Jonathan Alder High School freshman Ellen Kennedy (right) is pictured with her beach volleyball partner, Clare Flanagan.
(Photo submitted)
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To reach the top of any sport can take years of training, focus and effort and for one local lady success came early.
Ellen Kennedy, a freshman at Jonathan Alder High School, found that success when she was ranked at the top of the Ohio Valley Region Junior Beach Volleyball rakings earlier this year. The earned ranking came after numerous trips on the road and a pair of ventures to the USA Volleyball Junior Beach Tour National Championships.
“It feels really good to be successful, because I’m really small and people underestimate me because of my height,” said Kennedy with a smile. “I like to prove them wrong,”
Kennedy started her volleyball career in the third grade as a way to have some fun with Hot Shots in Marysville. She then started playing for a club team called Xenith, playing floor volleyball.
However, it quickly turned into something more than just a fun thing to do.
“At Xenith they require you to play beach,” Kennedy said. “I tried it my first year and me and my partner didn’t really click together. However, I still enjoyed running around and diving, so I tried to find a partner that fit me better.
“I found Clare (Flanagan) and then it was none stop,” she said. “It was so much fun to win and crush everybody.”
The twosome started playing together at the start of the beach season in May of last year. They earned a a fifth-place finish and the ball didn’t stop rolling. They continued to find success as a team, moving from the Xenith volleyball circuit to the USA Volleyball tour, traveling to locations like Myrtle Beach to play in tournaments.
Their combined success led to them to reaching the top of the USA Volleyball tour at the National Championships in Milwaukee, Wisconsin last year where they finished 51st.
“It was kind of overwhelming because there are so many teams there,” said Kennedy, reflecting back on the nationals. “Once you think about playing in all of the little tournaments, you think you are really good.
But once you get to nationals, even the lower levels are good. You think, ‘I have to beat all of these people to win.’”
Beach volleyball isn’t the only volleyball that the small, but cunning Kennedy plays. She also plays floor volleyball with her club Sharks out of Urbana. This year, she made her way onto the Jonathan Alder freshmen team, where she played as a passer for the Lady Pioneers.
Even with the success of playing on the sand, Kennedy says she likes playing floor volleyball more.
“I like indoor, because I like to get the ball off the floor when a hitter is hitting at me,” she said. “Those are the balls that people think you can’t get up.”
Kennedy says that even though both venues of the sport are still volleyball, each are played completely different.
“They have the same skills, passing, setting and hitting, but the game is totally different,” she said. “You can’t set as much in beach (volleyball). It is a lot of talking and a lot of following and reading the hitters. “Beach isn’t really hitting hard, it is more of placing it short or going over their heads,” said Kennedy. “It is more about skill than it is power, which is what I have.”
With all of the time traveling to play volleyball, Nick Kennedy – Ellen’s father – said it provides him time with his daughter.
“It certainly brings us together, although our son might disagree that our vacation dollars are spent on a place like Siesta Key to watch volleyball,” said Nick. “But yeah, it gives me the opportunity to spend some time with her that I’m sure I wouldn’t get otherwise.”
For now, Kennedy just wants to continue to play the game she loves while meeting new people and proving that she has what it takes to be a volleyball player.