M-P outside hitter Kristeen Juarez in attack mode/b>

Midway around her 1.6-mile run outlining the sporting fields at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, Kristeen Juarez, in black T-shirt and shorts, puffed along at a steady clip nowhere near the front of the pack, nowhere near the back.
Juarez, one of the finest volleyball players M-PHS has to offer this year, ran with great focus on her face. One had to wonder what she was thinking about. Was she thinking about the University of Pennsylvania where she has been awarded grant money to attend and play for the Quakers? Or about the law school there and what kind of law she would practice? Was she thinking about why Coach Shelly Johnson moved her from middle blocker to outside? Or her mom and dad, both of whom have pressed upon Juarez since was a child the importance of being responsible and accountable?
All of these thoughts may have flickered by during the run, but Juarez was mainly thinking about simply getting it done.
When I work out, its just to meet a goal, she said. And when I play the game, Im not going to try to do something I cant do. The best way to beat your opponent is to play your game the way you know how to play.
Goal-oriented and competitive, Juarez is bound to be a major factor in the success of this years squad, particularly since coach Shelly Johnson moved her from middle to outside hitter.
We consider the outside hitter the one who gets the kills and right now Kristeen is the best hitter we have, Johnson said. She knew this was coming. In high school volleyball, you set outside more than in any other position.
Sports acumen, size and determination runs in the family, too. Her dad, Benny, is 65 (his great grandfather was 7) is a local school teacher and in his prime was recruited to play for Western Washington University.
It was her dad who introduced her to basketball and uncorked her natural athleticism. Her mother, Arlana, is 511 and is also a school teacher. Her sister, Danya is a fourth-grader Allen Creek Elementary, is fast, ambidextrous and will be a better player than Ill ever be, Juarez said. Danya is on the sixth-grade team for a local recreation league.
Throughout grade school and into the ninth-grade, Juarez was playing basketball and volleyball for select teams. She made both the M-PHS varsity basketball and volleyball teams when she was just a freshman. And in the winter, she continued with select leagues in both sports.
But by her junior year, the jarring physical demand of basketball took hold. Her knees ached. And though she iced them regularly, her doctor told her the continued stress on her knees could lead to serious, irreparable damage.
That said, Juarez said goodbye to her basketball dreams dreams that saw her playing in college and maybe professionally.
From then on, it was all volleyball. At 17, she tried out and made the Mizuno 18 team of the Washington Volleyball Academy that had her playing in tournaments from here to Las Vegas. College recruiters regularly attend those national tournaments and so the competition and athleticism is intense. The ultimate prize in these tournaments, in addition to getting on the radar of major universities, is to go all the way to the Junior Olympics which with a fifth place finish, Mizuno 18 just missed.
To get an even greater edge for visibility and potential scholarship money, Juarez sought out the tutelage of volleyball great Bill Neville, who owns and operates the Bellevue-based volleyball training facility Nevillizms Inc. Neville was the assistant coach for the U.S. Mens National Team that went on to win the gold medal at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He was assistant coach for the U.S. team during the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City and the head coach for the Canadian Mens National Team during the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. Hes also spent nine years as the head coach of the University of Washington womens volleyball team.
Bill told us that we needed to get a skills show tape, Juarez said. She hired professional video producer to capture her making kills, blocks, sets and serves. Then this past January, she sent the DVD and letter to athletic directors of more than 300 universities and colleges throughout the country. Now it was time to wait by the mailbox.
People sent us lots of information back and my mom filed it away, Juarez said. I was so new to it, I just wanted to go where academics was still a major priority.
One response was from Kerry Carr, the lauded head volleyball coach at the Ivy Leagues University of Pennsylvania. Carr flew out to Las Vegas to see Juarez play in an Academy tournament. Juarez did not disappoint. Carr invited her to see the university and so in May, Juarez and her mother flew to Philadelphia.
We stayed in the dorm with the other girls on the team and it was pretty nice, Juarez remembered fondly. It wasnt my aspiration to go to college to play volleyball but my parents instilled in me a need to take responsibility for myself, to be accountable and that you can be anything if you put your mind to it.
The private university offered Juarez grant money to attend. She is in the middle of the application process, but is intent on attending and becoming a lawyer.
I like anything within the justice system, she said. I watch Court TV, I read Anne Rule novels and I just like to argue.
Juarez tempers her talent with realism on and off the volleyball court. She has a theory that one should always be themselves and that on the court, shell push just as far as she can go. And academically, while she has a 3.95 grade point average, she says shes not the smartest person in the school. But if I try hard enough, I can will myself to do it. If you think of school as a sport, you can beat anyone.