Waldock galvanizes Huron as Tigers' 'energy drink'

HURON — When told a teammate called her Huron's "energy drink," Azure Waldock couldn't help herself. Where's that spirit come from? "Energy drinks," she said with a laugh before clarifying. "I'm joking, I'm joking." Waldock spends a lot of her time trying to make others smile. It's what, in addition to a levitation-like leaping ability as a middle hitter, makes her so valuable to the district champion Tigers. "I want to be someone that my teammates can rely on to pick themselves up," Waldock said. "I want to be a role model like that. I just think that comes with a good mentality, coming in every day and working on being happy the entire time even when you don't feel like it whatsoever." The junior is certainly a dominant force on the court. She has 277 kills, 61 blocks and 32 aces this fall. Her hitting comes with major efficiency — 50.7 percent of her swings this season have resulted in kills. That'll all come in handy this week as Huron travels to take on Sherwood Fairview in a D-III regional semifinal on Thursday night at Liberty-Benton. When Waldock plays her best, the Tigers usually do, too. "Even if she's not having her best game, she's always upbeat, always leading the team," setter Tess Humphrey said. "It's a different kind of leadership than we have on the team. I don't even know how to describe it. She's put together. It just brings up everybody's mood. She's a really amazing player." Even in a sport overloaded with on-court energy, though, Waldock stands out for what she does when she's not hitting or blocking, too. She laughs with her teammates and isn't afraid to laugh at herself. She takes to the court with an extra bounce in her step. She must have a hundred different in-game facial expressions. "She really always pumps us up," senior Addie Foster said. "Every time she gets subbed in, she walks in like it's a party. She's always ready to go." All of that is much less quantifiable than the points Waldock finishes, but it's just about as important. She's got that look that says to a teammate that just struggled, "You'll get the next one," without even having to say it out loud. "She can't help but keep the room light but also bring energy," Huron coach Don Wood said. "She keeps it light, but she's one of the hardest workers. It's contagious. Have fun, play hard, you can't ask for more." Of course, Waldock's play is plenty eye-catching, too. It was her block down 13-14 at match point that kept Huron alive in the district final, flying far to her right with a perfectly timed leap to deflect the ball down, with control into the court. "She's so athletic," Wood said. "If you watch her transition on the court, along the net to hit, and you look at other middles, you realize how hard she works and how active she is. She transitions faster and harder than anybody." Waldock's jumping ability makes her teammates marvel. Somehow, it just feels like she's in the air for longer than anyone else. Even Waldock, whose first name was inspired by her parents' trip to Cote d'Azur in France, realizes it. The quick sets that come to a middle hitter seem like they'd allow no time to think, but the junior doesn't feel the effects of gravity too quickly. "In the air, this sounds so weird, but I can look around in the court to see what's open," Waldock said. "It works in my favor. I don't know why, but it happens." When Waldock gets off to a fast start in a match, it creates all kinds of problems for the opposition. Huron is anything but a one-trick pony, and Waldock's pull on the other block means more open looks for her teammates. "Everyone gets drawn to her," senior outside hitter Casey Brown said, "wondering if she's gonna do a 3 or a slide or a 1, so they're focused on where she's gonna go and it clears it up for me." So add it all up — the statistically measured standout play and the many tough-to-measure but unquestionably important traits — and Waldock is a crucial piece to the Huron team that ended what, for it, was a long district title drought after two seasons. And don't let her fun-loving attitude fool you — Waldock is plenty confident, too. It's obvious when she rises up and smashes a spike to the floor. It's clear in her service game, which has gone from unusable as a sophomore to occasionally lethal as a junior. And when you hear Waldock talk about her team, there's no doubting how much belief she has. "It's just staying confident throughout this new experience and knowing we've worked really hard for this," Waldock said. "We deserve it, and obviously we all want to keep moving forward. So it's just trusting your teammates and trusting yourself. I think we can go pretty far."