3-sport standout named top girls' athlete

PALMER — When Palmer volleyball head coach Steve Reynolds watches old video of matches that include former Moose standout Kendal Venzke, he’s still amazed at what he sees.

“She could get balls you wouldn’t even dream of getting,” Reynolds said recently.

Venzke was a top player for Reynolds’ squad. She was a top player for three Palmer varsity teams, actually, earning first-team All-Northern Lights Conference honors in volleyball, girls’ basketball and girls’ soccer. Venzke accomplished all of that while maintaining a 4.0 grade point average as an International Baccalaureate student.

In recognition of her achievements in athletics and academics, Venzke has been named a 2011 Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman/Mat-Su Sea Hawkers Student-Athlete of the Year.

Despite her accomplishments and continued success, Reynolds said Venzke always held a strong sense of humility. Even though Venzke clearly stood out on the volleyball court, basketball court and soccer field, Reynolds believes Venzke wasn’t focused on being the star.

“She’s not the typical high school athlete,” Reynolds said. “She wasn’t like what we’re a little more used to. She’s very modest, very humble.”

When asked to describe Venzke, Reynolds quickly had one word.

“Wonderful,” Reynolds said. “The first word that comes to mind is wonderful. She’s a wonderful girl to come around.”

Venzke, a 2011 Palmer High graduate who now attends Capernwray Bible School in England, said being active and part of a team was most important to her.

“I would not really say I am that competitive, but it does show itself sometimes. Mostly I just loved playing and participating,” Venzke said by email from England recently. “I liked being active and it was especially fun being active with all the team members I have been fortunate enough to get to know through the years.”

Venzke has always been active in some way. Both of her parents were athletes, she said, and she followed her older sister Jordan, who also played volleyball at Palmer High.

“I followed in her footsteps and fell in love with all three sports,” Venzke said.

Venzke excelled in each sport, earning a first-team all-conference nod three times as a senior. She also helped the Moose volleyball team win the 2010 NLC title.

“I could not really chose a favorite among these sports because I loved them all equally,” Venzke said. “I think I might have been stronger in volleyball than the other two, but I am not really sure.”

The three sports carried Venzke through her school year, but while she was always active, even though the team sports were not necessarily her focus during the summer months.

“I did grow up playing all three of those sports, but on the offseason I never really spent much time pursing them,” she said. “I was really involved with my (church) youth group, and I love the Alaskan summers, so I wanted to go hiking, camping and outdoorsy things as often as possible.”

Reynolds said he believes Venzke could play volleyball at the college level. She may have been able to play three different sports in college, but Venzke said that wasn’t her immediate goal.

“I sometimes thought of playing sports in college, bit I was not that dedicated to a particular sport to give all my time to it,” Venzke said.

Instead, Venzke had a different path in mind, one that parallels a very important part of her life, her faith.

Venzke has long been active in her church, Lazy Mountain Bible Church, where she was a youth leader and Sunday school teacher.

“I always wanted to go to bible school right out of high school,” Venzke said. “(Capernwray Bible School is) with Torchbearers International. It is a one-year bible school where we develop a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and get foundational biblical teaching.”

Venzke said she’ll attend bible school at Taunrnof, a school in Austria during the spring semester.

Venzke said she can see a continued involvement in sports in the future, whether it be coaching or participating for fun, but right now, she’s focused on her faith.

“As of now, I do not really have any plans to go to school in the USA, because I am not sure what I want to do yet. All I know is that I want to do God’s will for life. I know that sounds like a cliché ‘Christian’ thing to say, but I do mean it with all my being.”

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com. Follow him at twitter.com/matsu_sports.