They are easy to miss in a packed metro tournament. Then Lac qui Parle Valley takes the court, and the small western Minnesota school starts beating teams many times its size.

At the Spring Lake Park boys volleyball tournament, Lac qui Parle Valley High School stood out as an outlier. In the Twin Cities metro, the school near the South Dakota border regularly faces schools with about 10 times its enrollment.

The story traces back to a Minnesota Peace Corps volunteer who traveled to Chuuk in Micronesia.

“He brought a first family back to Milan, Minnesota,” said Hope Schmidt, a multi-language educator at Lac qui Parle Valley. “And from that, family followed family.”

Micronesians now make up more than half the population of Milan, a town of 428 that feeds into Lac qui Parle Valley schools. The families found work at a nearby turkey plant, and 25 years after the first arrivals, volleyball has become one reason the school can compete.

“We just play volleyball every day,” Lac qui Parle Valley sophomore Rson Jicko said.

From childhood, many Micronesian students have played the sport, dating back to what they call “the islands,” their home before Milan.

“We don’t really have to teach basics,” said Molly Hennen, Milan’s head boys volleyball coach. “You can just tell they’ve played all their life.”

Between family gatherings, community picnics and pick-up games in the park, Lac qui Parle student Thomas Emmis said, “I play volleyball probably every single day.”

That background lined up with a major shift last year, when the Minnesota State High School League made boys volleyball an official school sport.

“I was really excited,” Rson said. “Very pumped.”

The move also caught the attention of athletic director Zach Stelter at Lac qui Parle Valley High School, where nearly one of every five students is Micronesian.

“We knew we could get a large chunk of our kids participating in this if we add this,” Stelter said.

What came next surprised him.

“A lot of kids,” Zach said with a smile.

Assistant boys volleyball coach Andrew Schmidt put it plainly: “Thirty-four of 36 are Micronesian on our team.”

After two years of recreational play, the school moved into boys volleyball at the high school level. The next problem came quickly.

“There’s zero teams within 130 miles,” Andrew said.

Most boys volleyball programs in Minnesota are at big schools such as Wayzata, Lakeville North and Rogers. Lac qui Parle Valley, which graduates about 50 students a year, routinely travels three hours for matches.

“When they ask, ‘Where are you from?’ I’ve just started saying, ‘Google it,’” coach Schmidt said.

The long trips have turned coaches into drivers.

“You’re looking at the bus drivers here,” Andrew said, glancing at his head coach.

Hope Schmidt livestreams games for parents who cannot afford travel and a weekend hotel stay. She also set up an online fundraiser to help cover the team’s road trips.

“At this point, we don’t have any home matches, so this is important that we keep them looped in on how the team’s doing,” Hope said.

The team gives away size to many opponents. Coaches said most of the Micronesian players are small in stature in a sport where height matters. Even so, in their first varsity season, Lac qui Parle has won roughly half its matches.

Coaches said they are also seeing gains off the court. Grades and attendance are already up among the boys volleyball players.

At the tournament, Aslyn Sarber watched from courtside. She lived in Milan, met her husband at the turkey plant and later moved to the Twin Cities.

“I’m just so glad that I can see them, my nephews, and cousins, and all them boys,” she said. “I’m very proud of them.”

Lac qui Parle’s varsity team beat Forest Lake in two straight sets and finished the tournament in the middle of the pack. Afterward, Andrew Schmidt pointed to one result from the junior varsity side.

“JV beat Maple Grove at this last tournament,” Coach Schmidt said, “and we drove through Maple Grove leaving, and I said, ‘Everybody look,’ and their population was like 71,000, and I said, ‘Milan is 400.’”

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