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Stratford senior outside hitter Skylar George.
A late bloomer, Spartans’ George grinds for success
“We were falling short,” George said. “They were getting aces. I was making errors because of nerves and anxiety. I was just really tense. I’m expecting my coach to pull me.”
George kept glancing over to coach Jenny Adcock, awaiting the dreaded hook. It never came.
“She looks at me and goes, ‘I’m not going to pull you. I’m letting you figure this out,’” George said.
Stratford lost but the moment did wonders for George.
“I was just so comforted that she had that trust in me and she knew I was that leader for my team like that,” George said. “Even though we lost, it’s stuck with me. That trust she has in me and how I work on the court. Knowing I’m really needed pushes me to be better and drives me.”
That Tompkins game was the catalyst to what has been an outstanding season for George. The 6-foot-1 striker is averaging 3.6 kills and 2.9 digs per set to go with a .386 kill percentage and 43 aces for the 22-12 Spartans this year.
“Skylar as a senior is a lot different than Skylar as a junior,” Adcock said. “She’s gained a lot of confidence and that is a huge difference. Those moments of self-doubt are fewer and farther between. Skylar is out there because I believe in her for six rotations for every point of every match. That’s the confidence I have in her as an athlete, a leader and a teammate.”
George is a late bloomer. She didn’t start playing club volleyball until the eighth grade.
“I was really behind,” she said.
Prior to that, she played almost every sport. She hooped at Spring Forest Middle School. She played Albion club soccer for years. She was on the swim team and did track.
But cheerleading was George’s initial interest, so much so that she thought she’d be a cheer coach someday.
“I was a cheerleader my whole life,” George said. “I was very girly girl. My mom cheered in college, so I definitely wanted to follow in her footsteps. But as I got older, I turned into this athlete who was tall. I started club soccer, thought I would play it in college, and then something was just different in volleyball. I just had to play it.”
George saw a lot of what cheerleading offered in volleyball.
Both are dependent upon the sum of the whole. Just how girls working together in cheer can dictate the success of a routine, George said team camaraderie can change how a team plays on the volleyball court.
“I loved how no one can do it themselves,” she said. “It has to be the pass that leads to the set that leads to the kill. Everyone has this individual gift but it’s for the team, which I loved. It was so cool to me.”
Stratford senior Skylar George.Courtesy photo
George’s passion for volleyball is evident in her work ethic. She embraces the grind, welcomes it. But it wasn’t always that way.
Her sophomore year, George went to parties and hung out with friends. Typical kid stuff. She didn’t start taking volleyball seriously until her junior year, when she saw teammates and friends committing to colleges.
She knew she needed to get better.
So, George has sacrificed fun for work. She has games Tuesdays and Fridays, ice baths and recovery on Saturdays, and skill training Sundays and Mondays.
“If you don’t love the grind and the workouts and the practices, how are you going to play at the next level?” George said. “How are you going to better yourself?”
She would know. It’s not easy going from a volleyball novice in the eighth grade to one of the top players in the Greater Houston area four years later.
From the day she walked into the gym, ready to play for her club team, and laid eyes on the “big court” where the best of the best players played, George yearned to join them, be one of them.
So, she worked toward it.
“I’d watch them and look up to them,” George said. “They just hit so hard, and I wanted to do the same. So, I went to privates every single weekend. After any game in middle school, I’d go to a private (training). I got reps and reps and reps and just got better as I got older and understood the game.”
She has earned the respect of others.
During a recent game, an opposing team persistently targeted George on serve-receive to exhaust her and make her uncomfortable. It’s normal for opposing teams to attack outside hitters on the front row while serving, making the hitter think about passing and hitting and moving them around.
Despite the intentional barrage deposited upon her, George never backed down. She was passed to 38 times by the opponent and only once was she aced.
“I just never felt like it affected her,” Adcock said. “Her pass rating for that match was on par for her entire season, and her hitting efficiency was actually better in that match than the rest of the season. Last year, it might have bothered her. This year, she accepts teams wanting to push her.”
George’s recruiting remains open. She recently joined Houston Skyline’s top club team. The upcoming club season will be critical for George, who wants to play for a college program and coach where she can be challenged.
“I don’t want to go to a school where I come in as one of the best,” George said. “I’ve done that before. I want to work for it. I want to be pushed. So, I want to be picky.”
