Montana Poe is a prime example of overcoming hardships and achieving success. Montana is known to be a bright, friendly, and outgoing girl with many academic and athletic achievements and accolades , but it wasn’t always that way.
Montana says that her freshman year was “interesting”. Her first year in high school was the first year back from the isolation of COVID. That being said, she was very unmotivated and quit virtually anything she was in. Montana tried out for volleyball and made JV B, but rarely ever showed up because she wasn’t experienced enough to get much playing time. Montana also tried running track her freshman year, but it was too much for her. The running gave her migraines, and her body just couldn’t keep up, so she ultimately walked away from the team…temporarily! She was planning on giving track a second chance her sophomore year, but sadly, her father passed right before sophomore season began from a form of liver cancer.
Her father, Edgar Allan Poe (named after the famous author), was an honorable, hardworking, strong-willed man who believed in physical fitness and health. He is also a father of five. Montana wants her father’s teachings to saturate her mind and flow outward. She has written several articles for The Paper Cut about things she has learned from her father and even how to deal with grief as a teen. These beautifully written articles express Montana’s experience of losing a parent and how she coped. Through her father’s teachings and examples, he set the stage for her to soar.
Even though the loss was incredibly difficult, she wanted to make her father proud, so she persevered.
After her freshman volleyball season concluded, Montana began watching volleyball on TV, and it inspired her to keep trying. At the start of her sophomore year, she thought she had improved enough, so she tried out again. But because she was still grieving and not as locked in, she was placed on JV B again. Fortunately, Montana didn’t let that setback deter her. Instead, she used it as fuel to get better. She joined her first club team. She says the team wasn’t the best and they didn’t have all the proper equipment, but she made do with what she had and grinded for a whole year until finally her junior year she skipped from JV B and went straight to Varsity. “I’m a middle blocker, and the only reason is that I can jump high. If I weren’t a middle blocker, I would be an outside hitter.” During her junior year, she joined Zona, a well-known club in Tucson. She played for Zona throughout her senior year, saying she got 20x better. Now, Montana has a four-year scholarship to play volleyball at Bethany College in Kansas.
After skipping the sophomore track season, Montana returned in her junior year. She was put on the 4×1 team with the second fastest female time for the season. She also did high jump with her top height being 5’1.00”, and she currently holds the female school record for long jump with a distance of 18’8.00” and all the while she was coached by her older brother.
Aside from sports, Montana is almost always seen being a bright girl in the halls and class. She is loved by many, and her friends adore her. One of Montana’s closest friends, Maggie Boyd, said, “Montana is a very good person, she’s very lively. She has been through a lot, but she’s never let anything deter her from her happiness and achieving her goals.” Carly Coolidge, one of Montana’s besties, also added, “Montana is the most energetic girl, and I love that she’s always repping her school spirit”. Montana is so full of school spirit that she was awarded “most school spirit” for the senior superlatives because she rarely missed a spirit week and always went all out! Sirena Flowers finished the conversation by saying, “She has this problem of always putting people before herself. It’s a positive quality, but it can be detrimental to her. But aside from that, we love that she can brighten up any room, no matter where she goes.”
