Arcadia senior setter and captain Tatum Longnecker has been the team's heart and soul throughout her high school career.

She's continued to make her mark in her final season and helped lead the Titans to the 4A state title match on Saturday,  their first championship appearance since 2011. They lost to 3-1 to Estrella Foothills, and finished the season on a 15-2 record.

Throughout Longnecker’s life in sports, she has been met with character-building obstacles that have formed her resilience. As a child, she played a variety of sports including tennis, which prepared her well in serving when she took on volleyball in sixth grade.

“I've always been such a competitive person, so I feel like I've always had to play some type of sport. I played soccer for seven years before volleyball. And that was just an everyday thing. So without volleyball, I feel like I'd be like lost,” said Longnecker.

After she started to become more serious about volleyball, she tried to join multiple clubs outside of high school, but was met with rejection. Longnecker expressed that the motivation from those experiences developed her work ethic and persistence, and eventually got selected to be on two top club teams in Arizona, Livewire and Storm.

“I was like, OK, what can I do to get better? And then I started working with my trainer and got my vertical up,” said Longnecker. “I feel like that just brought me to a whole different level of having to know my confidence and be willing to beat out whoever I need to beat out on that team. And I have done it every year.”

Longnecker’s drive led her to have an accomplished sophomore season for the Titans and their program. While filling in the shoes of prior senior setters graduating, she was nominated for the 2020 Arizona Player of the Year and took her team to the semifinals that year. 

Beyond just her sophomore season, Longnecker has reached many goals including being named All-Tournament Team when her club went to USA Nationals, along with surpassing Arcadia’s all-time assist record this year, surpassing Grace Muyer with more than 1,800 assists.

“Tatum is very driven to excellence. And I think that achieving those goals is wonderful for her because she works so hard at trying to push and be the best version of herself on and off the court. So for her to get those recognitions, and affirm like all that hard work she's done putting in I'm really, I'm really happy and proud of her,” said Titans head coach Jackie Bunker. 

Described as a “very confident” teammate, Longnecker used her empowerment to uplift those on the court around her. Junior offensive hitter Zoe Leonard said she has been looking up to Longnecker since eighth grade and has nothing but praise for her right-hand man on the court.

“If it wasn’t for Tatum, I feel like we would all kind of be like sulking, and not as happy because she does bring out the best in everyone.” said Leonard, “She’s such a good setter that we all perform so well off of her.”

One thing mentioned numerous times was Longnecker’s will to succeed and win on the court.

“She's very driven to win. And so she will find a way to get stuff done because she wants to win. And then, you know, she's also very skilled. She's taken the time and the hours in the gym, and then with a trainer to get physically as strong and fast as possible, getting technically skilled in all of her setting,” said Bunker.

On her own, Longnecker has excelled in assists, getting to the 16th rank with 685 assists across the entire state and divisions. She also leads the Desert Sky conference in assists and is ranked third in the conference in aces (49). 

While it’s clear that individually she is powerful, Longnecker mentioned that she’s enjoyed her opportunities to play on great teams while asserting her leadership throughout. 

“I'm such a competitive person. I'm a very confident person on the court and I know everything that's going on. I feel like just striving people to be better and building their confidence up from my own, has just made our team grow like crazy,” said Longnecker.

Although she still has a long road ahead of her with aspirations to play in college, Longnecker has felt she has changed the program for good.