Taco Shack rivalry continues as Anderson volleyball team tops McCallum
Don’t think the Taco Shack rivalry begins and ends during football season.
With both the Anderson and McCallum volleyball teams on a scheduled bye, the two Austin school district rivals decided to meet on a rare open date during the heart of district play.
District 26-6A’s Anderson got the 25-20, 25-27, 25-16, 25-19 win over District 24-5A’s McCallum before a raucous, packed crowd Tuesday at McCallum High School, but both teams got what they wanted entering the second half of district play.
“I was looking for competition,” said McCallum coach Amy Brodbeck, whose team has dropped only three sets while going 8-0 in district play. “Especially, I wanted to see how we handled our serve-receive. And that (Anderson) is a great serving team. We see the same serves over and over and over again (in district), so seeing different looks was something I wanted. We’ll be moving on to the playoffs — I’m confident of that — so I want to go against some tougher servers, because that’s what we’ll see in the playoffs.”
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With her team trailing Johnson by three games for the fourth and final playoff spot in District 26-6A, Anderson coach Shalanda Byers knows the Trojans will need to spring a couple of upsets to make a serious push for the postseason.
That’s why playing well against a playoff-bound McCallum team mattered more than earning bragging rights in a rivalry.
“A dub is a dub; it doesn’t matter what kind of match it is,” she said.
But when Anderson and McCallum meet, it always matters just a little bit more. The two schools on opposite sides of MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) have shared a district in just one UIL alignment cycle over the past two decades, but that hasn’t diminished a fierce rivalry in virtually every sport. Students at both schools grow up playing against each other in football, soccer, baseball, volleyball and plenty of other sports, as Anderson senior Claire Bauer pointed out after the match.
“I used to play kickball with one of those girls (McCallum’s Rylee Hissey) when we were little, and we were out there just talking across the net,” Bauer said. “But I’ve played club volleyball with a lot of them, so it’s just so much fun getting hyped for a game like this. I love playing a rival.”
Bauer and her teammates even walked away with some hardware, thanks to the efforts of McCallum booster Sarah Simpson Morris and other parents of the Knights’ volleyball players. The McCallum parents purchased a trophy for the winner of the Taco Shack Cup, the moniker given to what fans at both schools hope becomes an annual volleyball match regardless of classification.
“We love this rivalry, we want to be successful, and I was happy we took a set,” Brodbeck said. “But I was really happy that I got to see how we responded to playing a longer match against some good competition.”
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Both McCallum and Anderson can now turn their attention to the home stretch of the regular season. McCallum (19-13, 8-0 in District 24-5A) will begin the second half of district play Friday against Northeast and holds a two-game lead over Ann Richards and LASA for first place.
The Knights boast a balanced attack with Jette Morris, Kate Shackelford and Hissey all averaging at least two kills a set, and that trio combined for 29 of McCallum’s 43 kills against Anderson. Brodbeck also said she wanted to see how her middle blockers performed against Anderson, and Makenzie Mason came off the bench for five kills. Libero Allie Rosholt and setter Teasia Cooks also played well.
Anderson (19-16, 3-5 District 26-6A) went 29-3 in the Class 5A district with McCallum over the previous two years and won the district title in 2021 but moved into District 26-6A during the UIL’s biennial realignment in the offseason. The Trojans will start the second round of district play Friday against Akins before jumping into a grueling four-match stretch against No. 12 Dripping Springs, No. 25 Westlake, defending district champion Austin High and No. 6 Lake Travis.
Parker Duncan and Ashlynn Axtell each had 10 kills against McCallum, and setter Maddie Stuesser continued her splendid junior season with 32 assists and four blocks.
Rating the rivalries
Even though the two schools have shared the same UIL district in just one realignment cycle over the past two decades, the competition between Anderson and McCallum tops the list of rivalries in the Austin school district. The American-Statesman ranks the city’s best rivalries based on every UIL-sanctioned sport.
McCallum vs. Anderson: Dating back 50 years, this rivalry between arguably the top two athletic programs in the school district gets intense in every season — especially when the Trojans and Knights share the same UIL district.
Austin High vs. Bowie: The two schools have spent all but two years over the past three decades in the same district in the state's largest classification, and no rivalry in the city can match the big-game energy when these two have contending teams facing off.
LBJ vs. Northeast: East Austin has changed plenty over the past 20 years, but when these two meet up — especially in football and boys basketball — it can still feel like the old days.
Travis vs. Crockett: The original South Austin showdown stretches back decades, and a win in this rivalry is better than a playoff appearances for many fans in the community.
Austin High vs. Anderson: This west side rivalry can get especially heated during baseball season, when parents and players relive some memorable meetings between the Northwest and Western Hills Little League teams.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Anderson volleyball defeats rival McCallum in nondistrict match
