Crook County High School in Prineville, Ore., has only 858 students, but is a hotbed for women’s volleyball talent.
The Cowgirls have amassed a record of 89-12 over the past three seasons, and when they play Thursday night in the 5A OSAA state tournament against Thurston, they will enter with a 26-5-2 record. CCHS’s 115 victories are more than any other Class 5A program in the state over the past four years.
Crook County is trying to win its fourth consecutive state title after nine consecutive trips to the state playoffs. The Cowgirls first berth into the postseason included a standout senior named Kaki Morehead.
Morehead, the current Eastern Oregon University head coach, and CCHS fell in the second round of the state playoffs ending Morehead’s season, but it was only the beginning for something very special in Central Oregon.
Cowgirls head coach, Rosie Honl, had her first taste of the postseason after starting as the coach in 1997. The Portland native took her 2002 back to the second round and fell in five sets to Central Catholic.
It was state tournament berths from there on. In 2003 CCHS finished 7th place. The next year the 
Cowgirls placed fifth, and made it to the final eight in 2005.
Morehead has gone back to her roots since becoming the EOU head coach in 2006. She was the Eastern Oregon assistant coach under Amy Spruiell in 2005 and was ready to take the reins the year after. In her first season, Morehead had the program’s most victories in 10 years and the highest winning percentage in 15 years.
Morehead has started a pipeline with her former high school and has young ladies making the smooth transition from Cowgirls to Mountaineers. She started the movement in 2006 with Grace Deboodt. The standout at Crook County went from being an All-InterMountain League performer to an All-American in college. She has set eight school records in her four seasons at Eastern.
“Choosing EOU was pretty easy for me,” Deboodt said. “I wanted to play for Kaki. It was that simple.”
Melanie Ceciliani and Jessica Lea followed Deboodt and have made immediate impacts with the Mountaineers. Ceciliani and Lea were a part of CCHS’s first state title in 2006. Ceciliani was named on the all-tournament first team in 2006, and in 2007 when the Cowgirls won their second state championship. She was named the championship Qwest Player of the Game after Crook County’s three-game sweep over Summit in 2007. Lea was the Class 5A Player of the Year. She was named to the All-tournament second team in 2006 and to the first team in 2007.
Ceciliani has totaled 358 kills in her two seasons at Eastern Oregon. She has played in 170 sets for the Mountaineers. Lea was named to the All-Cascade Conference team as a freshman in 2008. Her 109 assists led EOU was ninth in the league. This year her hitting percentage of .302 is second in the CCC and her 446 assists is seventh.
The population of Prineville is just over 10,000 people and when asked why there is so much volleyball talent in the town, Morehead replied, “Rosie Honl and Joel Kent are both very good coaches. They are very good at teaching the basics. They have just established a tradition there.”
Kent coaches the Rimrock Volleyball Club. The club is promoted as the premier volleyball club in Central Oregon. The club comprised of the top high school players in the area has lived up to the billing putting numerous players in the collegiate ranks. The club sends its teams all over the west from places like Portland, Seattle, and Las Vegas from December to May.
Deboodt, Lea, Ceciliani, and Morehead have all been apart of the club along with Eastern Oregon University freshman, Kaitlyn Duncan. She is eighth in the conference averaging 3.5 digs per set. Duncan was named to the all-tournament second team last year as a senior at Crook County. She helped the Cowgirls win their third consecutive state title. Duncan’s older sister, Kimber, was just named to the Lone Star Conference All-Academic team as a senior at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas. Kimber graduated from CCHS in 2005.
“There’s not a lot to do in Prineville,” Lea said.
“There is a movie theater,” Ceciliani said. “It plays one movie a week.”
It’s clear that these young ladies spent most of their high school years in the gymnasium and not in the theater. All four young ladies played multiple sports at CCHS. Who will be the next Prineville star to come to La Grande? The answer is tough to say with so many talented players on the current 26-win team. What is clear is that there will be another Cowgirl turned Mountaineer through the Prineville pipeline.