YOUTH MOVEMENT: Fulshear will charge to Class 4A state tourney

This is the Year of the Charger… the Fulshear Chargers, that is.

Every team has the natural progression. In three years since playing varsity volleyball, the Class 4A Chargers have gone to the area playoffs, the Regional Finals and are now the favorites to reach their first state tournament in school history.

In year three…

Coach Sydney Gotcher has a loaded squad, which is scary young. The Chargers face La Vernia in the Regional Semis, before moving onto the winner of Caldwell and Navarro. The Chargers nor La Vernia has lost a set in the playoffs yet.

The straw that stirs the drink is junior Ellie Echter, an LSU-commit. She leads the team in kills and never really leaves the floor. She is second in blocks and third in digs.

"Going into the season, I could really start to see the potential of the team and started thinking about how far we could actually go," Echter said. "One of our team strengths is how diverse our skill set is. We have so many players that can do so many different things, which really helps our team succeed."

The Chargers reached the Regional Finals a year ago before losing to Needville. With a year of experience and the addition of Baylor-commit Alexis Dacosta, Fulshear is always on attack. Dacosta is just a sophomore. Fellow sophomore Skylar Voskuhl handles the middle leading the team in blocks. Her dad Jake Voshukl played hoops at Strake Jesuit and in the NBA for several years. She has big-league genes.

Another sophomore Ava Underwood leads the team in digs. The elder statesman is setter Presley Carlson, a senior.

"Reaching state would be so special," Echter said. "Being so young, some might remind us how hard it is to reach our end goal of winning state. But that makes us want to work even harder and win that much more. We really want to prove to ourselves and our school how hard we've worked for this and that we can do it."

Talent, chemistry and hard work are the pillars of the Fulshear program. No one will knock the down en route to the Class 4A state tournament.

THE GALLERY by Bradley Collier