Skinner cements legacy at FL, named to All-america team
FOUNTAIN LAKE — A four time All-state and All-conference setter, Sophie Skinner will go down as a legend at Fountain Lake.
The senior led the Lady Cobras to a playoff appearance and a 16-9 overall record on the year, including an 11-2 conference tally in the 2021 season.
After garnering 4,100 career assists and being voted to the Under Armor All-america team, Skinner is The Sentinel-record’s 2021 All-garland County Volleyball Player of the Year.
“As a whole I think our team — I don’t know how to describe it because we did so many things that we were not expected to do,” Skinner said. “Everyone kind of thought, ‘Well, Fountain Lake lost all their seniors, so they’re not going to be great this year.’ We weren’t supposed to make state. At the beginning of the season we were like, ‘Let’s cross our fingers if we even have a chance to make state.’ And we made state, and we fought hard.”
On the court this season, Skinner was setting to shorter hitters than usual. She had to adapt to the height of her teammates, and while Skinner did some things she was not used to, she had fun doing it.
“As a setter it’s really hard to take control of making points,” she said. “We’re like the quarterback. We don’t get much recognition, but we kind of make everything happen. When we are 5-2, 5-4, it’s hard to showcase our hitters because they’re having to be really smart.”
Skinner has always been a leader for the Lady Cobras, but this season she said the team really needed leadership because the players were new to each other.
“I would say returning starters, we had maybe two,” she said. “So the difficulties there of not having chemistry was huge. I felt like as a leader I tried to kind of make us bond a little bit more than usual, have a little bit more dance parties in the locker room than usual and really work together in that way. It was more off the court than on.”
Fountain Lake head coach Tina Moore emphasized Skinner’s leadership role on the team, and she said Skinner took the younger players under her wing.
“If you’ve ever watched her play just her energy alone and just watching her dynamics on the floor, everybody can see how obvious it is that her leadership is top notch,” Moore said. “She just directs things. Obviously she runs the team as being our setter.”
Skinner has performed at a high level since she was moved up to the varsity team as a freshman. This season she used the other seniors as motivation to keep playing at a high level.
“I wanted to play for them as much as they wanted to play for me,” Skinner said. “That’s kind of what we told our underclassmen is that this is our last year, and we want everyone to play for us. This is our last time and last go around, so let’s not just throw away the season and make it something memorable.”
Fountain Lake played Pulaski Academy in the first round of the state tournament, and the Lady Cobras fell in five sets after a hard fought battle.
“It was super intense,” Skinner said. “Every single point, I think we played it with all we had. I wish we would’ve won. I think we could’ve won, but in the scenarios we were put in, PA really fought hard against us and did the right things at the right times and got us down at the right times. But I would say we fought hard, and it was a very, very intense game.”
Coming to the realization that the loss to PA was the last game Skinner would play for the Lady Cobras, the senior was flooded with emotions after the contest.
Skinner recently signed to play Division I volleyball at the University of Texas at Arlington, so she still has a long volleyball career ahead of her.
“Lots of memories from the past four years,” Skinner said. “It was super sad, but I’m so excited for my future. It was very eye-opening to my senior year. Like this is my last year here and don’t take it for granted. Remember every moment, and it’s important.”
Moore said Skinner is just a special person in general.
“Sophie is pretty special in a lot of ways,” Moore said. “Not just volleyball. Just Sophie being Sophie. She’s a great kid, a great student and a super sweet girl. I think she has a kind heart. … I have a little thing. If you recall in the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy said to the scarecrow, ‘I’m going to miss you most of all.’ Sometimes I think that about Sophie, so sometimes I refer to her as my scarecrow.”
Skinner’s favorite moment of the season actually came after the loss to PA in the state tournament. After the game, the team played a giant game of hide and seek.
“There were lots of pranks going on at different times,” she said. “That was probably one of my favorite memories. I would also say we always had dance parties in the locker room. That was another one of my memories that I loved. Those were fun.”
The Lady Cobras did beat PA earlier in the season in five sets after falling behind 2-0, and Skinner marked that game as another one of her favorite memories of the year.
Skinner was recently voted to the Under Armor All-america team, and she described the achievement as meaning everything to her.
Skinner will get to play with the top 24 girls volleyball players in the country in Orlando, Florida, on Dec. 30 as part of making the team.
“I don’t know how to put it into words because I’m so, so excited,” she said. “I’m getting to play with the top 24 girls in the nation, and I never thought I would have had this opportunity in my life. I’m so, so excited, and I’m very thankful that I got the opportunity.”
Looking at the bigger picture, Skinner said she hopes she leaves a couple of legacies behind at Fountain Lake.
Skinner said no matter if it is school volleyball or club volleyball, the biggest struggle on all the teams she has ever played on was getting all parts of the team to work together.
“I’m hoping that I show these underclassmen that you have to put in work,” she said. “Not just in practice but outside of practice and club. Go to club season and work your butt off. I hope they realize during games you can’t just rely on one player to win the game. You have to work together as a team, and I think that’s a huge struggle sometimes.”
When Skinner was just a freshman and moved up to varsity, she did not expect to have the instant impact she had on the team. Skinner registered over 1,200 assists as a freshman for the Lady Cobras.
The juniors and seniors on the team took Skinner under their wing and helped her have that huge impact as just a freshman.
Skinner’s favorite memory of all time at Fountain Lake is when the Lady Cobras made the state finals in 2019 and finished as state-runners up.
Skinner said playing in the state title game was the first time she really got the realization of how much she loved volleyball.
“We made it all the way to the finals, we played every game and it kind of all like was a blur,” Skinner said. “We won a game, then we moved onto the next, and we won another, and it was just kind of like, ‘Oh, we’re in the finals? What the heck. What just happened?’”
Skinner said her accomplishments she is most proud of at Fountain Lake are that she is a four-time All-state player and the assist records she broke.
“That’s probably my biggest accomplishment at Fountain Lake,” Skinner said. “It means a lot to me that I was the first one to do it and showing other athletes that they can do it too.”
While Skinner left behind a full record book of stats at Fountain Lake, Moore sees a bigger legacy when it comes to Skinner’s leadership qualities.
“Her stats obviously speak for themselves,” Moore said. “But I think the legacy that she leaves are the intangibles that people don’t see. That’s the dressing room, behavior, the leadership, the energy, just all of those things she brings to the table is probably one of her greatest aspects.”