The massive factory-like building sits at 200 Stanley Ave., in Landisville. A parking lot and a few well-groomed shrubs lie in front of it, and a short walkway leads up to a wall of glass doors. Overhead, bold red capital letters read "HEMPFIELD HIGH SCHOOL."

Continue inside and find Buchanan Gym, a three-basketball-court-wide facility with bleachers that retract to the wall when not in use. At one end, an American flag hangs vertically and a square scoreboard sits on the white cinderblock wall. The other end is covered with black banners, many of which are courtesy of the school's boys' volleyball team.

From 2001-2004, the team went 116-2, en route to capturing four PIAA Boys' Volleyball State Championships. It just so happens -- and not at all coincidentally -- that Luke Murray, Gary Vogel and Jay Stauffer were Hempfield students at the time. Not just students, but volleyball players.

After graduation, the three moved on to once again share the same titles -- Penn State students and Penn State men's volleyball players.

Murray is currently a sophomore setter for the Nittany Lions. Stauffer is a redshirt freshman outside hitter, while Vogel would be a sophomore libero -- and would likely be starting -- had it not been for an illness that forced him to leave Penn State. Vogel took a medical leave of absence and plans to return to the team next fall.

*****

Rewind a decade or so and it is apparent that the seeds of nearly unparalleled high school success were planted long before the boys arrived at Hempfield.

"There was a group of guys [in the 1970s] that when they were younger, they played the sport," Hempfield boys' volleyball coach, and Gary's father, Mike Vogel said. "So instead of playing basketball with your son, you played volleyball. So it just sort of caught on in the area."

And with that, the Volleyball Revolution had begun. Volleyball, for some in Lancaster County, turned into a family affair, complete with backyard sand courts.

"There was a sand court over at the swimming pool, and they liked to play over there, so we just [installed a court] in our backyard," Lisa Murray, Luke's mother, said. "It was a nice place for them to play."

Before long, about a dozen families were involved in the phenomenon that began to make its way through the community.

"The volleyball families lived in our neighborhood," Lisa Murray said. "It's been tradition in some of these families to pass the interest in volleyball through generation to generation."

Along with the trio of Penn State players, other community members also drew upon their neighborhood volleyball matches in the collegiate game. Stephen Yeager and Jon Sherrick, who currently play at Juniata and Saint Francis (Pa.), respectively, took part in the backyard games. Dustin Wood, the men's volleyball coach at East Stroudsburg, was also there.

The Baker family contributed Matt, who played with Luke Murray's older brother Ben at the club level, and Michael, who played with Murray, Vogel and Stauffer on the four title teams at Hempfield.

The crew of friends would spend afternoons in each others' backyards, often playing two-on-two as opposed to six-on-six. The smaller teams, Mike Vogel said, developed the boys' ball control, since they would have to be spot-on with passes and sets, in order to cover the ground. Their love for the sport eventually pushed the boys together, as they would spend afternoons together, just playing.

"To have so many people into the same type of thing from such a young age, just growing up and becoming so close together because of that, it was real special," Murray said.

Murray and Vogel were also pushed along in their development by Mike Vogel, who took them to tournaments with Damon's Club Volleyball Program, the club team associated with their high school.

"It seems like most of the time, when Mike took them to tournaments, they played against older teams," Lisa Murray said. "It seemed like he tried to give them really good competition. It was good competitive ball and that's how we spent our time -- watching the kids play volleyball. It was pretty much year 'round."

By the time the boys reached high school, volleyball was almost second nature.

"These kids had a lot more contact with the sport. It's not as if they were learning the sport in ninth grade, a lot of kids started touching a volleyball in third and fourth grade," Mike Vogel said.

***

Hempfield, which draws students from small, suburban towns all over Lancaster County and has about 550 students in a class, had the pieces in place in 2001 to become a volleyball power. Yeager, the current libero at Juniata was already at Hempfield as a sophomore when the addition of Murray, Vogel, Stauffer and Sherrick, a current Saint Francis (Pa.) middle hitter, helped push the team over the edge for the years to come. Plus, the team had chemistry.

"Our entire team the whole way though high school was real tight," Murray said. "That was our core group of friends, and we would just hang out together all the time."

"When they were off of the court, they had true genuine friendships," Lisa Murray said. "They spent a lot of time together off of the court. I think a lot of the time it doesn't happen. We always thought that that was kind of a neat thing."

Their freshman year at Hempfield, Murray and Vogel were on varsity but saw limited action on the team that went 29-0 in official play against Pennsylvania foes, while going 59-0 in overall play, including tournaments against some out-of-state teams. The team only lost two games within its 59 matches the entire year, winning the other 122.

"The first year I wasn't really playing much, and it was still awesome," Murray said.

Ben Murray, Luke's older brother, was a senior on that team and an eventual first-team All-Stater. Next year it would be the little brother's turn to step up, as the sophomore setter earned first-team All-State honors along with Gary Vogel -- they were the only two sophomores to earn the honor that year.

The two helped the Knights down North Allegheny, 2-1, in the state final. Vogel led the team with 1,248 attacks that season, and Murray directed the offense with 3,502 sets. Hempfield finished 29-2 in official play and 61-4-3 overall. What may be even more impressive is that Hempfield lost most of its starters from the 2001 state championship team, heading into the 2002 season.

"Sophomore year [2002] just came out of nowhere because we had no seniors on the team," Stauffer said. "That's when we had to work the most as a team to accomplish our goals. The next couple of years, we knew how the other person was going to react because we played so much together."

Nearly every player on the 2002 squad returned for 2003 and, at that point, there were murmurs in local papers about a dynasty in the making.

In 2003, the Knights went 29-0 officially and 69-1-2, overall. Once again, Murray and Vogel were first-team All-State, and this time Stauffer joined them. And, once again, the Knights defeated North Allegheny, 2-1, on their way to capturing a third-straight state championship.

Only Haverford (1966-71), Peabody (1949-52) and Westinghouse (1936-39) had ever won more than three Pennsylvania state championships in a row.

In 2004, Hempfield became a member of the elite fraternity, in an era where volleyball is much popular than before -- now there are over 100 boys' volleyball teams competing in Pennsylvania. The 2004 Knights were 73-1 overall and 29-0 officially and were led by Murray, Vogel and Stauffer, all of whom were named first-team All-State.

"Their high school career was phenomenal," Mike Vogel said. "I don't think another high school will do what those guys did."

"It was incredible," Murray said. "It just got better each time."

***

"[Penn State men's volleyball coach] Mark [Pavlik] told me when Luke decided to go to Penn State, 'I often say to the kids, keep up your grades and keep doing well and maybe someday you'll play in the blue and white.' Mark told me he actually remembers saying that to Luke," Lisa Murray said, recalling the first time Pavlik noticed her son as a teenager at a tournament. "For it to happen to Gary and Jay, too, is incredible."

The decision wasn't a mutual one, but the three wound up together. Murray and Vogel even roomed together last year and in fall 2005. Stauffer is never too far away, as the guys end up together in the gym nearly every day.

"They didn't do it to stay together -- it was nice they did -- but they just wanted to play," Mike Vogel said. "And the best program around is Penn State."

Now the guys call Happy Valley home. Now the massive, factory-like building they are often found in is Rec Hall. So, while Hempfield High School still sits right where it was when the boys were playing there, they have moved on to bigger things.

Buchanan Gym, though, still hosts Hempfield boys' volleyball matches, and the banners -- the trio's lasting legacy -- still hang proudly.