HIGHLAND — Lacey Laycock has been told more than once that she's too small to really succeed at a sport like volleyball.
Her response?
Prove those skeptics wrong — over and over and over.
"She always says, 'It's not how tall you are, it's how tall you play,"' said her mom Lisa Laycock. "She's a remarkable person in the sense of discipline. She's very determined when she wants to do something."
And one of the many things this senior setter wanted to do was play volleyball.
Lacey Laycock was only in the eighth grade when a coach told her she couldn't play on the top team in her age division because her serves were too weak.
"They told her she wasn't strong enough," said her dad Larry Laycock. "Her serves didn't make it over the net."
Instead of accepting a role on another squad, this year's Ms. Volleyball went home and taped a piece of masking tape to the wall at 7-foot-2, the height of a regulation volleyball net.
"She hit the ball at that piece of tape until it disappeared," he said. "By the end of the season, she served 21 points in a row to win the IVA championship in that age division."
In fact, her parents refer to her as "nerves of steel" because when the game is on the line, she wants to be the one bearing all of the pressure.
Lacey began setting the volleyball when her older sister, an accomplished hitter for Lone Peak, needed someone to feed her the ball. To make sure she would someday earn the starting setter's job for the Knights, Lacey set 500 balls each night from her sophomore year to her senior season. Laycock is a two-year starter and led the Knights to a 5A championship after a second-place finish last season.
"Her work ethic is one of her best attributes," said Lone Peak head coach Deanna Meyer. "The fact that she's driven to better herself, and that she's very goal-oriented has made her a success."
The little girl who wasn't strong enough to get the ball over the net a few years ago, broke the state record for the most service aces in a single match with 13 against American Fork. She also broke the single season state record earning 113 aces this season. She has 191 career aces.
"She's so driven, and she has high expectations for herself," Meyer said. "She's always really positive and she works hard to solve problems. She's a peace-maker, and she really works on maintaining a positive focus."
Laycock, who has committed to play volleyball for BYU-Hawaii, was recently announced as Lone Peak's Sterling Scholar representative in Social Science, and she's currently ranked No. 1 in her class of 690 students. She has a perfect 4.0 grade point average, and she also plays the harp.
When a friend told Laycock about traveling to Romania to work with orphans last summer, Laycock asked her mom to help her find a place in Utah where she could serve in a similar way. She chose the Children's Center, WHAT, and got her teammates involved. The Knights spent most Saturday's this fall hanging out with the children who live in the facility. They challenged other teams to serve in their communities and some like Spanish Fork and Lehi took the challenge and ran with it.
Laycock said the experience has taught her that their are more important things in life than volleyball.
"It's like a reprieve for Lacey," said Lisa. "Last week we decorated cookies with them. She just loves those kids."
And whether it's the game she loves, her academic pursuits or helping some little kids forget about their troubles for the afternoon, Lacey Laycock does it the only way she knows how — by giving it everything she has.
E-mail: adonaldson@desnews.com