LAFAYETTE — Inside the gymnasium featured on the east side of the ever-winding Peak to Peak Charter School campus Tuesday night, a group of high school boys and their sliding range of expertise in volleyball took another step forward as a program. And one closer together.
The Pumas boys volleyball team is in its inaugural season amid the sport’s second season under sanction from the Colorado High School Activities Association. On this night, they shouldered an early deficit against the district team from Poudre, a group it had lost to just 10 days prior, and battled back in front of its small but impassioned fanbase for a four-set victory.
“We have 14 on the roster,” Peak to Peak coach Leslie Foster said with a smile afterward, “and of those, six have played club volleyball, while the others are super incredible athletes that have gone far in state football, basketball but have never played volleyball. So that’s challenge No. 1.”
Foster is a longtime volleyball advocate who’s continued playing since her time at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. She said she’s coached locally for the past two decades, with stops at the middle schools at Dawson and Peak to Peak, as well as club stints.
Her latest venture in the sport, though, may be her most challenging.
Her boys team is made up of students from the likes of Erie, Holy Family, Boulder, New Vista, Peak to Peak and also has homeschoolers. With all different backgrounds and abilities, her new job has been to find out how it all can fit together.
And so far, so good.
“We’re all feeling a lot better, especially compared to the start of the season,” Boulder senior Liam Fehlau-Barton said as the team moved to 9-6 after Tuesday’s win. “I think our chemistry has definitely gotten a lot better. We kind of clicked immediately, but we’ve tightened things up and played smarter of late.”
Fehlau-Barton led the team in kills and digs coming into the week, then he flew around the court in the win over Poudre. His bleach-blonde highlights everywhere you looked, he superman-planked for balls on defense, and rose high above the net for one-time winners.
He’s a lead on a roster that features eight seniors, three sophomores and three freshmen. He was a star Tuesday, as was Holy Family freshman Elijah Pulliam. Just behind Fehlau-Barton on kills coming into the week, the team’s hit percentage leader dropped winners at the net and from the service line throughout in helping the Pumas climb out of a 0-1 hole to win three straights sets.
“My sister (Tigers grad Maddy Pulliam) had been playing volleyball since middle school, and I’d always been interested in it,” Elijah said. “And last year I asked my parents, like ‘can I start playing volleyball?’ and they let me, and now I’m here.”
The Pumas moved into second in the Northern League following the victory and now have just 10 days left in the regular season.
The top 16 teams in the sport will move into a regional play-in game, with eight of them advancing into the state tournament. As of Thursday night, Peak to Peak was just outside the top 16.
“Just like anything, relationships take time,” Foster said. “They’re finding their momentum, finding out how to encourage each other, how to push each other, when to stay quiet, when to give them encouraging words. They’re learning about each other and it’s finally clicking.”
