By: by Jason Hanes
KENNESAW, Ga. – The early fall sky beams a bright light of sun on Kennesaw State University in early November. For years, this has been a time when the athletic hopes of the campus look to women’s soccer for the possibility of another Atlantic Sun Conference Championship. Or, those eyes look ahead to the start of basketball season, with exhibitions typically underway and the start of the season just a week away.
Volleyball has typically been forgotten at Kennesaw State by the time the calendar flips to November. The program, which first competed in 2006, had been something of an afterthought by mid-October. Records of the previous three year’s teams led people to believe that 2009 would be no different. After all, when a team wins just one match in its first year and only six two years later, what’s to say 2009 would be any different?
But unlike previous Novembers, the Kennesaw State volleyball team is still competing. Yes, matches had been scheduled in November’s past, but there is a difference between showing up for a match and
showing up for a match.
This year, while the KSU Soccer Complex plays host to the A-Sun Women’s Soccer Championship at 1 p.m., the KSU Convocation Center will play host to an Atlantic Sun Conference match between Kennesaw State and Stetson at 3:30 p.m. While there is no trophy going to the winner of the volleyball match, the contest still means the world to four seniors who will suit up for the last time at home in a KSU volleyball uniform.
The Builders
Asjia Stokes wanted to get away from home. A native of North Chicago, Ill., Stokes had never had a chance to see what the South had to offer to someone that decided to live there. Plus, there was a school down in Georgia called Kennesaw State that was starting a volleyball team.
“I just wanted to experience the South,” said Stokes, one of the four seniors that has been with KSU since the first match in 2006. “With this being a start-up program, I felt like I had a better chance to come in and play. I didn’t want to go somewhere that I’d find out there was already someone in front of me playing.”
#Selina O’Leary# was from Illinois as well, and her motives for attending Kennesaw State were similar, yet different than the ones Stokes had. “I wanted to move away from home and get a full college experience,” O’Leary said, “but I’ve been on a lot of new teams before, and I’ve always liked being able to go in and make a first impression. I wanted to come and do good things, but I was a little nervous, I’m not going to lie.”
“There was a little bit of fear of the unknown,” said
Ginny Frederick, who came to Kennesaw State because of the new volleyball program and because it was close to home in Snellville, Ga., but far enough away to be “away from home” as well. “We had the chance to go in and start from scratch. Everyone was new, so there was no one in front of us that was automatically going to be a starter. Everyone had a chance to come in and compete for playing time.”
Expectations were tempered that first year, but a 1-21 season wasn’t exactly what anyone had in mind. “I knew we weren’t going to come in and be some dynamic, undefeated team,” Stokes said.
“It was frustrating because we could see how much talent we had, but it didn’t show up in the results,” O’Leary stated. “People who saw us play said we were so much better than our record said we were.”
“People don’t realize we didn’t come together as a team for the first time until that first match at Georgia State,” Frederick said. “We basically had 12 or 13 people who had all just met for the first time and were told to play volleyball. No one had any idea what to expect.”
A 1-21 record the inaugural year was followed by a 4-24 mark in 2007. While there were many factors that were involved in the perceived lack of improvement, Frederick’s words were echoed by O’Leary and Stokes when she said, “It all comes down to the fact that no one taught us how to play together.”
The Addition
Chelsey Denesha joined the Owls for the 2008 season. A First-Team All-Conference player in the JUCO ranks at North Platte Community College, Denesha had her choice of schools to attend, but chose Kennesaw State. “I really didn’t pay attention to the team record from their first two years,” Denesha said. “I was more concerned with fitting in with the team. I felt I had the best chance to fit in at Kennesaw State and be with good teammates.”
With Denesha joining the squad, the Owls showed slight improvement, but still managed just a 6-24 record. “I felt things started to click better our junior year,” Stokes said, “but we still weren’t quite there.”
“I don’t think it would have mattered if we had been [eligible] to play in the tournament or not, we just never clicked and never had the right group to click,” O’Leary said.
Denesha’s transition from junior college to Division I wasn’t what she expected either. “It was very hard. When you are in high playing volleyball, you expect every college to be like it is in the Big Ten with huge D-I teams with stadiums that are packed. From going to Nationals in junior college to winning six games, it was very hard for me.”
The Guidance
The end of the 2008 season saw the departure of Valerie Jones as head coach and the arrival of
Karen Weatherington as the second head coach in program history. Immediately, the rising seniors knew things were going to change. “I don't think it was even that [realization happened in that] first practice,” Frederick said. “When we found out Coach Weatherington was the new coach, we knew we were going to work harder. She was going to push us, and we had to come together as a team to meet her higher expectations.
“The things we had heard about her from administrators here, and what she shared with us, when we met with her. Even before she got here, everyone's expectations had started to change.”
“Our first year, there weren’t any expectations,” Stokes said. “People just decided to put us out there to see how we did. But then, we had a new coach, and as seniors, we knew we wanted to make the [A-Sun] Tournament.”
