High-School Volleyball / All-State Series -- Riverside's Coffey Gets In One Last Career Perk

AUBURN - It started with fears and tears.

But Jennifer Coffey's high-school volleyball career will finish with nothing but cheers as Coffey plays in the All-State series that begins tomorrow at Shadle Park in Spokane.

Coffey, a 1999 graduate of Auburn Riverside, is one of five South Puget Sound League players on the Class 4A West team. She joins Eva Babcock and Desiree Linnell of Auburn, Natasha Kozen of Sumner and Jenny Medl of Puyallup. Auburn Riverside teammate Annie Wagner and Kelsey Case of Enumclaw are alternates, and the squad is coached by Tony Batinovich of Puyallup and Kathy Harris of Federal Way. Harris retired at the end of the school year.

The 3A West team features a pair of Mount Rainier players, Liz Bishop and Courtney Schilz, and their coach, Dawn Bechtholdt. Fife's Erin Miller and Melissa Widdicombe also made the squad. There are no South End representatives on the 2A/A/B West team.

Tomorrow's game times are 4 p.m. (2A/A/B), 6 p.m. (3A) and 8 p.m. (4A). The series moves to Wenatchee on Friday (same game times) and concludes Saturday at Fife High School with starts at 3 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Coffey, two months shy of her 18th birthday, could be the youngest player on the court. She was a skinny, wobbly-legged 13-year-old when she first started as a freshman at Auburn Riverside, which had just opened without seniors.

"All the older players used to tease me," Coffey said. "They were all bigger and I thought, `I'm never going to get big like that.' Now I lift (weights) every day.

"I didn't really live volleyball very much at first. The older girls were mean to me. They used to make me cry. I couldn't do anything right. I'd go home crying all the time."

Coffey, who lives on Tapps Island, sometimes wished she had gone to Sumner High School (students in that area have a choice). But that feeling quickly dissipated.

"I love it here," she said, sitting in the gymnasium foyer. "We got to set the tradition here. We were volleyball. Everyone knew us. Everyone really supported us. We really made a name for ourselves."

Within three years, the Ravens had won a share of the SPSL North Division championship with rival Auburn, a traditional power. They went on to capture the West Central 4A District title and reach the state semifinals before settling for third place. Last fall, the team was ranked No. 1 early in the season and wound up sixth at state - a bit of a disappointment, Coffey admits. She does not accept underachievement easily. "I'm soooo competitive," she said. "A perfectionist. I get mad, not really at anyone, but like, `Why are we playing so stupid?' Like Coach (Chris) Leverenz says, I'm really my own biggest critic. I'll take myself out of a game long before anyone else does."

Coffey, a 5-foot-10 outside hitter with a full scholarship to Northeastern Louisiana University, slowly built a reputation as a major talent with a major attitude. Although Coffey was the leading point-getter in the coaches' voting for the All-SPSL North team, the coaches ultimately went with Linnell and Alissa Tarsuik of Kent-Meridian as co-MVPs.

"Her attitude changed as a senior," Leverenz said. "But she had a reputation of, what, hot-head, or arrogant or egotistical? When you know Jen, she's so opposite of that. Sometimes with kids, what you see on the outside is just a cover-up for what's on the inside."

Coffey, who set single-season school records for aces (80), kills (467) and passing percentage (72 percent) as a senior, might have lacked confidence. It wasn't until Leverenz and assistant coach Stephanie Papke took her aside for a stern heart-to-heart after a loss to Auburn last fall that Coffey began to realize how important she was to the team.

"I wasn't a captain, but they told me, `Everyone looks up to you. You need to be a leader on the court.' It made me feel good to hear my team needed me," Coffey said.

Coffey tried to stay positive.

"I changed my attitude," she said. "I started worrying more about the team. If I was not happy with the way I was playing, I just had to move on and get over it. I used to just drag myself down. . . .

"Maybe I just grew up."

Leverenz admits Coffey is one of the most challenging - and cherished - athletes she has coached.

"Jen's all about business," she said.

"Of all the kids I ever coached, she's one of the kids I have enjoyed the most and appreciated, because Jen is always the same. Everything about Jen is all right here (on the table). You either like it or you don't."

Coffey likes the way her senior year turned out, especially with the all-state invitation.

"It will be a fun way to finish off my high-school career," she said.

With all cheers and no tears.