Ultimate teammate: Lehi’s Ashton Shewell make everyone around him better
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- Lehi’s Ashton Shewell takes a swing against Bingham in the 6A boys volleyball state final at the UCCU Center on Thursday, May 7, 2026.
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- Lehi head coach Kolby Shewell (left) and his son, junior Ashton Shewell, pose for a photo with the 6A boys volleyball state championship trophy at the UCCU Center on Thursday, May 7, 2026.
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- Lehi’s Ashton Shewell dives for a ball in the 6A boys volleyball state tournament at the UCCU Center on Wednesday, May 6, 2026.
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- Lehi’s Ashton Shewell reacts after the final point in a 3-2 victory against Bingham in the 6A boys volleyball final at the UCCU Center on Thursday, May 7, 2026.
Ashton Shewell’s superpower as a volleyball player isn’t his jaw-dropping athleticism or his live right arm.
His superpower is actually his ability to be a good teammate.
Make that a great one.
There’s no other way to explain the 6-foot-4 junior’s individual body of work — which is considerable — meshing perfectly with Lehi’s 6A state title in 2026.
Shewell is an easy choice for Daily Herald Boys Volleyball Player of the Year.
“Every sport he plays, he’s the ultimate teammate,” Pioneers head coach Kolby Shewell, Ashton’s father, said. “His philosophy is that no one person is better than the team. If we wanted to win state, he knew we would have to do it as a team. He’s the first one to congratulate his teammates after a great play. That’s really an overlooked attribute he has.”
Ashton Shewell’s statistics are impossible to overlook. He led the state in kills with 511 (5.4 per set), which according to MaxPreps is 10th in the country. He hit .416 while totaling 29 aces, 53 total blocks, 264 digs (2.8 per set) and 534 receptions (5.7).
Yet all of those numbers would be pretty empty without the value of sharing everything with his teammates.
“I want to pick up my guys and take care of them,” Ashton Shewell said. “We couldn’t have done it without everyone. I think our team activities and just hanging out after practice helped bring us together and helped us to get to know each other more.”
Ashton Shewell and the team’s starting setter, fellow junior Ty Reynolds, have been playing together since they were 11 years old. This season, the Pioneers added two important transfers: Jonny Dustin from Las Vegas and Kyson Ririe, who played at Westlake last year.
“Kyson was worried about coming to Lehi and playing with a star player like Ashton, how his ego would come into play,” Coach Shewell said. “He was surprised how egoless Ashton was. He and Kyson are great friends and Kyson always says how easy it was to play with him.”
Dustin, who has an outgoing, gregarious personality, was feeling a little bit left out as the new guy and admitted it was affecting his play. Ashton Shewell talked it out with Dustin and invited him to join a prom group — with the conversation taking place in the middle of a match.
“When we’d break the huddle Ashton would say stuff like, ‘Kyson on 3,'” Dustin said. “That was heartwarming to see. What really makes him tick is his teammates. That’s what makes him want to win so badly. When someone else gets a good hit, he freaks out like we’re family.”
Volleyball is a big deal in the Shewell household. Ashton’s older sister, Avery, was the WAC Player of the Year at Utah Valley in 2025 and is now competing professionally in Finland. He has a younger sister (Aliya) on the Lehi girls volleyball team and a younger brother, 13-year-old Xander, who also plays both basketball and volleyball.
Yet for Ashton Shewell, volleyball is really his “other” sport. Last season for Reed Bromley’s roundball Pioneers, he averaged 21.4 points and 6.2 rebounds per game, made 40 3-pointers and dished out 55 assists. He has scholarship offers from San Diego, Utah Tech and Westminster, and has also been in contact with UVU.
“I like how fast-paced basketball is,” he said. “You just move on to the next play. Volleyball is a little bit slower and you have time to think about your mistake. In basketball, you get a chance to fix your mistake right away.”
Most of his summer is taken up by club basketball with Utah Prospects, playing with local rivals Crew Fotheringham (Lone Peak) and Brendan Blackett (Pleasant Grove) as teammates.
Lehi boys volleyball posted a 25-2 record in 2026 and pushed past No. 1 seed Bingham in five sets to win the 6A championship on May 7 at UVU’s UCCU Center.
“The final was kind of scary,” Ashton Shewell said. “We didn’t lose hope when we lost the third set. We knew we’d come together and win in the last one. One of our assistant coaches, Cody Wong, said, ‘I guess we’ll win it in five’ and everyone believed. That’s how we got it done.”
With what little free time he can manage, Ashton Shewell is in the gym trying to get stronger, playing video games online with his friends and hanging out with his girlfriend, according to his father.
“Ashton really just plays volleyball for fun,” Coach Shewell said. “He’s naturally gifted. With Ashton this year there was a change, because he was just having so much fun.”
New to the court
Boys volleyball became sanctioned by the Utah High School Activities Association in 2024, so Shewell is the third winner of the Player of the Year award.
DAILY HERALD PLAYER OF THE YEAR
BOYS VOLLEYBALL
2024 Ethan Hillyard, Pleasant Grove
2025 Trey Thornton, Maple Mountain
2026 Ashton Shewell, Lehi
