From club to college

JEREMIAH BARTZ/ Sports Editor

A LITTLE NORTH OF PALMER -- Sarah Boyer didn't play in the class 3A and 4A state volleyball championships last month at West High School. Boyer won't be playing at the 1-2-3A state tournament this month either. She didn't play in a regional meet. Actually Boyer didn't step onto the court for an Alaska School Activities Association accredited match at all during her senior season and for most of her high school career.

But that didn't keep Boyer from playing volleyball. And that didn't prevent Boyer from earning the opportunity to play volleyball at the collegiate level.

Boyer, a senior at Glacier View School, signed a National Letter of Intent to join the University of Alaska Fairbanks volleyball squad for the 2005 season.

Boyer is the first Glacier View student to sign a National Letter of Intent.

Glacier View, a K-12 school with 63 students, is about 50 miles north of Palmer on the Glenn Highway and is home to students who live in an area ranging from Chickaloon to Lake Louise. Because of its small student body, Glacier View offers extra curricular athletic activities, but can not guarantee there will be enough interested students to field a team.

"It's been difficult because of our numbers," Glacier View principal Wendy Taylor said. "Each year sports change because of our numbers."

Taylor said the school has elementary track and field, a rifalry club and some Glacier View students skate on a team that plays in the Matanuska Amateur Hockey Association, but it is rare the school has enough interested students to field a volleyball or basketball team that can meet ASAA accreditation and complete an ASAA

schedule.

Taylor said volleyball is usually one of the most popular sports at Glacier View, but at a school with only 63 students, a popular sport such as volleyball may only attract five kids -- just as it did this year. LouAnna Boyer, Sarah's mom and the coach of the Glacier View area volleyball players, said only five high school aged students were interested in playing volleyball for the ASAA fall season, one short of the number of athletes needed for a starting lineup. But their were middle school aged kids eager to play. So like many years, LouAnna opted to wait until the club season, which starts in January, for her squad to compete.

With a lack of time on the court in prep matches, it was her play at the club level and at volleyball camps that earned Sarah the attention. It may be unusual for a college program to find talent in a small community, like the Glacier View area, but according UAF head volleyball coach Phil Shoemaker, it is far from unusual for a player's play at the club level to lead to recognition by college coaches.

"We recruit more out of the club circuit, than the high school circuit," said Shoemaker, who has served as a head coach at both the Division I and Division II levels. "We're looking for kids who go to the club level, they're playing year-round."

Sarah also attended two of the UAF volleyball camps organized by Shoemaker and his assistant Bev Krupa, a former West Valley High School and Purdue University volleyball standout. The summer following her sophomore year, Sarah was the named the most valuable player of the UAF camp, and had an equally impressive showing at the camp the following summer. At the second camp, LouAnna said, Shoemaker told Sarah to start thinking about the possibility of attending UAF and playing volleyball for the Nanooks.

"She's a very talented athlete -- the best player at our camp both years," Shoemaker said. "That catches your eye.

"Just the fact she is from such a unique background, she has such a huge upside," he added. "We thought she was a really good kid -- definitely worth taking a chance."

Shoemaker said it was that upside that prompted him to make Sarah the first recruit to sign with the Nanooks during the new recruiting season.

Sarah's work ethic and will to continue in volleyball was a draw, Shoemaker said. Last winter Sarah commuted to Palmer and Wasilla at least twice a week to play in the club leagues and each weekend the Boyer family traveled to Anchorage so Sarah could play in the Midnight Sun club volleyball tournaments. Sarah said it makes for a lot of late nights. Some nights, Sarah said, she would have two practices and would take her homework to do in between. She would practice late into the evening and then have to make the 50-mile drive home.

"I just wanted to play," she said. "It was worth the driving."

"She's a pretty clean slate, doesn't have a lot of bad habits," Shoemaker said. "She's a nice athlete, hard worker, excellent student -- nothing but positives."

Sarah is also the top student at Glacier View, with a 3.8 cumulative grade point average, and also earned an academic scholarship to attend UAF.

Sarah's work to earn the opportunity to play college volleyball at UAF, didn't end on the court. Arguably the most difficult hurdle came with the paperwork and compliance with NCAA regulations. LouAnna said the Boyers, UAF and Glacier View School worked for more than a year to make Sarah eligible to sign the letter of intent. In order for student-athletes to be admitted to a school academically, the high school must be registered with the NCAA clearinghouse, but even though Glacier View School is part of the Mat-Su School District, the district didn't register Glacier View as a school.

Sarah said Taylor worked hard to help her become eligible for admission. In some cases the Boyers and Glacier View school had to send syllabus' of classes for approval.

"They had to jump through hoops with the NCAA," Shoemaker said. "They've worked really hard, the entire school. Its a new thing for such a small school."