BY DAVE LINK
Farragut setter Bella Ekeler didn’t want to watch her junior season of volleyball end this past fall while she was injured, sitting on the bench.
Not after spending her sophomore season practicing but not playing for the Lady Admirals due to TSSAA rules as a transfer from Catholic.
And not while being on a team with the potential to make Farragut’s first trip to the state tournament since 2016.
After suffering a hyperextended left elbow and torn ligaments in a Sept. 28 scrimmage, Ekeler was told by doctors her recovery time would be four to six weeks.
Instead, she returned 11 days after getting hurt, on Oct. 9, with the Lady Admirals in the losers’ bracket of the District 4-AAA tournament and on the verge of elimination.
“I told myself the only way I would not be playing was if I physically could not,” Ekeler recalls. “If there was any way that I could play with a brace or with however much bio–freeze or pain, I would be out on the court, just because I missed playing so much. It wasn’t a hard decision to play.
“Obviously, it was a risk. I could have torn my entire UCL, which I would have had to get surgery and been out for months, but I knew if there was a chance for me to be out there, I would be. It wasn’t a hard decision.”
One day after watching her No. 1-seeded Farragut teammates lose to No. 4 Maryville in the winners’ bracket, Ekeler led the Lady Admirals to losers-bracket victories over Heritage and Hardin Valley Academy, extending their season another day.
Farragut and Ekeler then beat No. 2 Bearden in the losers-bracket final before beating Maryville 3-0 for the District 4-AAA tournament championship.
Farragut coach Andre Alves called Ekeler “the backbone of my team.”
“Without Bella, we were dead in the water,” Alves said, “even having a phenomenal athlete like Elsa (Morrison) try and step in and play the setter role, which she did great for us. But the other intangibles that Bella brings, the leadership, the ability to just stay calm, when we are under pressure in chaotic situations, she can remain calm and better that second ball, just put a pretty ball up there, so all the hitter has to do is just hit the ball and we’ll score.”
Farragut scored its way to the Region 2-AAA championship for a home sectional berth and beat Tennessee High 3-0 for its first state appearance in eight years.
The Lady Admirals (31-7) went 2-2 at state and finished fourth.
“It was amazing,” said Ekeler, a Georgia Southern commitment and the 5Star Preps Player of the Year for the 2024 season. “I think the second day of the district tournament after we lost to Maryville, sweeping Heritage and Hardin Valley, we all were just like, ‘Wow, we’re still in this completely.’ It was amazing. It was some of the most memorable volleyball I’ve ever played, just because I love those girls so much and we just had so much fun together.”
Ekeler went through a rigorous rehabilitation for the quick return, and Alves wasn’t pushing her to play.
“I was like, ‘Bella, I don’t want you jeopardize your college career and require you to have surgery, and she said, ‘Coach, I don’t care. At this point, I don’t care.’
“I asked for a blessing from her mom and dad, and they said, ‘Listen, we prayed about it, and we’re good with it.’ I was like, ‘All right, she’s playing.’ And that was the turning point.”
A SPECIAL TALENT
Ekeler’s father is Mike Ekeler, the outside linebackers coach/special teams coordinator for Tennessee’s football team.
He was hired by UT in 2021 after a year at North Texas, and the family moved to Knoxville.
Bella, who’s lived in eight states, played volleyball for Catholic as a freshman in 2022 before transferring to Farragut in the summer of 2023. She was ineligible for the 2023 season as a transfer student.
“Sitting out a year, it honestly (stunk) because I just wanted to be out there so bad playing,” Ekeler said, “but I think like just not even volleyball, outside of it for personal reasons, transferring to Farragut was definitely the right decision. It was worth it in the end, especially with the way last year ended. I wouldn’t change anything.”
Alves believes Ekeler was the state’s best high school setter in 2024 and said her talent starts with athleticism.
“Having a player like Bella,” he said, “that’s so athletic, so good, so determined, to go get that first ball that’s bad and make that ball better, and almost perfect as if it was a good pass, it’s an unkeen ability that she has.
“Not only technically is she such a good setter, but her athleticism to be able to hustle, and this is how she gets hurt. She never quits on a ball. She wants to go for every ball. She wants to make every ball better for her team.”
EKELER: “100 PERCENT NOW”
A few days after Farragut’s season ended on Oct. 24, Ekeler started club season with K2 Volleyball in Louisville. She’s full bore in club volleyball, and her elbow is doing fine.
“I finally got to take the brace off a few days ago, so that was exciting,” Ekeler said Jan. 6. “It healed a little slower than the doctors expected it to, just because I never really gave it time to rest, but it is back to 100 percent now, which I’m very thankful for.”
Ekeler committed to Division I Georgia Southern of the Sun Belt Conference in mid-June after attending a camp at the Statesboro, Ga., school a couple of weeks earlier.
“I just fell in love with the campus and the coaches and the culture that they had, and I believe in the culture that they’re building and that is already there,” she said. “I’ve lived in Georgia for three years, so I know a lot of people who went to Georgia Southern and who are enrolled right now, and they have nothing but amazing things to say about it.
“It was one of those situations where I just knew. The girls were amazing. It felt right.”
Alves expects Ekeler to only improve because of her work ethic.
“She’s playing club at the highest level, the highest team with a great coach, Jason Hames (at K2 Volleyball),” Alves said. “She’s going to have a phenomenal club season, so her senior year, I believe she’s going to be even better.”