One of the quickest recipes for success in sports is to take a bunch of talented players, throw in the state’s best coach, and then mix in a good leader or two to make sure the team stays focused. For the last two years, East High volleyball has had the best team, coach, and leader, in the state.

Junior Cosette Stellern has helped lead her team to back-to-back state 4A state volleyball championships. The Lady Thunderbirds beat the Evanston Lady Red Devils (25-19, 26-24, 25-20) for the 2015 title and Kelly Walsh (25-20, 25-16, 24-26, 25-28, 15-12) for the 2014 title.

Along with the state titles, Cosette has also picked up her fair share of individual awards as well, including Gatorade Player of the Year as both a sophomore and then again this year as a junior. “It was a huge honor to win it once. It’s unbelievable to win it twice,” said Cosette, in an interview with www.wyosports.net.

The T-Birds have gone 63-5 over the past two championship seasons. Despite the talented, hardworking individuals on the team, the Lady Thunderbirds would not be as highly-regarded if they didn’t stress playing as a team. Too often opponents focused their attention on Stellern, but soon discovered that was a mistake. The Lady Thunderbirds were loaded offensively.

“We were such a strong hitting team that teams couldn’t just focus on stopping one person,” continued Stellern. “They could try and stop me but then we had Duquesne Moratzka, Marina Howard, Whitney Kailey, and Lindsey Grantz, who could all hurt them.”

Cosette finished her junior season with 280 kills 96 blocks 54 digs and a .534 kill percentage. Stellern is the third Lady Thunderbird to win the Gatorade Player of Year and is the fifth Wyoming player to repeat since the award was first handed out in 1995.

East High coach Dan Box was also named the 2015 4A Volleyball Coach of the Year.