Jazmin Cuellar wasn’t a prodigy, with everyone knowing she was coming up the pipeline since middle school or before.
She just appeared — well, exploded — onto the scene. Bit, have no doubt, there was a grueling amount of work that put her on that rocket-like trip to the top
The senior middle hitter/blocker for Edinburg High was a dominant force this year for the Bobcats, helping them to a 22-11 overall record, a 14-2 mark in District 31-6A and a co-district championship. For her performance this season, Cuellar has been named The Monitor’s 2021 All-Area Volleyball Middle Hitter/Blocker of the Year.
Cuellar stood out offensively and defensively for the Bobcats, leading the team with 372 kills (4.1 per set) and with a 49.7 kill percentage. Defensively she was just as dangerous, compiling an astonishing 190 solo blocks and 200 total blocks (2.2 per set). She was, in essence, a rally starter and an opposing team’s rally killer.
Cuellar started playing when she was 13 — “Kind of a late start,” by her admission — and spent two seasons on the Edinburg JV team, not allowed to play varsity due to UIL transfer restraints. Those restraints fueled the fire for Cuellar, who wasn’t that fiery on the outside during those first two years. She still had a burning passion, however, on the inside.
“I would tip everything the whole time. I was afraid of making a mistake, but then I learned that’s just how the game is. You make a mistake and move on,” Cuellar said. “I had to build both the mental and physical parts of my game.
“After tipping the ball for two years, you get pretty smart with the ball, though. You couldn’t hide a spot from me.”
Her junior year, her first on the varsity squad, Cuellar developed power — a lot of it — and used it to collect 255 kills and 109 total blocks during a COVID-19-shortened season. The Bobcats went 13-6 overall and 10-4 in district.
This year, as Cuellar become a premier player, her teammates also grew. Emily Carranco, the team’s other middle, tallied 203 kills while outside hitters Natalie Hernandez and Mia Dominguez, a freshman, added 203 and 171 kills, respectively.
“Teams that thought all we had were two middles, Emily and Jaz, and prepared for that learned that we had more and they had to stay on their toes,” Cuellar said. “They couldn’t predict where the ball would go and that contributed to us getting stronger all season.”
Cuellar said the past two summers have been the hardest-working of her career.
“There was nothing else to do during COVID, so I worked all the time. Being denied varsity by UIL drove me both inside and outside of school,” she said. “I put in the hours. My priority was volleyball and it still is. If you have the love for something, it drives you. And when I was told I couldn’t play, that drove me.”
And while the booming kills are exciting and bring along loud cheers and plenty of momentum, Cuellar said there’s nothing like a really good, no doubt about it, block.
“When it comes to a nasty block and the ball goes straight down, that’s another feeling completely,” Cuellar said. “You don’t know what kind of celebrations will come out of you when you stuff the heck out of the ball.”