HISTORY

 

 
In June of 1995, Ron Maure, Jacquie Minelli, and Chris Whitney discussed the possibilities of starting their own volleyball club.  After many meetings and discussing the pros and cons, we decided it was worth a try.  Thanks to Jacquie and the support we received from Elkhart Memorial's Assistant Athletic Director, Phyllis Tubbs, and Carolyn Cook the Principal, we were able to start the Shank You Volleyball Club.  We kicked around many different names and finally decided that since Chris had a men's team named Shank U we would have a junior team named Shank You.  For new volleyball fans, "shank" is a deflection of the ball off the arm.  We wanted to have teams from 12 - 18 years of age.  We didn't have a problem getting coaches for our 14's and up but were concerned whether we could find the right person to handle the 12's.  Jacquie talked with Carla Darr from Daly.  Carla was very excited about doing it because it was helping young ladies.  She talked it over with her principal and received the go ahead to use Daly for practice.  Our first year we had 10 teams.  From that we talked over the good and bad and then tried to improve from there.  The next year our number of teams increased.

In 1997 Jason and Shirley Fleming from Warsaw were interested in starting a club in their area.  We had meetings discussing the pros and cons of them coming in with us.  If they decided to have their own, then we would help them.  As it turned out they decided to join us.  At that time Jason was the head coach at Wawasee and Shirley was the JV coach at Warsaw.  When they came aboard our club increased in size.  Each year after that we had an increase in the number of teams in our club.  Jason and Shirley were handling what ever was needed of them to run the club in that area.  It was through their hard work and dedication that they were growing also.  Shirley resigned from Warsaw and began helping Jason at Wawasee.  Between 1995 and 2001, Jacquie was married and is now Jacquie Rost.  Jason and Shirley have had a little boy named Justin.  Chris married Courtney, and they now have a little girl named Olivia.

Many things happened during the 2002 club season.  At the end of the season Chris Whitney resigned from Shank You .  The part of our club in the Wawasee area is no longer in existence.  Everything is now being handled here in Elkhart.  The club had just became to big and spread out to be run efficiently.  Our thanks to Jason and Shirley Fleming for all their hard work and dedication to the young ladies in the Wawasee area.

2003 and 2004 were good years.  Our club teams had more talent then we have ever had before.  We had over 100 high school girls try out for club teams.  Our travel teams also were much improved.  All 5 of our travel teams had the possibility to go to Nationals this year.  Our 14's team coached by Jacquie Rost and assisted by Lisa Baker and Sue Oldenburg and chaperoned by Linda Marks Qualified at our Regional for the American part of Nationals (which would be considered the club part of Nationals)  Our 15's team coached by Nick Miller  and chaperoned by Jett Fites came in tied for 5th at the Mideast Qualifier.  He had a tough time at Regional due to girls playing other sports and couldn't be there.  Our 16's team was coached by Ron Maure and chaperoned by Karleen Brenneman.  These girls were one win away from going to the American part of Nationals.  Our 17's team coached by Mike Marks and chaperoned by Wendy Strong and Becky Hudnut won the regional which qualified them to go to the Nationals (which would be considered the open part).  Our 18's team coached by Merly Mears and chaperoned by Libby DeMyer played there hearts out this year.  They were a young team with only two seniors playing.  The team also lacked some in size but were very competitive all year.

2005 Had some good things and some things that needed changing.  We had to try and figure out a better way to keep communications going.  This year we are going to have a parents board with a member from each school that participates.  This should make it easier for better communication.  Our 18's team, coached by Nick Miller, qualified for Nationals.  They had to bring some kids up because a lot of the players had scholarships to D-1 schools and wanted to take a break.  Nick was able to put a team together and even though there won - loss record wasn't so impressive they were competitive and most of there matches went 3 games.

2006 Was good to me.  The parent board really helped.  I received the least amount of complaints ever.  Our 14's & 17's qualified for Nationals.  The 14's were either lucky or unlucky because I sat on the bench.  Jacquie Rost was unable to go due to having another son.  Lisa Baker did the coaching and I did the clowning around.  Our 17's coach Adria Phillips and assistant Nick Miller did a fantastic job getting the 17's to Nationals.  Quite  a list of things happened on her team.  One girl quit 2 weeks before nationals.  The setter got hurt at a tournament in Ilinois and by knowing all the rules Adria was able to work through the rest of the match.  Our 16's coach Mike Marks was one victory away from going to Nationals when his setter went down.  The club teams did pretty good.  I enjoyed going to some of the power league games to watch our girls play.  The girls are starting younger and younger and it really makes me feel good to see the kids out there just having fun.

 

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