ASHLEY OGLE: Inadvertent advancement

Local student turns into a volleyball standout by chance

Sometimes it's the small things that change the course of a person's life.

When Ashley Ogle was a freshman at Las Vegas High School, some of her friends called her and asked her if she'd like to go to volleyball tryouts with them. Ogle went, discovered volleyball, and the rest is history.

Just wrapping up her junior season on the volleyball team at Hope International University in Fullerton, Calif., Ogle is probably pretty glad she went that day. The sport has now helped her earn two full-ride scholarships and given her the dream of coaching someday.

At Las Vegas High, Ogle was an all-conference, all-region star as a senior outside hitter on the Wildcats volleyball team under Sue Thurman. When Ogle was a sophomore, then-Wildcats coach Geno Frigoli called her up to play on the varsity squad for the playoffs.

Ogle also played softball for Las Vegas and was a second-team all-conference selection in both her junior and senior years.

Ogle was recruited by Taft College in Taft, Calif., to play volleyball by the Lady Cougars and head coach Kanoe Bandy, who offered her a full-ride scholarship.

"I went to Taft because of the fact I could play volleyball and softball," Ogle said. "I absolutely loved the coach (Bandy). She is absolutely awesome. In my sophomore year we went undefeated. We were CVC (Central Valley Conference) champs."

In her sophomore year at Taft, Ogle had 159 kills, 62 blocks and 309 digs in 100 games and was a second-team all-CVC pick in 2003. On the Lady Cougars softball team, Ogle was captain and earned an honorable mention on the all-conference team for her play.

After leaving her mark at Taft, Ogle decided to transfer to Hope where she also was offered a full-ride scholarship. Ogle stressed the need to go to a place where she could still play both volleyball and softball.

"I went to Hope because it was closer to home than Bakersfield was actually and my sisters live around the area and so it was close to them," Ogle said. "And it was another place that I could play softball and volleyball."

Ogle fielded offers from some bigger schools but wanted to go somewhere where she would get playing time.

"There's no use to being at some big, big school sitting on the bench when I get just as much recognition at a smaller school but actually playing," Ogle said.

In her first year at Hope this fall as a junior, the 5-foot-9-inch Ogle helped the Royals make the National Christian College Athletic Association Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, a feat that the team accomplished for the first time last year.

Hope tied for third for the second-straight year in the tourney, losing to fellow Golden State Athletic Conference member The Master's College in four games. The tourney's top-seed and host, Palm Beach Atlantic University (Florida), won the NCCAA championship by beating The Master's in a five-game match.

"Going in we weren't really expected to do much. We're in a really, really tough conference down here. So we went as the seventh-seed out of 10 teams," Ogle said. "Other teams were really mad that we got put in as the wild card as the number-seven seed."

Ogle, who had 50 kills in the five matches and who will be one of the leaders of the team next season in her senior year, thought her team could have done better.

"I think it was a good year but I don't think we lived up to our potential," Ogle said. "I think we should have done better than we did because we had a really strong team. We have a good chance of doing a lot better next year. We should have this year. We decided to show up sometimes and decided not to other times."

After guiding Hope's volleyball team to a season in which the team won 18 games, its second-most ever, Ogle quickly shifted into softball mode, where the team was just starting practices.

"Hopefully I can lead the team. I'm a loud, talk-to-everyone type of person and everyone else on the team seems a little bit more conservative," Ogle said.

Ogle, who is majoring in Kinesiology and would like someday to get into physical therapy, said she could see herself coaching someday.

"It would be awesome to be a coach. The actual feeling of knowing I could actually make someone better and have a team that's good ... that's awesome to me," she said. "When we do (volleyball) clinics and stuff, it's so cool to see these 5-year-old girls that come in that don't know anything and then they go out knowing something that I taught them."

Ogle, whose brother Austin is now a freshman at Las Vegas High, cites her parents as one of the big reasons she plays sports.

"My family is very, very sports-related," Ogle said. "My dad played every sport in high school that he could, and my mom played softball. And my mom and dad never missed any of my high school games. They are huge sports fans."


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