Marco Middle School Volleyball Team Becomes County Champions

The Marco Island Charter Middle School volleyball team made history Saturday at the Gulf Coast High School gym, taking down three opponents enroute to their first Collier County Athletic Conference championship in school history.

“It was definitely a team effort Saturday,” said head coach Jessica Ragan, “we had really hard opponents. Every game that we played went to three sets. We always had to play that third set to 15. They were exhausted. They left everything on the court. We started at 8:00 AM and we didn’t finish until 2:30 PM. That’s a long day.”

MICMS finished second in last year’s county championships. They had their eye on the prize Saturday.

“We went in there knowing that we were going to go up against some really tough teams to pull off the win.” Ragan said. "We definitely knew we had a chance, coming in second last year in the championship. We knew we had the potential to get there. The other teams were very competitive, too.”

The Eagles knocked off Corkscrew and North Naples to get to Oakridge in the finals.

"The championship match we won our first game 25-19,” Ragan said. "Then we lost 25-13. The third game we ended up winning 15-12. It was neck-and-neck."

Ragan is in her second season coaching the Eagles. One of her players was her little sister, Jayden.

"It was my sister’s last season playing,” Ragan said. "My second season coaching her. They’re all like my little sisters. I absolutely love coaching this team. I will miss them all so much.”

Ragan played at MICMS and was part of the first volleyball team at Marco Island Academy.

"I was on the very first volleyball team at MIA,” Ragan said, "played all four years there. I played here, too. It was truly an honor to coach this team. I’m already looking forward to next year."