Jesse Brawders is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Carl Hayden Community High School for AZPreps365.com.

Built in 1957, Carl Hayden Community High School is one of the older schools in the Phoenix area. With age comes the need to update or replace parts of their sports facilities, to ensure that their students are put in the best possible spot to succeed.

For girls volleyball head coach Andrew Scott, the list of equipment and facility upgrades is dense, but attainable.

“I’d like to invest in some equipment to help them fine-tune their skills,” Scott said.

This includes purchasing blockers, which allow players to not have to jump up and contest each attack from their teammates and in turn have more reps, as well as some aiming tools to better their game.

Part of having an old school is seeing other schools build their facilities and have new technology that is more efficient and safe. One example of this is the gymnasium at Sierra Linda, which has a metal ceiling, compared to the tile ceiling of Carl Hayden’s gym.  

Assistant coach Spencer Freeman shared similar wants for the next few years, with one update that may have an effect on other sports as well, including boys volleyball in the spring and boys and girls basketball in the winter.

“Our tiles just fall out of the ceiling sometimes, especially in the main gym,” Freeman said.

The tile ceiling is in the main gymnasium, where the Falcons girls volleyball team play their home games, as well as their practice gymnasium next door.  No tiles falling have ever hurt any player or coach, according to Freeman, but he has seen one fall from the ceiling during a warmup session.  

Freeman is in his first year as a coach at Carl Hayden, and is also in his first year teaching algebra at the school.  

The other large issue, according to senior captain Andrea Hinojosa, is the gymnasium’s sound system.

“For our senior night, the microphone didn’t work until the very end,” Hinojosa said. 

She later elaborated that this has happened more than once this season, and on senior night it only worked for the final few players.

Outside of the equipment needs, Scott and Freeman were excited to work on getting some new gear this offseason. Carl Hayden has a funding system in place where every two years, a sport receives funding from the school to help purchase and fix their equipment, with the off years having the funding go to new uniforms. This will be the first equipment year for Scott and Freeman.  

As for Scott’s future aspirations for their equipment and facilities, he hopes to continue to improve what is available for his players.

“It would be nice to have a new gym, like new facilities (at other schools) that were built for volleyball, but that’s dreaming,” Scott said.

The Carl Hayden girls volleyball team ended their season on Oct. 26, with a 3-2 loss at Sierra Linda and finishing the season with a 2-8 region record.