By Terry Boehmker
NKy Tribune sports reporter
Ashley Bush had never played competitive volleyball before she joined the Northern Kentucky Volleyball Club (NKYVC) at the age of 11. Four years later, she had developed the skills she needed to impress college recruiters and accepted a scholarship from Northwestern University in her sophomore year at Ryle High School.
“I definitely owe that to the club,” she said. “They taught me everything I know and helped me get a scholarship. I’m confident going into college, feeling like I’m prepared and ready to take it to that next level.”
Ashley’s younger sister, Hayley, has a similar success story. She started playing on NKYVC teams when she was 10 years old and competed in national tournaments every summer. After a tournament in Chicago last year, she was contacted by the coach at Purdue University and landed a scholarship as a high school sophomore, just like her sister.
“This club really helped me get the scholarship that I wanted,” Hayley said. “With the support of my teammates and the great coaches behind me, I knew I always had to push myself to get better.”
The NKYVC has gained a reputation as one of the top clubs in the nation for aspiring young volleyball players. Based at the Town & Country Sports Complex in Wilder, the club has teams in 11 age categories ranging from 8-under to 18-under. The upper-level teams conduct tryouts to select players and compete in multiple tournaments that are attended by college recruiters.
It costs between $2,000 and $2,400 for high school-aged players to practice and compete with an NKYVC team from January to July, but it’s a necessary investment for any player who wants to compete in college. There’s a long list of current NKYVC players who have made college commitments on the nkyvc.com website. The club’s total number of college recruits since 2006 now stands at 119.
The Bush sisters were both recruited to play the setter position. That’s the player who directs a volleyball team’s offensive attack much like a quarterback does in football. They shared the setter duties on the Ryle volleyball team the last two years, but that rarely happens on the college level. They knew they would have to go their separate ways to play in college, but Northwestern and Purdue both compete in the Big Ten Conference and the campuses are located within 200 miles of each other.
“We’ve always wanted to play against each other (in college) so that was one of the main reasons I really wanted to go to Purdue,” Hayley said. “I would never want to go to the same place as my sister and take (playing) time away from her or have her take away my time. There would always be competition like that and we didn’t want that.”
Hayley said going through the recruiting process was a little easier because Ashley had done the same thing two years earlier. The sisters even prepared notes for Hayley to use when college coaches would call.
Neither of the sisters started out playing setter when they joined the NKYVC. Ashley was a middle hitter and Hayley was a libero defensive player on their first club teams. But the idea of being the player in charge on the court appealed to both of them so they each learned to become a setter.
“I really like setting,” Ashley said. “You get to control what happens and who gets the ball so everything’s on you. It’s a lot of pressure, but it also makes it fun. I love running the show.”
Ashley recently completed her final season in the NKYVC as the setter on the 18-under team. She and her teammates each received a silver bracelet with an initialized charm from the club as a token of appreciation for their dedication and sacrifice to the sport. It was an emotional sendoff for Ashley after spending the last seven years as a member of the club.
“I’m going to miss it,” she said. “It’s been like my family. All the coaches and players I’m really close with, so it’ll be tough not seeing them nearly every day like I’m used to.”
Hayley has one more tournament with the NKYVC Tsunami 16-under team. They’ll be in Orlando, Florida, next week competing in the AAU National Championships. When she gets back, Hayley will only have a few weeks to spend with her big sister before she leaves for college.
“She’s like my best friend,” Hayley said.”We always go everywhere together and talk about things. It’s going to be weird when she’s gone.”