Set up for success: Fully adjusted to position change, Rexroat guides Bombers to undefeated start

MACOMB, Ill. — The doubt Quinn Rexroat once had has transformed into confidence.

Rexroat had mixed feelings about moving from libero, a position she had played for the first six years of her volleyball career, to setter as a freshman at Macomb High School.

“I just liked controlling the defense and I didn’t really like controlling the offense,” Rexroat said.

Briana Rexroat, Quinn’s mother and the Bombers’ head coach, sensed her daughter’s hesitation.

“(Setting) was probably one of the last things she wanted to do,” Briana Rexroat said.

But with some encouragement from her mom and her older sister — Avery Rexroat played setter at Macomb and is now an all-conference setter at Central College in Pella, Iowa — Quinn has blossomed into the floor general for the Bombers, who are off to a 15-0 start. The senior setter averages 9.8 assists per set and has accounted for 84 percent of the Bombers’ total assists this season.

Kyla Jobe, a setter for the Macomb junior high team, moved to Tennessee before she and Quinn Rexroat became freshmen, prompting Briana Rexroat’s search for a new setter.

She didn’t even have to look far.

“We needed someone with strong ball control skills, someone that understood the game,” Briana Rexroat said. “I tried not to push (Quinn) into that position as a mom and as a coach, but one day in the car on the way home, she said, ‘Yeah, I think I want to take that position on and see what I can do with it.’ 

“She’s been open to feedback from her older sister. She’s really started to love that position. Now, though, this year, I’m really starting to see her understand how to run the offense.”

Quinn said watching Avery helped her learn the position, and hands-on practice with Avery over the past few years has allowed her to take her game to the next level.

“I’ve always watched my sister, and that helped, but also getting in the gym and having after hours with her, and in the offseason, I would go and do targets with her a lot,” Quinn Rexroat said. “It was a rough start, but we kept on practicing and putting more work in.”

Quinn has not only learned her sister’s skills, but she emulates a handful of Avery’s mannerisms, too.

“A lot of people say our hands are alike, like how we set,” Quinn Rexroat said. “I really picked up on her advice on how to set, where to set, who to set. She does this thing before she serves where she bounces the ball, and I picked up on that.”

Quinn believes her court vision enables her to stay one step ahead of the defense.

“I’m still working on (the jump set) to this day, and getting the quick sets down, working on all the different types of sets. There are so many,” Quinn Rexroat said. “I feel like I can see the court well when I (hit a dump shot). I’ve learned that from Avery the most. I feel like I can see the blockers very well, so I know where to put the ball most of the time.”

Quinn has also grown about 5 inches since she started high school.

“She was probably about (5-foot-1) her freshman year and then really took off,” Briana Rexroat said. “We had to get her in the mindset that she’s taller than what she thinks, like she could be a blocker and she could be an attacker. Up until last year, I would say she still thought she wasn’t jumping over the net. We’re like, ‘You’re almost getting the middle of your wrist or more over the net, kid. You’re actually getting up there more than you think.’”

Yet, Quinn still feels if she had to step back to the libero spot, she could do so seamlessly.

“One hundred percent,” Quinn Rexroat said. “It’s so satisfying to see the easy digs or just to dive and get that ball up that everybody thought was going down.”

Quinn’s volleyball journey will soon take her to the college ranks, as she plans to play for Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Ill., following her final season at Macomb. It’ll be the first time she won’t be coached by her mom.

“It’s unique, and you learn a lot from it,” Briana Rexroat said of coaching her daughters. “Sometimes my daughters would say, ‘I need a mom now, not a coach.’ If we get home and it’d be too much about volleyball, they would say, ‘I don’t need a coach. I need a mom right now.’ We try to keep that separate and not talk so much volleyball. I try to keep volleyball in the gym, but it’s so much fun to see them, get to have that time with them and get to see them interact with their friends.”

Although there have been tough conversations along the way, like switching positions, Quinn has realized to savor having her mom as her coach.

“Sometimes I kind of need to be like, ‘OK, you need to be Mom in this scenario.’ Sometimes we’re at practice and I’m just asking her a question about dinner or something and I’m like, ‘OK, be Mom right now,’” Quinn Rexroat said. “Sometimes she gets a little annoyed, but I do really enjoy having her at practice, just being with her and soaking up this last year with her.

“Seeing Avery be so grateful made me realize I should probably appreciate this more, enjoy it while I have it and not take it for granted.”