible chemistry with a group of girls that don’t normally all work together,” Rose said. “It’s the ‘we over me’ kind of mindset. The girls are being able to harness energy and ride with the mistakes, which is what you have to do in this game.”

Rose has utilized creative coaching methods to keep her young squad afloat. Lacking depth at certain positions, she unexpectedly had to slide players into the middle blocker spot. When the team hit mid-match lulls, Rose wasn’t afraid to call a timeout just to break the tension.

“I’ll just be like, ‘someone needs to say something funny,’ you know? Anything to break the tension, to break the mood, so that we play our best when we’re happy,” Rose said.

The strategy paid off during a match against Bernalillo. After calling a timeout in game two to reset her team’s “negative headspace,” Rose’s squad scraped together enough points to build momentum for the deciding frame. “The goal was… remembering why we are here, so that we can destroy them in game three, which is exactly what we did,” she said.

Despite missing a player or two, East Mountain turned heads at the tournament, handing powerhouse Rio Rancho its first loss of the event.

Young Lady Pintos Look to Accelerate Growth

Meanwhile, tournament host and Moriarty head coach Michael Baguskis was busy juggling the dual roles of coaching his Lady Pintos and running the event—even managing the concession stand with the help of his wife, Jana, and assistant coaches.

For Baguskis, the tournament is less about tactical adjustments and more about accelerating the developmental curve for a remarkably young roster.

“We want our kids to get as much touches as possible, just because we do have a very young group,” Baguskis said, noting the program features about 15 freshmen. “To play in a varsity tournament before a season, before tryouts happen, they’re going to be that much further ahead than a girl that comes in right at that tryout. So, we’re hopefully speeding up the process just a little bit.”

Moriarty relies heavily on its only two seniors, Peyton and Lily, to anchor a massive wave of underclassmen. Baguskis pointed to a rising sophomore class as “the storm that’s coming.”

“They’ve learned from previous seniors of things to do and maybe not to do, and so they want to lay a new foundation,” Baguskis said of his senior leaders. “It’s not just about a senior compared to a freshman or anybody else.”

Beyond the wins and losses, Baguskis hopes the 22 visiting programs—ranging from local 5A giants to small-school squads like Capitan—leave the mountain community with a lasting impression of the Lady Pintos’ program.

“Hopefully, that it’s a welcoming place… that our community is welcoming and the staff at Moriarty, the players at Moriarty, have sportsmanship and class,” Baguskis said. “All those foundations that they talk about, we want to exhibit that.”