The mentality started changing immediately for the Owls. “Even if you want to be successful, volleyball is still a team sport and you’re relying on the five other people on the court,” O’Leary said. “Sometimes, two or three of those people might just be playing for the scholarship and they really don’t care about winning.”
“Coach Weatherington came in and just asked ‘Why are you settling?’” Frederick said. “She’s never talked to us about the past. She’s never stopped telling us how successful we can be.”
The Results
With that new-found “swagger” as Stokes put it, the Owls travelled to Toledo, Ohio for the season-opener against Marist. Entering 2009, the Owls had never won a set in a season opener. This year, with 21 digs and 13 kills from Denesha, the Owls won 3-2 over Marist. For the first time in program history, even if it turned out to be just for one match, the Owls had a winning record.
“I just thought, ‘Where was this three years ago?’” Stokes said.
“We just had so much confidence,” O’Leary said. “Every time we stepped on the court, we felt we were going to win.”
The Owls went 2-1 on their opening trip to Toledo, then came home and won the Kennesaw State pool of the Great 8 Volleyball Challenge, improving to 5-1 in the process. Entering the year, one of the goals the Owls had was to win 10 matches. That goal was reached with a 3-1 win at Mercer Oct. 13. Now, the goal of making the A-Sun Tournament, once thought to be impossible for a Kennesaw State team, is now within reach.
“I’m checking every day and every night to see if someone else has gotten knocked out,” said Frederick. “When we get done playing, I’m immediately asking Coach Weatherington what the other teams did. If she’s known something and hasn’t told us, I get mad at her for not saying anything.”
But even more importantly, volleyball is suddenly fun again at Kennesaw State. “Going from where we were to where we are now, it makes every day coming to practice so much more fun and exciting,” Denesha said. “Now we’re playing well and we have so much better relationships than we did. Yeah, losing's hard, but winning makes everything so much better.”
“The past three years, we'd have 3-hour practices almost every day, with what seemed like no days off. This year, to see our hard work pay off with wins makes it incredible,” Frederick said.
“I used to sit around and really feel bad about how we were doing,” O’Leary said. “Now, I don’t care because all that hard work is paying off.”
The seniors have all raised their game to new levels. Stokes became the first Kennesaw State volleyball player to earn 300 kills in a season. O’Leary, KSU’s starting libero, went over the 1,000-digs mark earlier this season and has a personal-high and program-record 3.96 digs per set entering the last two weekends of the season. After 234 kills and 201 digs last season, Denesha has 236 digs and 442 digs for her 2009 campaign. Frederick, KSU’s leader in assists, recently surpassed the 1,500-assists mark for her career.
The Opportunity
While personal accolades are nice, the goal of making the A-Sun Tournament is what’s driving the Owls entering the final two weekends of the regular season. “That’s all that’s been on my mind the past two and a half weeks,” O’Leary said. “Even at practice, that’s all I care about is doing whatever it takes to make the tournament.”
There is satisfaction there for the Owls already, but the depths that the four-year seniors have had to see the program drop to in order to reach the high the program is at now has made everything worth it. “I feel like you can't go to the top unless you've been at the bottom,” Stokes said. “I feel like going through the hardships, we had to take a lot of baby steps.”
“From being 1-21 our first year…to some teams, a 15-9 season is disappointing,” said Frederick. “But once you’ve been down that low, it makes where we are now so much better.”
Even Denesha, who only had to go through one of those first three years, has a realization of how far this team has come. “We all appreciate where we are,” the Watertown, N.Y., native said. “We definitely don’t take anything for granted.”
This Saturday will mark the final home match for the 2009 Kennesaw State Owls. Four seniors will get to play more, but never again at the KSU Convocation Center representing the school and the program that they helped to build.
“We told [Assistant Coach]
Jing Hou last year, it didn’t matter, you have four players that are going to be on the court next year on Senior Day,” Frederick said.
“It’s been so exciting for us, because Ginny and I have always been the one coordinating Senior Day. So to hear the little things that people are planning for us is exciting,” O’Leary said.
“Coach Weatherington really appreciates seniors, so I know this Senior Day is going to be really special,” Frederick said. “She really takes pride in celebrating it. It's just good to know she really does appreciate us and everything we've done.”
While Saturday will be emotional for the four seniors, the goal of qualifying for the A-Sun Tournament will likely still be out there even after Saturday’s match. But as O’Leary points out, “Most seniors can say, ‘Oh, I won a championship my sophomore year.’ But now, we have a senior year we can really be proud of.”
So while a champion will be crowned and celebrated at the KSU Soccer Complex Saturday afternoon, four seniors that are champions in their own right will be celebrated at the KSU Convocation Center Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. At a time when the shadows from the fall sunlight will be growing longer until they merge with the darkness of the night, the shadows of KSU’s four seniors will continue to grow long past the sunset, thanks to the beaming light of a program that they have given their hearts and souls to build.
