Sept. 23, 2003

By Sara Hunninghake
Mizzou Media Relations

To say that Jessica Vander Kooi is a passive observer of the game would be an understatement. She might come across as the laid-back one on the team, the innocent freshman who quietly absorbs all of the action around her. But don't let her fool you.

Light the flame that glows inside Vander Kooi, and you've got yourself a forest fire. The seemingly reserved native of Hinton, Iowa, becomes energetic, aggressive and passionate when she steps on the court. Enough of a change to make you think: are we still talking about the same person here?

"I normally don't say too much, unless I really have something to say or somebody talks to me," Vander Kooi says with a laugh. "I sit back a lot and just watch and learn, not only by what the coaches tell me to do, but from my teammates as well."

Vander Kooi has already made her mark on a stacked Missouri squad that finished third in the Big 12 and claimed its first NCAA tournament victory in school history in 2002. Although she came in with no expectations about playing time, Vander Kooi said she was, "hoping for a little court time." She's gotten a bit more than that - try a spot in the starting lineup. She started at outside hitter in the first match of the Tiger Invitational, the team's first tournament of the season, and hasn't relinquished it since.

Vander Kooi doesn't deny that starting as a freshman has brought added pressure. However, she knows the challenges she faces are all part of the learning process.

"Coach always tells me that I'm a freshman, and I'm going to go in there and make mistakes, but I can learn from them. I can't expect myself to be perfect right away," said Vander Kooi, who is averaging 1.50 kills per game this season.

Vander Kooi came to Mizzou as a "Fab 50 Recruit" and a three-time All-State selection out of high school. She signed with the Tigers the summer before her senior year, which freed her from the stress of making the big college decision dreaded by every high school senior. She then went on to set the school record for kills in a season with 388.

Unlike most elite volleyball players, Vander Kooi only played club volleyball for her final two years of high school, both with the Nebraska Elite. Often times she would drive anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours both ways to practice , two days a week, depending on where practice was.

For Vander Kooi, choosing a college came down to the location and the coaches. Missouri was the obvious choice, in part because Columbia is only six hours from her hometown and because of her immediate connection with Susan and Wayne Kreklow.

"There's no one else I've ever seen that's like them," she said. "When I met them, I just thought that they were so nice. They really care about us as individuals and about us putting it all together as a team."

While balancing the rigors of college life is a major adjustment for most first-year students, adding in the title of "student athlete" automatically means learning to juggle even more, a trick Vander Kooi has had to pick up rather quickly.

"You have to learn time management. It's your job, basically," she said. "And you have to have everything planned out for the day - studying, practice, everything - to make sure you can fit it all in. It's really different. There's a lot more stuff to do than in high school."

Who knows where Vander Kooi could go once she becomes more comfortable with both college and Division I volleyball. Everything is still pretty new now, but don't expect it to stay that way.

In the future, that fire might become harder and harder to contain both on, and even off, the court.