MORGANTOWN — Dreams became reality for the Morgantown Volleyball Club’s 15-year-olds in June.
Because, as the fairy tales suggest, when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true. There’s no better place for that to occur than the happiest place on earth.
From June 19-22, the girls competed at the AAU Volleyball Nationals at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.
For head coach Heidi Lee, those wishes came true sooner than anyone could have imagined. She’s been the coach of this group for the past three seasons, guiding the club teams from when they were seventh-graders to now, as they complete their freshman year of high school.
“Three years ago, we wanted to get to the point where, in high school, we were going to nationals,” Lee said. “We weren’t exactly thinking it was going to be this year, though, so it was definitely a pleasant surprise. We had a couple of tournaments where we surprised ourselves with how well we played. It made it a more tangible goal for them a lot sooner in their careers.”
The travel team, represented by players from Morgantown and University high schools, as well as Mapletown High in Greensboro, Pa., competes in the Ohio Valley Region of the “American” division of USA Volleyball. That’s second-lowest out of six levels. After earning a bid to the national tournament, the girls played up two divisions — the “National” division.
“That’s two to two-and-a-half levels above what we had seen all season around here,” Lee said. “The highest division sees girls that are 6-foot-2 at 15 years old and already getting college scholarship offers, we were able to go down and compete well against these girls who had been playing two levels above us all season long.”
In 10 matches in Orlando, the MVC 15-year-olds went 5-5 bringing their season record to 52-16.
They were the highest competing and placing team from the state of West Virginia and the highest placing team from the Ohio Valley Region.
During the travel season, which runs from December to June, the MVC squad has traveled to such places as Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and towns throughout the Ohio River valley.
Lee is already planning ahead for next travel season.
“It’s definitely not too early to be looking ahead,” she said. “I’ve already been scouting some tournaments to see where we want to go. As for goals, we definitely want to move up another level. There’s levels through USA Volleyball and we want to be moving up slowly each year, move up to the National level which is one of the highest levels in our Ohio region. We would like to win a bid to attend USA-V nationals and AAU nationals like we did last year.”
Lee, 26, has been involved with MVC for five years. She started playing volleyball at age 10 and participated in travel volleyball throughout high school in her home state of Idaho. An injury kept her from playing at the collegiate level, but she started coaching volleyball at age 18.
Her husband, Spencer, is her assistant coach at MVC. The couple met while they were students at Brigham Young University in Utah and they moved to Morgantown in 2017 because of a job transfer for Spencer, who played intramural sand volleyball and collegiate ultimate frisbee.
“We both grew up in towns the size of Morgantown, very tight-knit communities around a college,” Heidi said. “Being in Morgantown is very similar to what we grew up with. We’re here for the foreseeable future as we help build this program. There’s no place we’d rather be.”
When the MVC 15-year-olds returned home from nationals, they joined their high school teams in the final week of the three-week prep period for high school teams. They’ll mostly take a breather in July and then hit the court for the high school season in August.
Throughout their high school season, they continue to go about their clinics and lessons and come in for private time and open gym at Morgantown Volleyball Club.
“They come looking for extra skills and tips,” Heidi said.
Members of the MVC 15-year-olds include Caroline Adams (University), Paige Brink (Morgantown), Sophia Fielding (UHS), Bailey Rafferty (Mapletown), Avery Reed (UHS), Natalie Voithofer (UHS), Kate Williams (UHS), Katie Pilgrim (UHS) and Ellie Underdonk (UHS).
“At least five to seven of our girls have expressed a strong desire to play at the college level,” Heidi Lee said. “We have a few that are recording numbers that can compete at the lower levels of Division I colleges down to junior colleges.”
More dreams that certainly can be achieved by a group of girls who have the heart to succeed.
By MATTHEW PEASLEE
