Making dreams a reality

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Editor
 
Persistence, dedication and commitment, as well as a stubborn refusal to be denied a dream has resulted in an historic moment for a young Newcastle High School athlete. On Wednesday, Nov. 24, Avery Chick became the first male athlete in school history to commit to play collegiate volleyball.
Chick has participated in and enjoyed many different sports from an early age through both club and school sports. He has competed, and seen success, in swimming, wrestling, baseball, basketball, cross country and soccer, all of which are sports that are available to young men in the Newcastle area.
One sport, however, remained elusive to young Chick, one he desired to play above all others. Through determination and persistence Chick, along with his parents and coaches, has made the seemingly impossible happen as last Wednesday, he officially committed to Campbellsville University in Kentucky to play volleyball next fall.
“It all started back in middle school when I would spend recess passing the ball and playing Pepper with my girl friends who played volleyball,” Chick grinned. “I would be diving and doing crazy things to get the ball, and that’s when I started thinking that maybe I could actually play the sport.”
As a middle-schooler, Chick made it a point to watch all the Calves volleyball games, and during the Rio Summer Olympics in his eighth grade year, he was glued to the television for all things volleyball.
“That was really where the dream took root,” he reminisced. “I watched mostly beach volleyball, which was my first dream, but since we don’t have beaches around here, I decided that indoor would be my goal.”
As a freshman, with no obvious options available to him, Chick began to look around for a way to make his dream a reality. His mother, Tina Chick, suggested he check into the local AAU program to see if coaches would allow him to play on one of the girls’ teams in the spring. 
“Nicole McFarland was the coach for the U-16 team, and she let me practice with them, and I just kept bugging her to let me play and she finally gave in and asked if it would be possible for me to compete,” Chick laughed. “It worked and I got to play at the Spring Swarm at [Black Hills State University] my sophomore year, which was the first organized game that I played.”
That was when the possibility of playing at the post-secondary level really began to loom as a potential reality for Chick. 
“My dad [David Chick] played college sports so it’s always been kind of an expectation for me and [my brother] Aidan to be athletes,” he explained. “So we got into [Next College Student Athlete], and created a recruiting profile for myself to get my info out there to coaches at the next level.”
Without film, stats, or any real experience playing volleyball, Chick admitted that the profile was bare bones at best. 
“I didn’t even have numbers for my standing reach, vertical leap, approach jump, or blocking jump because I didn’t know that was even a thing at that point,” he explained. “Fortunately, I got invited to start practicing with the varsity and the coaches helped me out with getting those numbers figured out.”
“Somewhere around my junior year, I got my first email from a school in West Virginia, which was super exciting,” Chick continued. “But then they told me that they didn’t think it would be possible for me to play collegiate ball because I had no opportunity to play here in Wyoming.” 
Though it wasn’t something Chick wanted to hear, he had to acknowledge that it was a legitimate concern.
In order to try to establish a resumé, Chick took advantage of the opportunity to attend a volleyball camp in Denver, Colo., in the summer of his junior year. At the Pat Powers Camp, Chick was told once again that he would not be able to play in college because he had no opportunity to play in high school or in club.
Chick was stubbornly unwilling to accept that he would not be able to fulfill his dream, and returned to the Pat Powers Camp again the following summer. Powers recognized that Chick’s skills had improved through the course of the year, and taught him how to defend against more powerful hits, which Chick had little experience doing.
“He taught me how to execute the punch pass,” Chick said. “My mom and I talk about the fact that this was the single most influential skill that I have ever been taught, because that is what has made me as good as I am at this point. It’s also kind of ironic that he is the reason for my improved skills because he really didn’t believe in me at first.” 
At that time he had not received any offers for collegiate play, but had been talking to the coach at Campbellsville.
“It was kind of funny, because he had reached out to me and basically wondered if my NCSA profile was a joke,” Chick began. “He asked me if I was planning to go to any camps, which I was, and then invited me to come to their camp, which I jumped on.”
At the Campbellsville camp, Chick quickly earned the nickname the ‘Wyoming Cowboy’ and he admitted that the only way the coach remembered him was because he literally had no competitive experience playing volleyball. That unique quality made a lasting impression.
“He reached out to me a couple of weeks after the camp and told me that they wanted me to play for them,” Chick said. “After that, I just kept nagging him for advice on how I could improve, and he gave me ideas.”
Chick didn’t expect to receive any type of scholarship given his background, however, because the school is National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, they place an emphasis on academic scholarships over athletic. Fortunately, Chick is a talented student with a great grade point average, so they were able to not only offer him a decent amount of money for academics, but also a small stipend for playing volleyball as well.
With the plan to play as a libero — a defensive specialist — Chick was told to work on his serve receive skills, which he did throughout the fall with the help of the Lady Dogies’ varsity squad. 
“Now I’m committed and signed so the offer isn’t going away,” Chick beamed. “It’s kind of cool because I’ve proven that the time and effort I have put in to improve my skills — not to mention the broken household items my mom has had to sacrifice along the way — was all worth it in the end.”
Chick understands that he will likely not start as a freshman due to having upperclassmen already playing in the role, however he also has come to understand that nothing is beyond his reach if he works hard enough. 
“They signed another guy who is a year older than me, and he told my dad that if I was expecting to come in and start as a freshman I was crazy, but he wants me to prove him wrong,” Chick nodded. “He wants me to show him what he calls ‘Cowboy Grit’ so we’ll see. I’ve proved a lot of people wrong up until now, so I don’t plan to quit now.”