“Young ladies in this area grow up wanting to be at Missouri State, specifically the volleyball players want to play volleyball here,” said Missouri State Head Volleyball Coach Steven McRoberts. ”
Seven Springfield area girls are on the Missouri State volleyball roster.
“There’s a uniqueness to that because a lot of kids grow up wanting to get away,” McRoberts said.
Since 2006, Kickapoo has served up multiple volleyball players for this Missouri State program. This season, two former chiefs are on the squad: senior Kate Owen and freshman Kya Johnson.
“She was my idol going through Kickapoo,” Johnson said. “So the first few games when I got to watch her in the Kickapoo jersey I was like ‘I want to be like Kate Owens’.”
That was four years ago, Johnson was not on varsity like Owen. But now, they get to be defensive specialists together.
“I’m not sure how much I’ve actually spoken to her about this, but in a way I feel like me leaving as a senior and her coming in as a freshman is like me passing the baton to her,” Owen said. “And being like okay this is going to be your team and this is your leadership, and you come from a winning culture and you know what it’s like to be successful.”
It’s not just Kickapoo. Other girls on the roster come from Nixa, Republic, Ozark, New Covenant Academy and Willard. Going from opponents to teammates.
“We hangout outside of volleyball all the time,” said Willard grad and Missouri State senior Maddy Bushnell. “So just doing different stuff at our apartments [or] going to dinner.”
Creating memories off the court, that creates the chemistry shown on the court as a proud bear.
“A lot of them are like that was my goal as I was growing up, is to be where I am right now and that’s on this team, which is really cool,” McRoberts said.
