"I know that God is using me to impact people's lives. He's just using the sport of volleyball to get their attention!"  -- Glenda Parrish L-R's Head Volleyball Coach

by Marcia Copper

Author’s note: Lenoir-Rhyne College has long held the belief that athletics are an important contributor in the development of the whole person. Below is the story of one young L-R woman who has taken this belief beyond the college out into the community and is making it work.

The Hickory Inspirational Spikers (H.I.S.) volleyball club for girls organized by Glenda Parrish, L-R’s women’s volleyball coach, is only four years old. Yet, it has experienced an explosion in growth each year since its inception. The non-profit Christian club began with ten players. Today, it boasts sixty-four girls, seven teams, eight coaches, a board of directors and a host of volunteers.

Open to Hickory area girls from ages 10 to 17, the club offers the opportunity to have fun, grow spiritually, exercise, travel and especially, to improve volleyball skills. Its mission, "To create a positive Christian environment where every athlete can reach her full potential, both as a person and a volleyball player" is taken most seriously.

Although Parrish is the club’s guiding light, she is quick to explain that she is only God’s instrument. For without Him, she said, there would be no club.

"I was recruiting in Florida back in November 1995, just after my first season at L-R," Parrish explained. "And on the long car ride back home, I began to think what a shame it was that there was so much athletic talent in the Hickory area, but no Junior Olympic volleyball club. So," she continued, "I began to pray for guidance.

"I told the Lord I really didn’t know how to start a club, nor did I really want to start a club because I had so much on my plate with my new job. But if He would help, I would try."

Parrish’s love of volleyball began when she was introduced to the sport in a middle school program at her local church. At that time, she was the "runt" on the team. "Nobody really wanted me on their team because I was so small. I just wasn’t strong enough to be of much help," she recalled.

Still, the game itself fascinated her. "There is hardly a ball that comes over the net that is the same as any other," she noted. "You have to be a quick thinker."

And that was another problem. The quick thinking that the game demanded just didn’t come naturally to her. So her challenge was to find ways to overcome her difficulties: to do her best to master a sport that she loved but that didn’t come as easily to her as other sports (such as softball).

Parrish worked hard and finally, after a timely growth spurt in high school which helped her physically and a stint at volleyball camp that improved her skills, she was on her way to achieving her goal.

In her freshman year, she made her junior varsity high school team and her confidence began to build. By the end of her senior year, all kinds of exciting things had happened. She was a member of both a softball and a volleyball team that won a state championship. She was voted Most Valuable Player by her teammates and she earned a scholarship to play volleyball and softball at Catawba College.

"I think my experiences at high school were the reason I chose to coach," said Parrish, explaining that her small high school had never won a state championship in any sport prior to her junior year, when her team won the softball title and her senior year when her team won the volleyball title!

"I have such awesome memories of that incredible time," said Parrish. "More than anything, I’d like to help other young girls experience those kinds of successes: to help them create the same kind of memories in their lives."

When Parrish arrived back in Hickory from Florida she was still uncertain how to go about organizing a volleyball club. But she decided to call the Carolina Region Office anyway. Perhaps they could help.

"What a surprise to learn that someone from Hickory had called the regional office just a few days earlier asking if there was a team in the area," she marveled. The need was there. There were people ready to help.

The rest is history.

"I believe God put our club together for His purpose," Parrish said. "And because I wanted to be sure that He got the credit and honor, I decided to call the club Hickory Inspirational Spikers (H.I.S.) volleyball club." The words "volleyball club," she explained, are lower-case letters because volleyball is secondary to His purpose in the club.

Volleyball, of course, is not the only thing the girls learn. Spiritual growth is equally important. The players learn Bible verses each week, pray before and after practices and tournaments, have club socials once a month for all the families, and have guest speakers from other ministries who talk to them about their spiritual growth at least once a year.

"It is really amazing what God has done through this club," said Parrish. "I know that I have grown. I’ve even seen a lot of parents growing … not to mention the girls who play in the club.

"I know that God is using me to impact people’s lives," she continued. "He’s just using the sport of volleyball to get their attention!"

The club plays under the U.S. Association of Volleyball, the governing body for volleyball in the nation. Teams travel within the Carolina Region and, each year, some will play in at least one out-of-region tournament.

"Playing to win," Parrish wrote in a recent issue of Coaching Volleyball, "is meaningful only when coaches exhibit ethical conduct and demand similar behavior from their players. This, in turn, builds respect and trust within the structure of the team. When this happens, often regardless of the team’s win-loss record, the coach, players and the whole team will feel as though they have achieved success --- and indeed they have!"

It is hard sometimes to remain humble when the club has achieved such great success, says Parrish. "I am constantly reminding parents in our club (and myself when I get a little too cocky!) that the name of our club is H.I.S. -- not H.E.R.S! Our club verse is John 3:30: ‘He must become greater, I must become less,’ and we must give Him all the glory."

She added, "It is just such a privilege to be able to serve God by doing what I love to do – sharing God’s love by teaching the game of volleyball."

Parrish and the 1998-99 L-R Volleyball Team. In 1995 when L-R women’s volleyball coach Glenda Parrish organized H.I.S. volleyball club, the sport of volleyball was 100 years old. It was created by William G. Morgan, a YMCA instructor in Holyoke, Mass., who decided to blend elements of basketball, baseball, tennis and handball to create a game for his classes of businessmen that would demand less physical contact than basketball. Morgan borrowed the net from tennis and raised it 6 feet, 6 inches above the floor, just above the average man’s head. During a demonstration game, someone remarked to Morgan that the players seemed to be volleying the ball back and forth over the net and perhaps "volleyball" would be a more descriptive name for the sport than its original name "mintonette." On July 7, 1896 at Springfield College, the first game of "volleyball" was played. Today, there are more than forty-six million Americans who play volleyball and there are 800 million players worldwide who play volleyball at least once a week. The game was introduced to the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964.

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