12/2/2009
On To EKU
Reprinted with permission from The News Dispatch

Nick Dettmann
The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - An impromptu trip to Richmond, Ky. - a town of 32,000-plus people - turned out to be a life-changing adventure.

Marquette's Ashley Edmond and her father, Jim, packed up the car and off they went to Richmond. The purpose? To visit Eastern Kentucky University and its volleyball program. It's six hours from here down I-65, then 71, then 64 and finally 75. It's a half-hour away from Lexington.

It's not where Ashley Edmond wanted to go initially. It was too far away from home. But what did she have to lose? So she just went to check it out because she was told it would be a good idea to do so.

By the end of the weekend, she was proven correct.

EKU head volleyball coach Lori Duncan, sitting on the edge of a desk in her office, offered the four-time state champion a full-ride scholarship.

Beg your pardon?

Yes. A full-ride scholarship.

Ashley Edmond was surprised and grateful. And, just five days after receiving the full scholarship offer, Edmond accepted.

"I was just in awe," she recalled. "I was like, 'Oh my gosh. Are you serious?'"

How about dad? After many hours, days, weekends, years and a whole bunch of dollars spent on little Ashley, the Edmonds won't have to worry about a cent being spent toward Ashley's education. It's covered.

What a relief!

"We were sitting next to each and we were both in awe," Jim Edmond said. "It shocked me that it just came off that fast.

"... That's covering room and board, that's covering books, that's covering her schooling, that's covering a lot of the meals. It's a huge relief after all the years for paying for club and doing all the traveling. You just hope that someday it just pays off."

The interest in the 5-foot-10 senior was wide-spread and, in many cases, intense.

She drew interest from Toledo, Marquette University, Valparaiso, Ball State, Bowling Green and Alabama-Birmingham. And those are just the ones the Edmonds could remember.

The letters began entering the mailbox in Edmond's sophomore year. By her junior year, she was getting an estimated five per day.

She was even getting letters from schools showing their interest in her from schools she'd never heard of or needed to look at a map to find out where it was. An example? Southeastern Louisiana.

"I don't know if I want her to go down to Louisiana," Jim recalled with a laugh, remembering what he thought after receiving that letter. "... I don't know if I want to go all the way down there."

When the offer came from EKU, an NCAA Division I school in the Ohio Valley Conference, only UAB had shown the most serious interest. It told her if she went to UAB, a scholarship would be waiting for her. Others hadn't expressed what their intentions were.

Time was growing short. Edmond wanted to make this decision before volleyball season got into full swing. Edmond was so impressed with what EKU had to offer both athletically and academically, and she loved the town. Her mind was made up.

She officially signed her National Letter of Intent about three weeks ago.

"I'm really excited," Edmond said. "... Even though I'm going to miss everything I've done these past four years, I think it's just going to make me into a better person."

The opportunity to visit EKU came up during a club tournament at Purdue at the end of July, less than two weeks before the high school season was to start.

Marquette coach Troy Campbell was also there with Edmond.

There he came across an assistant coach from EKU - Corey Carlin.

At the camp, which featured many of the top volleyball players in the country, Edmond took the No. 1 attacker award. Carlin was impressed, and expressed his serious interest in her after a conversation he had with his boss, to Campbell, who then passed it on to Edmond.

"All right," Edmond recalled. "I'll just take a visit. ... I wasn't sold on the idea because it was so far away.

"But when I got there, it's just about how big the school is. But it's also about me being successful in the major I want to go into."

She bonded well with the coaches and players already there, and better with other teams she met with. She felt at home at EKU. It felt like home. The two towns - Michigan City and Richmond - are quite similar in Edmond's eyes.

"It reminds me so much of home," she said.

At EKU, Edmond wants to study nursing, specifically working with infants. She wants to follow her mom Lisa's footsteps.

"When I was little, I kind of played doctor all the time," Edmond said. "I like children. I thought it would be a cool thing to go into."

Those footsteps lead right to Eastern Kentucky University, and Edmond couldn't be any more relieved. And if she hadn't gone? She could've lost a full scholarship.

Nice to be wrong sometimes hey?

Contact sports writer Nick Dettmann at ndettmann@thenewsdispatch.com or 874-7211, Ext. 447.