Cinco Ranch sophomore Kassie O'Brien, left, and senior Courtney O'Brien celebrate their career milestone accomplishments achieved in the same game following the Cougars' sweep of Mayde Creek on Tuesday, Sept. 6.
VYPE Sunday Feature: Volleyball bonds Cinco Ranch’s O’Briens
“It’s so crazy to me that it lined up on the exact same night,” Jennifer said. “I definitely wanted them to do it together. I felt it would be kind of a defining memory in their high school volleyball careers to do something like that on the same night.”
Two-and-a-half years separate the sisters. Maddie, the tallest at 6-foot-2, was a middle for Cinco Ranch—compiling 966 kills and 389 total blocks during her four-year varsity career—and is now a middle and outside hitter for the Red Raiders. Courtney, 5-10, is an outside hitter and a Texas Tech commit. Kassie, 6-feet, is a setter and one of the top players in the Greater Houston area for the Class of 2025.
Volleyball is their bond. From the days when Courtney would scurry back inside the O’Brien home, crying and mad, because Maddie was so tough on her while peppering in the driveway, to when Kassie would scream and cry because of how hard Maddie and Courtney were on her, it has been an unbelievably thrilling, yet rewarding, ride for Clay and Jennifer.
“I think it’s crazy that they all chose the same path,” said Jennifer, who is adamant that she never forced the girls into playing volleyball. “We never compared one to the other. They all play different positions and have different personalities and strengths and weaknesses. But it’s super cool they all share that bond, and it’s nuts to me to think that I could have three DI volleyball players, especially when I’m 5-5.
“We’ll thank their dad for their height.”
Cinco Ranch senior Courtney O'Brien (standing) and sophomore Kassie O'Brien.VYPE Media
A COMMON LOVE
Maddie first got her hands on a volleyball as a fifth grader. Jennifer, who played in middle school but gave up the sport to focus on dance in high school, introduced the game to her eldest child, taking her out on the driveway to toss the ball.
“She did a good job teaching me to use my legs and move to the ball and how to track it,” Maddie said. “She taught me how to serve. She taught me how to hold my platform and she’d send me to camps and got me more involved so I could develop and learn more.”
Maddie has always been a dedicated, committed individual. Determination is in her DNA. If she wants to do something, she will do it. She is a natural athlete. If it wasn’t volleyball, she’d probably be playing high-level college basketball somewhere.
But volleyball stole her heart. Not long after she started playing, Maddie knew what she wanted to do with her life.
“She told me, ‘This is what I’m going to do. I’m going to play DI college volleyball,’” Jennifer said. “In fifth grade!”
Courtney, and then Kassie, came to love the game, too.
“I loved it,” Maddie said. “It made me feel so good, and I knew I wanted to play for as long as I can.”
“I remember being younger and just really wishing I could be on the court,” Kassie said. “So, as soon as I could … yeah.”
The only issue was Maddie was unwilling to wait for them to catch up.
Courtney started doing passing and pepper drills with Maddie in the second grade. It was a grating experience for both.
Maddie would pass the ball to Courtney, but Courtney had no control. Maddie even devised games to simplify things. She would toss Courtney the ball. The ball would have to bounce once before Courtney had to pass it back. The idea was to give Courtney more time to gather and control the ball.
It didn’t work. Courtney was an eager, willing partner, but too young. It was trying times at first, but she eventually got it. She had no choice.
Maddie desperately wanted to get better and needed someone who could challenge her, keep up with her.
“One thing my parents had to engrain into me is that my sisters are so much younger than me and I shouldn’t be holding them to my standard,” Maddie said. “There were years I’d been playing that they had not yet. They were scared I’d make them lose that love for the game because I went so hard on them. But I wanted someone to make me better and push me. It was a want to get better for myself, and for her.”
Texas Tech junior Maddie O'Brien.Courtesy photo
Courtney and Kassie can now see the benefit of those trying days trying to meet Maddie’s expectations.
“I looked up to her a lot,” Courtney said. “She is a role model. She’s an amazing attacker and I was like, ‘Wow, I could be like her one day.’ I wanted to be like her. She led me in the direction of my volleyball path.”
What Courtney learned from Maddie, she returned the favor for Kassie.
