Whiteboard wisdom: How Andale volleyball turned words into a championship season
From the first practice of the season in August, the Andale volleyball team didn’t shy away from its expectation to win a state championship.
But that’s not what head coach Scott Johnson wanted to focus on. Every top team in Class 4A was saying they wanted to win the title. Saying you want to win is easy. The real question, Johnson posed to his players, was how were they going to win?
To make that message stick, he had the team sit around a whiteboard. One by one, each Andale player walked up and wrote down a quality they believed would lead them to a championship — things like “be a good teammate,” “bring energy,” “communicate,” “hustle” and “extra work after practice.”
“We knew we had the talent to do it, so I tried not to put too much focus on winning state,” Johnson said. “We honestly didn’t really talk all that much about state championships. We talked about what was on the white board.”
It was a different approach, and ultimately, the one that defined Andale’s dominant march to the Class 4A state title this past Saturday in Hutchinson. The team capped a 36-1 season by responding to their toughest moments with the same traits they had written in marker three months earlier.
How Andale volleyball rebuilt its mindset
The list became the foundation for everything Andale did.
When the season’s grind began to test them, Johnson would bring the players back to the board.
“It was stuff that you could bring every day to practice, whether you were having a bad day or not,” Johnson said. “You can still be a good teammate and have a good attitude and put in the effort. It was a lot of intangibles.”
Those intangibles came to define a team that looked rather ordinary on paper but played with remarkable precision. Andale was one of the handful of teams to run a 6-2 system. Its offense featured a 5-foot-1 setter and its star player was a 5-foot-9 outside hitter.
It wasn’t exactly the prototypical team, but that didn’t stop Andale from putting together arguably the most dominant season in school history.
“We just preach consistency,” Johnson said. “Some of our kids might be undersized, but it doesn’t matter if they’re consistently setting the ball on target and passing the ball on target and hitting the ball on target. You don’t always have to overpower someone or need a roster full of DI athletes to win.”
Andale volleyball spurred by return of star player
For senior outside hitter Hayden Grimes, this championship season meant everything.
A year earlier, she’d been forced to watch her teammates miss state for the first time since 2017 after suffering a season-ending knee injury late in the year. The memories of her sitting helplessly on the bench as Andale’s season unraveled stuck with her.
This time, she vowed it would be different. When it was her time to write on the white board, Grimes pledged to be the best possible teammate.
“Encouraging others just helps everyone out on the court and motivates people to do things better,” Grimes said. “I would try to do my best about picking them up and reminding them that they are on the team for a reason.”
Johnson knew Grimes was one of the best volleyball players in Kansas, but before the season, the coach challenged his star to not try to win state by herself, but to elevate everyone around her. She did just that.
“This team fed off of Hayden,” Johnson said. “If she didn’t have the energy or the excitement, then the team lacked it. She was a true leader for us. The kids look up to her. It helps when you’re the most well-rounded player in 4A and the Wichita area.”
Grimes led Andale with 343 kills on a .356 hitting percentage while also tallying 198 digs, an all-around resume that will take her to Division I Colorado State as a libero.
How Andale overcame adversity to win state volleyball
When Andale dropped the opening set 25-23 to Clay Center in its Class 4A state semifinal match, it was the first time in nearly two months that the team had lost a set.
Johnson was curious how his team would respond to the adversity. Instead of panic, the coach saw poise.
Andale bounced back to win the next two sets, then found itself in a similar battle in the championship match against Topeka Hayden. After rolling to a 25-12 win in the opening set, Andale fell behind by eight in the second before clawing back to tie it at 24. Andale lost the set 27-25 but found its belief.
“If we had lost by 10 and not rallied back, I’m not sure if we would have had the belief we could win,” Johnson said. “It just showed how mentally tough our kids were.”
The decisive third set went Andale’s way, 25-22, sealing the program’s second state championship.
The perfect ending for Andale volleyball
After spending all season lifting up her teammates, Grimes still knew when it was time to take over.
With Andale holding a 24-22 lead, one point away from the title, the senior looked each of her teammates in the eye and spoke with conviction.
“Give me the ball and we’re going to win this game,” Grimes said. “Everyone take a deep breath. All we need is a pass, a set and a hit and we’re going to win.”
And that’s exactly how it happened: a perfect pass from Kate McHatton, a perfect set from Mia Aouad and a perfect swing from Grimes to seal the championship.
“Everybody was in tears, everyone was celebrating,” Johnson said. “And then for me, it was a big sigh of relief.”
The title was the product of a complete team, a roster with no weak spots. Alongside Grimes on the outside was junior Abbey McNeal with juniors Reagan Winter and Megan Klabo patrolling the middle and senior Mayla Spexarth and junior Gentry Smith holding down the right side. The 6-2 offense was orchestrated by setters Abbi Winter and Aouad, while the back row was anchored by senior libero Carley Keller and McHatton. Every piece mattered and every player delivered.
For Grimes, it was the storybook ending — from injured spectator a year ago to championship closer this time around.
“No words could describe how good that feeling was,” Grimes said.
Wichita-area recap of state volleyball tournaments
Maize South notched another third-place finish at the Class 5A tournament in Salina, matching the program’s best postseason finish from 2023. The Mavericks capped off a 37-7 season by advancing to the semifinals following a 1-2 pool-play showing, featuring a sweep of Kapaun Mt. Carmel (25-22, 25-15). Maize South lost to eventual champion St. Thomas Aquinas 25-17, 25-23 in the semifinals, then beat Lansing 27-25, 28-26 to capture third place.
Wichita Trinity bounced back after losing a three-set heartbreaker in the Class 3A semifinals in Hutchinson to win third place with a three-set victory over Hoisington (25-22, 15-25, 25-21). The Knights capped off a 31-7 season, as they registered the third top-3 state finish in program history.
For the fifth time in the last six years, Hillsboro reached the Class 2A semifinals in Dodge City. The Trojans added a third-place finish this season, as they came back after being swept by Valley Heights to knock off Jefferson County North 25-16, 25-14 to cap a 35-11 season.
Little River won its fourth straight Class 1A Division I state championship in Dodge City this season, finishing off a 44-2 season. It was a dominant showing from Little River, who swept all five matches at the state tournament, including a 25-6, 25-16 victory over Quinter in the semifinals and a 25-12, 25-17 win over Centralia in the championship match.
Other state qualifiers from the Wichita area who did not advance to the semifinals included:
- Wichita Northwest (6A, 30-9)
- Bishop Carroll (5A, 37-4)
- Kapaun Mt. Carmel (5A, 28-11)
- McPherson (4A, 35-7)
- Buhler (4A, 15-25)
- Hesston (3A, 27-14)
- Conway Springs (2A, 26-15)
- Goessel (1A-1, 32-12)
This story was originally published November 3, 2025 at 6:01 AM.
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