Salpointe Catholic head volleyball coach Keith Rubio has been around a lot of talented volleyball players. The brother of former Arizona head coach Dave Rubio has spent decades coaching in college programs across the West, including former Pac-12 teams USC and Oregon.
Keith Rubio spent his final decade in the college game at New Mexico State before retiring as the associate head coach in 2021 and eventually moving to Tucson to be close to his mother. So, when he speaks of 2028 Arizona commit Reagan
Burgle, it comes with some authority.
“Reagan’s the best libero I’ve coached in my career,” Rubio said. “Not just in terms of skill level, but the intangibles.”
Salpointe was the first Tucson team to win a state volleyball title in five years when it took the 4A championship in a five-set match against ALA-Queen Creek last fall. The Lancers have won four titles since 2016, including back-to-back championships in 2016 and 2017. The first three came under former head coach Heather Moore-Martin.
Amphitheater, Ironwood Ridge, Catalina Foothills, Catalina, and Green Fields Country Day are the only other Tucson teams to compete for a title in the 21st century. Moore-Martin also coached Catalina, the lone school on the list that is not either a private school or a wealthy suburban school.
These days, it tough for any school outside the Phoenix area to win any division. That is a drastic change from the late 20th century when teams from around the state competed for and won titles on a regular basis.
The first girls volleyball championship contested according to the AIA was between Safford and Catalina in 1968. Salpointe played for its first title in 1970. Public schools like Sahuaro, Palo Verde, Rincon, Sabino, Sunnyside, and Flowing Wells regularly represented Tucson in the title matches with several of those contests being between two Tucson public schools. The growth of the state, primarily in the Phoenix area, has largely eliminated the competitive balance across Arizona except at the small-school level.
“Phoenix is definitely the top dog,” Burgle said. “Growing up in Tucson with still some good volleyball, good coaching, but the speed is just different. You go up to Phoenix and you’re like, ‘Whoa!’”
Rubio thinks that’s partly because of the size of the Phoenix metro and partly because there are pro teams in area. The children of professional athletes tend to have an advantage, in his opinion. Those disparities made the Salpointe title a surprise for both the head coach and his starting libero.
“Happenstance,” Rubio said about how it came together. “There was really good talent there already, and they played together for a long time. They all played in Zona Volleyball Club, the majority of them.”
The team also had 12 seniors on it. That didn’t stop underclassmen from stepping up. Burgle and fellow sophomore Callen Hutchens had big impacts on the Lancers’ success. The fact that the two sophomores were so critical meant the coaches had some feelings to manage, something Rubio credited his assistants with handling.
“[Burgle] beat out a senior libero,” Rubio said. “The senior outside hitters or middles that were on a team were friends with the senior libero, so you have that dynamic. So she was really kind of discouraged from…her voice being heard.”
That leadership is something Rubio wants to see Burgle develop over the next two years. She and Hutchens will be team captains. He expects his libero to rise to the occasion.
“She has all the intangibles in terms of work ethic and leadership skills and voice, and now she’s able to really shine in that role and it’s going to be a new role for her,” Rubio said. “So, as a staff we’re being with her just to try to mentor her and guide her through that process.”
Leadership is something that Burgle wants to carry into the real world after volleyball. She has no desire to be a professional volleyball player, but she will use those skills in the future she has mapped out for herself.
Rubio describes her as “16 or 17 going on 30” when it comes to maturity, and listening to her talk about future plans backs that up. Burgle went to Salpointe because her family has attended the school for generations and she was attracted to the faith aspect, which has been part of her educational path since middle school. She also plans to follow in the footsteps of her elders in her professional life.
“My aunt is an ATF agent,” Burgle said with pride. “My dad’s a firefighter.”
Her plan is to go into police work. It’s something she has been excited about for years.
“When I was around eight, I watched…a TV show, and this officer got shot in the neck and lived,” Burgle said. “I went to bed crying with my grandma. I was like, Grandma, that’s terrifying. What if he’s under my bed? And I woke up just like this urge, like I want to do that. And ever since then, like I go shooting with my parents…I’ve always been an adrenaline junkie. So, just it all like lines up with what I’ve always known and what I’ve always believed in.”
She’s gotten a taste of what’s involved by going through the Explorer program, a first responder career exploration program for young people aged 14-20.
“It was tough, but it was probably the most accomplished I felt graduating it,” Burgle said. “All the sweat, all the tears, all the soreness.”
When she finally enrolls at Arizona in 2028, she plans to major in education and minor in criminal justice. She thinks education will set her up if she wants to teach at the police academy. It will also help her on the job.
“Working on like public speaking for when I’m dealing with people in mental health crisis,” she said. “I think that will definitely help my police career.”
She will get to do pursue those goals while playing volleyball in her hometown for a coach whose style attracts her. There was something else Tucson offered that some of her other options didn’t, too.
“We sat down, my mom and dad and I, and we went through the list of what I wanted in a college,” Burgle said. “I wanted a high Power 4, I wanted a great coach, and…I can’t do snow.”
Burgle also got a great deal of guidance from the staff at Zona Volleyball Club, especially club director Matt Dyck. Dyck has a lot of ties to Arizona, where he spent two years on the staff, but his heart is in teaching younger players.
“He has been the one who has done it all for me,” she said.
It didn’t hurt that former Wildcat Ana Heath was also on the coaching staff at the club. Heath’s career had a lot of ups and downs, but her attitude towards Arizona helped convince Burgle that it was a place where she could flourish.
“I think her still having such a positive outlook on Arizona volleyball, going from those major changes in her volleyball career, I think that was super touching,” Burgle said. “And the fact that she still is more than supportive of Arizona volleyball even after those, I feel like a lot of girls would kind of back away, but she’s all-in.”
Burgle’s experience at Arizona camps also made the young libero confident that Rita Stubbs was someone she wanted to play for.
“The biggest thing for me throughout my recruiting process was coaching,” Burgle said. “You kind of learn a little bit of how they coach, what the process is…Rita was a big draw towards Arizona for me. I love her.”
Now that the decision has been made, Burgle has two years to prepare for the college game. She’s most focused on improving her ability to deal with speed.
Burgle’s team took third in the American division at Nationals and she made the all-tournament team this year. Despite playing a year above her age group, she knows that she’s still not facing the top competition.
“I think the speed will really be the biggest difference,” Burgle said. “My team doesn’t play in Open. We never have…but this upcoming year we will be in Open for Red Rock, which will be super cool. Definitely gonna see faster speed there.”
Whatever happens in Vegas, the gyms of Tucson will be where Burgle makes the improvements she needs to live up to the high praise of Rubio.
“I’m definitely gonna get in the gym with my club director at Zona,” she said. “He has a wicked arm. I put on a helmet in case, and he’ll just bang balls at me, give me all different scenarios of what I might face.”
