Prep Roundup: Meyer gets win No. 500 in coaching career | News, Sports, Jobs

Deanna Meyer reached another coaching milestone as the former head girls volleyball coach at Granger, Lone Peak and Skyridge notched her 500th career victory as a coach.

Most of the wins (496) were coaching girls but this spring she took on a new challenge leading the Utah Military Academy-Camp Williams, or UMACW, boys team and directed the Marauders to their first ever playoff victory with a 3-2 decision over Providence Hall in the first round of the 3A state tournament Saturday.

“That’s amazing, it’s really amazing,” said Justin Osamudiamen, who had a solid game both hitting and serving. “Honestly, it (playing volleyball for Meyer) has taught me a lot.”

Meyer led Lone Peak to five state titles and won another at Skyridge. Meyer, the only girls volleyball coach in state history to lead three different schools to region titles, retired with 490 total wins after the 2021 season. But this retirement was short lived when she took a teaching job at UMACW in the spring of 2024. She had no expectations to coach again but answered the call when the coach of both the girls and boys program suddenly resigned just before the 2024-2025 school year.

UMACW went 1-12 last year so Meyer has improved the Marauder fortunes this season as UMACW is now 4-7 this season. Still, even with some success, UMACW was the No. 17 seed out of 18 teams in the 3A state volleyball tournament.

In some senses, this win by the Marauders was one of Meyer’s best coaching efforts as the team was missing several starters and only had seven players in uniform.

“I told Paul (Schulte), our principal this morning, that I wasn’t sure I was going to even have enough players,” Meyer said. “Our school is a military academy and some of our players were at an ROTC activity in Florida.”

But with these missing players, Osamudiamen in particular took advantage of the opportunity.

“It feels really, really nice,” added Osamudiamen. “This was the first time I had played the whole game and I really liked the fact that it was a win.”

Meyer gave a lot of credit to her daughter Sammy Cannon, who has been the JV coach this season for the Marauders.

“Sammy has done a great job with the JV team developing their skills. We had to take the court today with three freshmen and two sophomores and they were ready to play.”

Still, Meyer wasn’t just making subtle reminders during the match, she had to do a lot of actual instruction to get the players in the correct positions on the court. And the Marauders didn’t have a player over six feet tall and both were outnumbered and outgunned in this match. But Meyer had a lot of praise for her players.

“One thing I have to give them credit for is that they really know how to play together,” added Meyer. “They have a lot of fun.”

Meyer especially singled out freshman Jordan Gardner, the setter for the match.

“I’ve got to give Jordan Gardner a lot of credit. He had never been a setter on the front row so he didn’t know he needed to be a blocker and find the ball. But he really responded well (to my instructions).”

As for the match, it was a back and forth affair. Providence Hall won the first and third sets and UMACW won the second and fourth setting up the critical fifth set to see which team would advance.

The final set went back and forth but UMACW served a bit better while the Patriots made a lot of service errors. Still, the Marauders had to survive a questionable call on a block at the net where Meyer got a yellow card for arguing. But with the set now tied up at 13-13, the Marauders scored the final two points to win both the set and the match.

In regards to serving, Meyer said their poor serving cost them the first set but she made a tactical adjustment in the rotation which worked throughout the rest of the match.

Sebastian Bustillos served out the match for the Marauders and was a big contributor on the service line.

“I was just trying to serve it over the net,” said Bustillos. “A lot of our players are in Florida, so there’s some players that don’t really play, so it was a good win,”

Now UMACW takes on top seeded Ogden on Wednesday as the tournament moves to the UCCU Center at Utah Valley University. While Meyer will get at least two more chances to add to her win tally, she doesn’t plan on returning to coaching next season to concentrate on being the school’s athletic director starting the next school year.

4A Baseball

No. 19 seed Payson pulled off the biggest upset of the state baseball tournament so far, upending No. 14 Cottonwood on the road. The Lions lost Game 1 of the best-of-three series Friday but swept the Colts Saturday 10-5, 14-9. The Lions will now take to the road again, this time heading to Cache Valley to play No. 3 seed Ridgeline. The first game of the series will be on Thursday at 4 p.m.

In the first game Saturday, Cole Neeves, Ty Marvin and Maddux DeGraffenreid all had doubles while Marvin led the team with three RBI. In the second game, Joaquin Remus had three RBI for the Lions, while Isaiah Cosby had a triple

No. 10 seed Provo swept No. No. 23 Logan to advance to the second round of the 4A state baseball tournament. Provo won Saturday’s second game of the series 7-1 after coming back on Friday to win 6-5.

In that first game, Logan scored five innings in the first frame but the Bulldogs held the Grizzlies scoreless the rest of the game and then when trailing 5-2 plated four runs in the bottom of the seventh. But in Saturday’s game it was much easier as the Bulldogs cruised to a 7-1 win.

Will Gulbrandsen had eight strikeouts on the mound to pace the Bulldogs Saturday. He also had two RBI’s on offense as well. Kyler Toone added two RBI’s to help the Bulldog cause. Provo had just four hits but took advantage of three Grizzly errors. The Bulldog pitching staff and defense was solid, only giving up one run after the first inning of Friday’s contest. Provo will now travel north to take on No. 7 seed Bear River on Thursday at 4 pm.

No. 15 Uintah dominated Region 8 rival and No. 18 seed Mountain View sweeping the Bruins 13-3, 15-0 to advance. The Utes will now take on No. 2 seed Snow Canyon.

Timpanogos earned the No. 4 seed and a first round bye. The Timberwolves will now host a best-of-three series against No. 13 seed Pine View, who beat fellow Region 9 rival Hurricane two games to one. The first pitch is scheduled to be thrown Thursday at 4 pm.

3A/4A Softball

No.11 Orem swept No. 22 Green Canyon 11-4, 15-13 in the Regional round of the 4A Tournament on Saturday. Five Tigers homered in the second game as Cheyanne Wells, Hannah Maylett, Kiley Hoshnic, Sadie Groneman and Kate Allred all went yard. The Wolves led 12-8 but the Tigers stormed back with seven runs in the fifth and sixth innings to take control. Orem will now take on No. 6 seed Cedar on Thursday at 4 p.m. in Cedar City.

4A No. 12 seed Hurricane eliminated No. 21 seed Mountain View sweeping the Bruins 15-0, 12-3.

Timpanogos earned a No. 8 seed, earning a first round bye, The Timberwolves will host No. 9 Ridgeline, which shut out Park City twice in their series 15-0, 17-0. It will be a busy day at the northern Orem school as the Timpanogos, like their baseball counterparts, will play at 4 p.m.

In the 3A softball tournament, No. 15 ALA was eliminated by No. 18 Delta, 24-0.