CLARKTON, Mo.  - Amy Cowart enters her 27th season as head volleyball coach at Clarkton High School.

During her time, Amy has established a winning culture for Clarkton Volleyball. She has two district titles coming out of her most recent years and over a decade's worth of seasons ending with winning records.

This includes last year when the Reindeer finished with a 27-7 record and the year prior, when they won the district title with 31 wins and only seven losses. This concluded, according to their winning percentage, as the best season in Clarkton volleyball history.

However, none of Amy’s  previous success will mean as much as this season. Clarkton is graduating six seniors at the conclusion of this season. Amy is cherishing these final months as their coach, including the final season coaching her daughter.

“Some of these girls, my seniors, I’ve been coaching since they were 8-years-old in club ball,” Amy said. “And it’s special because one of them is my daughter. I’ve been coaching them since they were itty-bitty and instilling that love for them and my love for the sport. These kids will run through a brick wall for me.”

When Amy first started coaching, she said she hauled her daughter around to almost every practice and all of their games.

“She was a little gym rat,” Amy said. “She had been begging me since kindergarten to play.”

When her daughter Brinley Cowart was in third grade, Amy helped develop a youth volleyball club team out of Clarkton for her daughter and her friends to play on.

This team not only helped establish youth volleyball at Clarkton, but all over the Bootheel as well.

“Bootheel volleyball had a bad reputation for not being as good as the rest of the state,” Amy said. “It was my goal to increase the level of play around here, so I got as many schools as possible involved in the summer leagues that I run. We just want to get kids at other schools good, because if they are better and we play them we will play better. We just want to raise the level of competition and be respected in the state and I think we are starting to see it grow.”

This past summer, 20 teams participated in Amy’s summer league. In the past few seasons multiple schools have made deep postseason runs in the state tournament, including Clarkton.

As these players began playing for Clarkton high school, this group helped produce some of the best seasons in Clarkton volleyball history.

Over the past four years, this senior class led the Reindeer to the best averaged winning percentage recorded. 26-9 as freshmen 2021, 31-7 in their second year and became district champions. This was also the season the team made it to the quarterfinals at the state tournament. They then went on to win 27 games last season. They also won the Tri-County Conference tournament last year and returned this season as one of the top programs in the Tri-County.

Along with those accolades, the team has only dropped one match at home in the past three seasons.

According to Amy, a lot of the success is due to the hard work of these players. However, she also admits having them start playing together at such a young age has helped them grow together on the volleyball court.

According to Brinley and fellow senior Angel Johnson, their deep chemistry with each other has been a result of over 10 years of playing with Amy.

“I think our chemistry makes us very confident,” Johnson said. “I think we work well together and we are willing to work together. We know when we do work together there’s gonna be a good end result.”

According to Brinley, her mother’s leadership as a coach has been a key factor to their success.

As they work to win for themselves, they also want to succeed for their coach.

“She’s very loyal and very consistent,” Brinley said. “She pushes you to do your best. Even when you think you are at your best, she knows you have more. She is still very graceful and gives us a lot of grace if we mess up.”

Along with Brinley and Johnson, the other seniors include Riley Plunkett, Kaylee Youngblood and Denise Wellington. Na’Briya White rounds out the group of seniors for the Clarkton team.

According to Brinley, these girls have become close each season over their 10 years of playing together.

“We’ve all watched each other grow,” Brinley said. “I think that is such a beautiful thing. We started playing together when we were 7 or 8, and now we are 17 and 18. It’s been pretty amazing.”

Despite their success from last season, the team fell short of another district title.

This year, as they enter their farewell tour throughout the bootheel, Amy and her squad chase another district championship and a postseason run at the MSHSAA State Tournament.

More than anything, however, they want to cherish these final moments as teammates.

“There’s a lot of memories that come from playing with a group for that long,” Johnson said. “It’s really good to reminisce. I am excited for the success we could possibly have with this team. There’s a lot of goals we made that I am hopeful we will accomplish, but I’m also excited for the memories. It’s the last go-around. I’m excited to look back on what we were able to do.”