At the high school volleyball tournaments this week, you’ll see plenty of sisters playing alongside each other on the court. But the sister’s connection also extends to the benches when you look at Ronette (Metz) Costain of Harrisburg and Stacey (Metz) Knebel of Wagner. Both are head coaches with their teams at state, but for different schools.
Ronette and Stacey grew up in Webster and played volleyball for longtime Bearcats coach Cindy Nelson. They credit coach Nelson for lighting the spark that fueled their passion for volleyball.
“I thought basketball was my gig when I was younger, and I did coach it for nine-years at the high school level, but volleyball, I don’t know. It’s so fun to watch, it’s dynamic, and the growth,” said Ronette. “Cindy Nelson kind of put it on the map. Her passion kind of bled over into all of us. You couldn’t help but love volleyball being around her.”
“I love the competitiveness of the game. It’s just a game that I love to play,” added Stacey. “Our coach Cindy Nelson was a person to look up to. She bred us for this.”
Fast-forward to 2025 and both Ronette and Stacey have now built their own legacies as coaches. Ronette has been at Harrisburg for 30-years, while Stacey has been coaching for 25-years – the past six as the head coach for Wagner.
Harrisburg is riding the wave of one of the most incredible runs we’ve seen in high school volleyball for South Dakota. Coming into the state tournament this year, the Tigers had won 21-straight matches. They lost twice in September during an invitational in Las Vegas, Nevada to two nationally ranked teams. Prior to that they had won 87 matches in a row. That’s a record of 108-2 in their past 110 matches leading into the state tournament.
When Ronette started in Harrisburg, K-12 was all in one building and the town/district was much smaller than what we know of it today.
“There’s one thing about Harrisburg. As soon as you think you know what’s going on, it’s going to change, that’s kind of the mantra,” she said chuckling. “It’s been fun to go from one building where I knew every single kid and every family to now, I know everybody on my volleyball team. I know all the kids, but the parents’ names become more of a challenge. We’re coming out of three middle schools, so when they come [to high school], I’m meeting everyone. Whereas Stacey [Knebel], she knows everybody.”
Wagner is in Class A. This is the fourth trip to state for the Red Raiders since Stacey has been the head coach there. Her teams made it in '21, '22, '23, and now '25. Wagner has a strong history of volleyball too. They won a pair of titles in ’08 and ’09 when Amy Taylor was the head coach.
“It's so much fun, especially for the fact that [the kids] love the sport of volleyball,” exclaimed Stacey. “I’ve got some girls that live and breathe volleyball, so just having the kids that love to do it, it’s great that their number one sport is volleyball.”
Stacey also has a unique streak of her own. She’s been to every state volleyball tournament since ’87. Of course this comes in variations between player, spectator, and coach, but she’s been in the building every year to take in state volleyball for nearly four decades.
“Some of my co-workers ask, “why do you go to the state tournament every year?” It’s because I love watching the game,” said Stacey. “The game has got so much better over the years.”
It’s true, the game has ballooned into one of the most popular sports, and this extends well beyond the borders of South Dakota.
“I take a lot of pride being a part of it. Just a little part of it. Doing what I can in my community and my town,” told Ronette. “I think the reason the sport is growing so much too is because it’s fun for little girls and there’s not the body contact that there is with basketball.”
But no matter how big the game gets, or how things change, Ronette and Stacey will always have each other to lean on. During Thursday’s quarterfinal round, both teams were playing at the same time just two courts apart.
“We’re just blessed we get to share this with each other and our family is a sports family,” stated Ronette. “I love it, because I know what [Stacey] had to go to get here. It’s different than AA. Just having my little sister on the court down there, I got teary eyed before the game. I looked down and thought, that’s my sister.”
“She’s my big sister; I always look up to her. Watching her girls and what she’s done there for 30 years,” stated Stacey. “When she started in that first gym in Harrisburg in that one school, and now it’s got to be so big. So much pride looking up to her.”
It’s a relationship built from family, but now carries friendship, encouragement, and passion for a sport they both love.
