Hamilton Southeastern’s 2023 girls volleyball team reunites for state championship ring ceremony
By RICHIE HALL
FISHERS – The 2023 Hamilton Southeastern girls volleyball team is one worth celebrating, even months after the Royals’ state championship season ended.
The history-making Southeastern squad got together again Tuesday afternoon, as the players and coaches were presented with their state championship rings. The Royals won the Class 4A IHSAA state championship last November at Ball State University.
The team members were given the rings by HSE principal Reggie Simmons during a ceremony hosted by Royals athletic director Jim Self. HSE superintendent Patrick Mapes and Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness were also in attendance and spoke at the ceremony.
Senior Tiffany Snook accepts her ring from Southeastern principal Reggie Simmons. (Richie Hall)
After the ceremony, the team members and their families hung out in the Southeastern gym, taking many pictures with their rings. The Royals were together again, and coach Jason Young was happy to see them together again, calling the team “a special group.”
“You crave having that extra day and having one extra moment,” said Young. “Teams like this don’t come along every year, as much as you’d like for them to. So, when they do come along, you do anything you can to get them when you can.”
Young also spoke at the ceremony, as did Lauren Harden, one of the seniors on the Royals team. Harden was named Miss Volleyball (one of many awards she received) at the end of the season and is headed to the University of Florida as one of six Southeastern seniors who will be playing in college.
“Honestly, a lot of us forgot what they look like because we picked out the design so long ago,” said Harden. “So, it was really exciting just to get to open them and see them and they’re really pretty.”
Self said during the ceremony that the HSE players are looked upon as role models. Harden reflected on that afterwards, since she herself looked up to the Royals players when she was a little girl.
“It’s really cool,” she said. “It’s really awesome to be a part of, especially just because I grew up coming to games when I was little, because both my cousins came through this volleyball program and played. And I always wanted to be like those players when I was little. To have that same effect on little kids now is just really cool and really awesome. And I’m really proud to be able to do that.”
Self said that’s exactly what is happening with the young kids at the HSE camps right now.
Royals coach Jason Young shows off the rings his team won from 2023,
and from 2022. (Richie Hall)
“All I ask the kids is, be a leader,” said Self. “They’re going to follow. They’re looking up to you and the choice is, be a good leader or bad leader. Our kids have chosen to be great leaders.”
Simmons called the Royals players “outstanding young women that represent themselves and our school and their family so well.”
Southeastern athletic director Jim Self hosted the ceremony. (Richie Hall)
“I see them not only supporting each other on the teams, but I’ve seen them at other events, like our performing arts events,” said Simmons. “During football season, they’re in the front leading the student section. That’s one way that they just represent themselves and again, our school so well.”
The list of athletic accomplishments of the team is long, but the accomplishments off the court are also worth mentioning. For example, nine seniors on the team were named Academic All-State, and the team grade-point average is a 3.9.
“The culture and the chemistry have to be right, and with this group, it’s been special,” said Self.
Many family members of the players were also in attendance, and Self thinks the team parents are an integral part of the Royals’ culture.
“I think it starts with the families,” said Self. “A number of parents walking out today that have kids that are going to graduate, I still think they will be a part of our program. They’ll still come support us. And I’ve always thought if you want to tell how the culture of a program is, watch the number of kids and parents that come back and support it. This group, that’s what they do.”
And what the Royals have done the past two seasons – the team won back-to-back state championships and is on a 67-match winning streak – is something that will be remembered for a long time.
“Obviously, it’s still fresh for us,” said Harden. “It’s still something really cool that we got to do. I feel like definitely when those five, 10, 15 years come, we still get to come back and talk about it, then it’ll really set in that what we did here is going to be talked about for a long time.”