“Whenever Courtney and Maddie would go out there, I’d go out there, too,” Kassie said. “They’d be so hard on me, but I think that’s what made me a better player today, because of them. They brought everything to the court, even in practice. Just giving it their all.”
The girls are often asked if they ever fought growing up. How could they not, considering their competitiveness and hunger to be the best? But they didn't.
The love and respect for one another is shown in how Courtney is following Maddie to Lubbock, and how much Maddie is thrilled for it.
“Courtney coming to Tech, I couldn’t be more excited,” Maddie said. “To play with my sister again is just something so special for us.”
During the COVID year of 2020, Clay built a volleyball net for the girls in the driveway. The O’Brien sisters passed the months by practicing together, with Courtney passing, Kassie setting and Maddie hitting, and then rotating and switching.
“Looking back, yeah, I was probably a little rough on them, but it definitely impacted who we are today a lot,” Maddie said. “I told my mom it was crazy, because growing up, we both thought Courtney and Kassie would end up as dancers in high school. We now all share a common love for the sport. It makes me speechless sometimes. I’m just so proud of them.”
The O'Brien family in Lubbock at Texas Tech University. From left to right: Jennifer, Courtney, Kassie, Maddie and Clay.Courtesy of the O'Brien family
‘AMAZING TO WATCH’
Maddie and Courtney played one year of high school volleyball together. It was in 2019, when they helped lead Cinco Ranch to an undefeated district championship and the Class 6A regional quarterfinals.
Last year, Courtney and Kassie’s first season playing together, the Cougars again made it to the regional quarterfinals. This year, Cinco Ranch is 18-10 and second in a highly competitive District 19-6A.
Jennifer said she has gotten better at savoring every moment and every game in her youngest daughters’ last year playing together.
“I wish I had done more of it when it was Maddie and Courtney out there,” Jennifer said. “But thankfully I’ll get to watch them together in college. But this is really a big year. Courtney will be graduating early so she’s leaving in January to go to Lubbock. It’s so cool they get to play together on the same court. They’re best friends. I’m definitely taking it all in.”
Maddie is a starter for Texas Tech. Courtney is averaging 4.7 kills and 4.2 digs per set. Kassie is averaging 9.3 assists per set with 26 total blocks. Life is good for the O’Briens.
But it’s not unexpected. At least, not to Maddie.
She remembers watching Courtney four years ago playing for Houston Skyline at nationals.
“She was digging up balls and picking up balls she shouldn’t have gotten to, and her volleyball IQ was just so high,” Maddie said. “You can tell by watching her that her IQ is out the roof. She’s an undersized outside, so she has to be smarter, and she’s worked hard to be super effective. Playing with her as a freshman, I knew she’d be good. She was hanging with all of us and starting. She’s powerful. She’s got an arm on her.”
And Kassie might have been the most impressive of all. At a young age, Kassie was dictating offense expertly in the middle of the court, setting up right side hitters with good form and running the middles to where they needed to be.
“Every single time I watch her, I’m shocked and amazed by how natural and how easy she makes everything look,” Maddie said. “How she leads and how selfless she is.”
Maddie is the more reserved of the three. She’s always been talented but has grown into more of a leader by being vocal on the court, something she’s always had to work on. She is taller and more athletic than her sisters and better at the net.
Courtney is “super aggressive,” Jennifer said, and will do whatever it takes to save a ball. She is more defensive-minded than the other two—she proudly boasts about Maddie is playing more defense at Texas Tech this year—and worked tirelessly over the offseason to change her techniques to become a more consistent passer.
She started her volleyball career as a libero before moving to a six-row outside, because “She had no fear,” Jennifer said. “She’d go up and hit anything and everything at any time.”
Kassie is the most competitive, which is saying something considering how driven the O’Briens are.
“The one who will do anything and everything to win,” Jennifer said.
Kassie is stronger and more physical this year. No matter how deep she is on the court, she’s able to push the ball out and sustain tempo with precise ball placement.
The volleyball stars have aligned perfectly for the O’Briens. Central casting. Fate. Meant to be.
Whatever you want to call it, it’s not lost on them.
“I still pinch myself thinking about it,” Jennifer said. “It’s so crazy. It’s really been amazing to watch. It’s been a great experience for our family.”