Bridgeport's Myleigh Smell Named 2024 High School Volleyball Player of the Year by WVSWA
By Chris Johnson on November 30, 2024
In her first high school volleyball game four years ago as a freshman, Myleigh Smell rotated in off the bench and helped Bridgeport rally for a victory thanks to her performance at the service line.
She may not have started much in 2021, but she showed signs of a promising career ahead of her.
From freshman to sophomore year, Smell made a huge jump and became a Class AAA second-team all-stater. In her junior season, Smell’s all-around skill set continued to grow and she became a first-team all-stater and a state player of the year finalist.
As a junior, Smell also added leadership to the equation as she quickly emerged as the team’s leader on and off the court.
IN 2024, she added one final piece of the puzzle – purpose.
From the first day they got together for a flex period practice in July, Smell and her teammates were locked in on one specific mission – winning the Class AAA state championship.
That mission was accomplished two weeks ago, defeating Herbert Hoover in the title match to wrap up a 52-8-2 season that saw the Indians navigate their way through arguably the toughest schedule in the state to secure the school’s second-ever volleyball state championship (they previously won the Class AA title in 2018).
Although the Indians received significant contributions from every player in this year’s rotation, Smell was the one that stood the tallest and today she has been named the 2024 State Volleyball Player of Year by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association.
Being named the state’s Player of the Year caps a whirlwind of achievements the past few weeks. Smell was recently named the Big 10 Conference Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. A few days ago, she earned Class AAA First-Team All-State honors for the second straight year and was chosen as the captain for this year’s team.
She competed alongside senior teammates Kaylee Enfield and Calleigh Morgan one final time in the North-South All-Stars tournament. She signed her letter of intent to continue her career at Wheeling University and of course, the biggest one of all – the state championship.
“It’s starting to sink in a little bit,” Smell said. “Realizing we did that. We won the state championship and that was the big goal for the season. We showed up in the offseason focused on that goal.
“Being named the state player of the year, I still don’t see it as anything I did. I couldn’t have done it without every one of my teammates out on the court and my coaches. It’s a great individual honor but I wouldn’t have been there without them.
It’s humbling, for everyone to see the work I’ve put in, the failures I’ve overcome. I worked every day as hard as I could trying to be the best player I could be.”.JPG)
Smell finished this year with 632 kills, 400 digs, 74 aces, 63 blocks and 27 assists and during the course of the season surpassed 1,000 career kills and 1,000 career digs – an accomplishment achieved by only two previous players in Ali Burton’s tenure as head coach.
Those two players, Kristen Crowder and Shay Hefner, were both player of the year finalists and generally considered the best players in program history which is a list that Smell is also now definitely on as well.
While, the stats, the wins, the accomplishments speak for themselves, Burton says it’s the intangibles that set Smell apart from most. Things like court vision, the knack for making a play in clutch situations, competitiveness, leadership, love of the game are just as important as her all-around skill set.
“It’s been amazing to watch her progress,” Burton said. “She’s been awesome. She makes our job easy. She wants to be coached hard. She wants to be the best. When you have an athlete like that and you say, ‘Hey, let’s try this,’ and they take it to heart. That’s rare.
“You look at what she does on the court, if she never played one rotation in the front row, I think she would still be a first-team all-state player just because she is that good on defense. But you throw in her ability to attack and make plays at the net, her serving, she can do it all out there and do it well.”
Finishing closely behind Smell in the Player of the Year voting was 2023 State Player of the Year MacKenna Halfin, who led Philip Barbour to its third Class AA title in four years. Third in the voting was Musselman standout Ada McCoy.
Smell will be presented with the 2024 State Player of the Year award at the 78th annual Victory Awards Dinner which is scheduled for May 4, 2025 at a location to be determined.
Editor's Note: Top three photos of Smell by Joe LaRocca. Bottom photo of Smell in the state tournament victory against Herbert Hoover by Teran Malone for WV MetroNews/WVSSAC.
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