Even with gas hovering at $2.20 a gallon, and the time it takes to get her daughter to practices and competitions for the Ozark Juniors in Springdale, Arkansas, Carol Seaton said she doesn’t mind driving her daughter, Kristen, from far away Fort Smith. “It’s hard at times and it’s inconvenient sometimes for us to drive her there,” said Carol Seaton, “but she loves the coaches and the girls on the team.”
For the Seatons, the 67-mile, one-way trip from their home to the All Star Sports Arena is worth the effort. Kristen, a senior, accepted a scholarship to the University of Arkansas and was named to the PrepVolleyball.com All American team.
Yet, if Kurt Matthews, the director of operations at the All Star Sports Arena, held a contest for most mileage accumulated traveling from their homes to his new volleyball and basketball arena, the Seatons would not be listed among the top 10 of this hypothetical competition.
Kayla Allison, who drives more than 120 miles one way from Jenks, Oklahoma, to take part in the club’s weekend practices and competitions, might be the winner of Matthews unofficial “Longest Round Trip To Attend Practice With The Ozark Juniors” contest.
Unlike other successful club volleyball programs located in metropolitan centers, Ozark is drawing volleyball players from all over Arkansas as well as neighboring Missouri and Oklahoma communities, both to his main facility and to several Ozark satellite programs.
“The main goal of the satellite programs is to help develop the sport in the areas that do not traditionally have competitive volleyball and to give the more talented players a chance to play locally and not have to drive here,” said Matthews, a former assistant coach at the University of Arkansas. “This also helps our program give the players of less experience a chance to get better for their scholastic teams.
“Bringing kids in to practice helped us get better competitively and helped those kids gain exposure in areas that didn't feature juniors teams that traveled to the big tournaments.”
Even with the success of athletes like Seaton and Allison, who has committed to Arkansas State, Matthews and his director of coaching, Lori Schaal, have a difficult time convincing parents that volleyball is worth the investment and commitment for their daughters.
“The problem in Arkansas is that our players’ mothers didn’t play volleyball when they were in high school,” said Schaal. “For them, the only sport was basketball.” Matthews adds that high school basketball coaches haven’t wanted talented two-sport athletes to play high school basketball and then attend an Ozark club practice.
“There are a couple of coaches who have some of our players stay behind to work on free throws or find some reason to keep them longer because they don’t want them playing volleyball even if the player could get a better scholarship in volleyball,” he said.
Matthews adds that high school basketball is still the kingpin of women’s prep sports in these parts. Like prep football coaches in neighboring Texas, coaching careers depend on their won-loss records, and some basketball coaches make their players choose between volleyball and basketball.
Still, more and more parents in the Ozark programs are now pushing for changes in school coaching policies, Matthews said.
“When small schools start to do well in volleyball thanks to the introduction of club volleyball in their community, we will get better support,’ he said.
Doug Freden, an assistant coach for Ozark’s 16-year-old national team, said club volleyball must bridge the gap between what his program is teaching his daughter and what they learn during their fall scholastic season.
“One of the things which is helping our players is the way Kurt organizes practices,” he said. “Kurt is very good at breaking down the passing routine into the small technical stuff. He does a great job of helping the girls understand the little things that get overlooked.”
Janice Coulter, a mother with three players in the Ozark national level program, said she is glad that her daughters, Katie, 17, Kelsey, 15, and Courtney, 13, have a choice between basketball and volleyball as major team sports in Arkansas.
“If you saw Kelsey, who is six foot and 145 pounds, you would think that she would be a perfect basketball player,” Janice Coulter said. “Kelsey doesn’t have the heart for basketball. Her sport is volleyball.”
Started three years ago with 20 players, Ozark Juniors now has over 400 competitors, including satellite programs in Conway, Springdale, Bentonville, and Joplin, Missouri. Their goal is to have 1,000 kids in the club by Feb. 2008, part of their “1,000 Kids/1,000 Days” campaign and to become not only the largest club in the United States, but a national power as well.
“When we brought Ozark to the national level, we were like the red-haired step child,” said Freden. “Everyone knew that when they played us that we were going to be an easy win for them.”
Things have changed for the Ozark program. The 14-year-old team finished sixth at the Lone Star Volleyball tourney last weekend in Austin.
“We’re getting a lot of college coaches watching us play in these tournaments,” said Freden.
Even if his “1,000 Kids, 1,000 Days” campaign succeeds by the 2008 target date, that may not be enough to completely satisfy Matthews.
“Our goal is to have 1500 kids or 150 teams,” said Matthews. “Even, if it kills me.”
