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By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
FAIR GROVE — Despite all she’s accomplished in her career, Tonya Peck isn’t one for the spotlight.
So on a night when the longtime Fair Grove volleyball coach was showered with gifts and recognition for recording her 500th career victory, her team gave her the best gift they could possibly bestow upon her.
They put the spotlight back on themselves — and gave her a jumpstart on her next 100 victories.
Trailing Stockton by a set on Tuesday evening, the Eagles battled back to force a winner-take-all fifth set and then overcame a five-point deficit to claim a dramatic 3-2 victory that perfectly encapsulated Peck’s decorated 21-year tenure at the helm of the Fair Grove program. They continued to fight, regardless of the score, and scored 11 of the decisive set’s final 15 points to turn a 10-5 hole into a 16-14 victory.
The comeback included the final three points of the game, as officials ruled a Fair Grove player reached over the net to deliver a spike that would have put the hosts up 14-13. Instead the point went to Stockton, but the Eagles were undeterred and scored the next three points to give Peck win No. 501.
“I got onto them and I said ‘I needed someone to step up and be a competitor. I need someone to compete,” Peck said. “And they just took off. That’s the epitome of my program.”
Peck’s milestone victory came last Thursday night, when the Eagles swept Buffalo to add to a long list of achievements since she began her coaching career at Fair Grove in 2001. She has guided the program to 10 Mid-Lakes Conference titles, eight district championships, two Final Four appearances and an astounding 19 consecutive 20-win seasons, a streak that finally ended with Fair Grove’s 2020 campaign.
Peck is the 23rd varsity volleyball coach to record at least 500 career victories in the Show Me State, according to the Missouri High School Volleyball Coaches Association, and the first to reach the mark since Willard’s Jamalee Hancock did it on September 27, 2018. The state’s all-time wins leader is Linda Lampkin, who went 943-344-50 in 39 seasons at Hermann before retiring from the position in 2019.
While few Missouri coaches have enjoyed Peck’s level of success, even fewer have done it all with one team. At least five members of the 500-win club have changed jobs during their coaching career, but Peck has been a steady and successful presence on the Fair Grove sidelines for the past two decades.
“She sets the standard for all of our other head coaches on what it looks like to build and run a successful program,” said Christian Overstreet, the school’s athletic director. “She has impacted our school and community in more ways than she could ever know.”
Peck got a glimpse of that Tuesday, as the school’s principal presented her with a plaque commemorating her landmark win. Current players presented her with flowers and baked goods, then celebrated with the plaque as if it were a district championship. Future players — the middle school team — held a congratulatory banner, which they had autographed. And several former players were in the stands for no other reason than to celebrate the coach who had done so much for them over the years.
“Those kids meant a lot to me while they were in my program and they mean even more to me now,” Peck said. “The fact they would take time out of their busy lives and celebrate with me means everything.”
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For the players who made the trip, there was no place they would rather be.
One of them, Haley Stallings, is one of 11 all-state players Peck has coached at Fair Grove. Stallings now coaches the middle school volleyball team that came out to support their future head coach on Tuesday.
“When I came in, she had a program that was super successful,” Stallings said. “It had a reputation and it was something that I wanted to be a part of. When you got to high school, you could really tell that it was different. They had a reputation of being successful, but also just having a good time. I think Coach Peck, just being the person that she is, draws people in. Her personality, the way that she coaches — everything about her is just where you want to be. I looked forward to every single day of practice.”
Peck’s coaching success was immediate.
The Ash Grove native was an assistant coach at her alma mater while student-teaching, but got the Fair Grove job after wrapping up her collegiate career at Missouri State-West Plains and Southwest Baptist University. She inherited a team that went to the Final Four in 2000 and brought them back a year later.
Part of what makes Peck’s accomplishment so significant is the quality of competition the Eagles faced each year. They moved up to Class 3 this season after competing in the smaller Class 2 since at least 2008, where their schedules included numerous games – and wins – against larger schools.
“To be winning that many games per year against some of the best competition in the state says a lot about how well Coach Peck prepares her teams and how hard she gets them to compete,” Overstreet said. “A big part of the success of our volleyball program is the time and dedication Coach Peck commits to our youth volleyball program. It is a year-round job for her and there is nobody that works harder.”
Lindy Carver was a junior on the 2001 team, which finished third. She now coaches Peck’s club team.
“She started on such a high level and she continues to go to that high level every single year,” Carver said. “It doesn’t matter how many athletes she has or the talent level of the athletes. She puts every bit of her heart and soul in every single group. And every group, no matter who she has athlete-wise, she produces a good team and a good rotation. Consistency, for her, has been one of the main things.”
That 2001 team, whose picture hangs on the gymnasium wall behind the Fair Grove bench, helped shape the next 20-plus years of Fair Grove volleyball. Because she was fresh out of college, Peck said she didn’t fully understand the magnitude of taking a team to the Final Four. That has fueled her desire to get back.
“I didn’t know to cherish it like I should have,” the coach continued. “From there on out, I was not satisfied without going there. I think that’s part of the reason why I pushed these kids hard to set goals and to fight for something regardless of the outcome. We’re going to fight for it because we want our picture on the wall. Regardless of the outcome, you’re going to fight for it.”
The Eagles finally returned in 2013, finishing in fourth place. That was the last year the school won a district championship, though they’ve finished as the district runner-up in five of the past seven seasons. Each win pushed Peck up the state’s coaching leaderboard — but Peck couldn’t care less about that.
It’s all about her players, she said, who often go on to do far greater things than play volleyball.
“I love seeing them go on and play or coach or impact other young ladies’ lives,” Peck said. “But my most important thing is I love getting invited to weddings or baby showers or seeing them with their kids. It’s just awesome to see that.”
One of Peck’s former players now has a daughter who is a sophomore on the junior varsity team — the first time in her 21 seasons that has happened. With Peck firmly rooted in Fair Grove, chances are Reagan Johnson won’t be the last daughter of a former player that she coaches.
“I bleed purple,” Peck said. “This place is something unlike any other. I have a lot of my family members — my own siblings and my sister-in-law — they’re at other schools. Not that their schools are bad by any means, but there is just something special about Fair Grove. It’s the biggest family. I want my kids going here. My husband has bought in. This is our family. This is not a job for me.”
And as the community showed on Tuesday, Fair Grove loves Peck as much as she loves Fair Grove.
“So many of us have sent her cards or texts just saying (congratulations),” Stallings said. “She always points the finger back to ‘Hey, a lot of that was you contributing to the program’ or ‘Your group had a good four-year span.’ I think that just speaks to her character. It’s truly not about her. She’s not doing it for the glorification or any of that. She’s truly doing it because she has a passion for loving and serving kids and helping them be better athletes and better individuals.”
STOCKTON (0-2) 18 25 25 21 14 – 2
FAIR GROVE (3-3-1) 25 23 16 25 16 – 3
