Battle Mountain Hosts Colorado's First Outdoor High School Volleyball Game

Aspen —Battle Mountain lost to Vail Christian 3-2 in five sets Thursday night in Edwards, but the scoreline barely mattered compared to the setting: the first-ever outdoor high school volleyball match in Colorado history.

The court wasn’t permanent. It was built directly onto the Battle Mountain High School football field, constructed from hundreds of custom plywood sheets and thousands of tiles. Around it, an estimated 1,500 spectators gathered. As the sun set, the classic Colorado alpenglow painted the sky during warmups, shifting into a starlit backdrop for the actual play.

The idea didn’t start with the players; it started with the coaches. Britney Branson, head coach at Vail Christian, pitched the concept to Scott Graves, his counterpart at Battle Mountain. Their inspiration? A 2023 women’s volleyball match in Nebraska that drew over 90,000 fans to Memorial Stadium. Branson wanted to replicate that energy locally. “We kept saying if we’re going to be the first in the state, we have to go big and make this huge,” she said.

They delivered. The production included massive lighting rigs, a large video screen, 17-foot inflatable mascot dogs, and a pre-game hype video. It felt less like a high school game and more like a playoff event.

For the athletes, the pressure was real. Vail Christian’s Mary McClarrinon and her teammates faced off against the Battle Mountain Huskies in front of a massive crowd. Graves, who lost the match, noted the emotional weight of the moment. “Normally I would be a little bit more bummed on this,” he said. “But I think it was just so big for the community and for these girls. Both of our senior groups are really special, and that was a very memorable experience for them.”

Branson added a layer of personal history to the event. This year marks the 20th anniversary of Battle Mountain’s 2006 state title run, a team she helped lead. Standing on the court she once played on, now transformed into a volleyball arena, she urged her players to pause and appreciate the scale of what they were doing. “This is a moment,” she said. “Take it all in.”

The crowd remained electric until the final point of the fifth set. Vail Christian’s student section staged a blackout, wearing all black, adding to the dramatic finish. As the lights dimmed and the players embraced, the initial spark of an idea between two coaches had become a tangible, glowing reality under the mountain sky.