SE: Megan Vernon’s Late Journey to Canadian Volleyball, K-State Impact
Oct 02, 2019 | Volleyball, Sports Extra
By Corbin McGuire
The story of how Suzie Fritz discovered Megan Vernon is easy for K-State volleyball's head coach to remember.
Fritz, while in her office this week as K-State prepared to host Texas Tech on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., recalled the moment vividly. She was in the back seat of a car — "somewhere in Iowa," the 19th-year head coach said — on a recruiting trip with her two assistant coaches, Trent Sorensen and Jeff Grove, when technology turned it into an international excursion.
In the car on the way to watch a recruit play, Fritz received an email from a club coach in Canada. It was about Vernon, then a senior in Ontario and now a redshirt sophomore middle blocker for the Wildcats who ranks second on the team in blocks (46.0) and tied for first in solo blocks (6).
Vernon's highlights were included in this email.
"When the video came through, I think I was in the back seat, the guys were up front and I was on my phone, and you instantly say, 'Oh my gosh. Watch this kid jump,'" Fritz said. "That was really what attracted our attention."
Fritz passed her phone around the car. Sorenson and Grove both raised their eyebrows as they took in Vernon's leaping abilities. They soon learned she could reach a 10-foot-4 high point, something Fritz simply said is "hard to find."
The coaches also saw why Vernon, with this extremely rare athletic ability, was still on the recruiting scene when most volleyball players commit early in high school. She only started playing volleyball as a sophomore. She was named her high school volleyball team's MVP as a junior, however.
"In all honesty, she hasn't played volleyball for very long. She started as a pretty elite high jumper, and picked up volleyball pretty late," Fritz said. "So, it's all still pretty new to Megan. But she's incredibly smart, she's incredibly fast, and she's a very dynamic athlete. Those things kind of lend to some positive things for her."
Those, among other traits, came naturally to Vernon. Others, like patience, took some time to develop when she got to K-State.
Vernon redshirted in 2017 and played in one set last year, both of which she said "humbled" her. In high school, Vernon's pure athleticism helped cover up her lack of experience in the sport. At K-State, not as much.
Her mindset and her teammates, she said, kept her from getting discouraged, however.
"I learned to support the team from the bench and on the court. It's different but it's still the same in the fact that you need to have positive energy regardless of where you are," Vernon said. "We had a lot of middles, and they encouraged me a lot, too. I had a lot of people to look up to and they gave me guidance. They really encouraged me. Not even just the middles; Sarah (Dixon), she would work with me. I felt encouraged and I never felt down because I wasn't playing, but I knew that my opportunity would come, eventually, and I just needed to keep working."
Through her work, Vernon learned to lean on a strength of hers: Blocking. It, more than offense, was something she quickly developed. She could challenge her teammates with it. She knew it would be her way on the court, in time.
"The coaches really wanted me to work on my blocking and reading at the net. It's something I liked to focus on because I wasn't always getting a lot of kills but something that motivated me to keep going was (the fact that) I was a good blocker," Vernon said. "I was, like, 'If I'm good at this, I can be good at other aspects of my game, too.' Even if I was having an off day somewhere else, I would be, like, 'Maybe I'm not going to get a kill right now but if I can get a block or a good touch, then that's something I can feel like I'm being productive with and helping out the team.'"
Blocking has predominantly been how she's helped K-State this season. Rotating in behind senior Peyton Williams, Vernon has more blocks (46.0) than kills (45). While a somewhat odd statistic, Fritz said it's the type of production she wants out of Vernon right now.
"It needs to be her thing. It needs to be her identity. Ideally, every player has one thing that they do great, and I think for Megan, that's her thing," Fritz said. "She takes a lot of pride in it. She gets a lot of opportunities to do it, and I think she understands that's where she helps her team the most."
Like Vernon did against TCU, when she collected a career-high eight blocks. K-State posted a season-high 18 blocks to open Big 12 play on a positive note. It marked K-State's third-highest total in program history in a four-set match (rally scoring) and its highest total since 2014, ironically when Vernon first started playing volleyball.
Five years later, Vernon's progress has been nothing short of "tremendous," Fritz said. Her teammates have taken notice this season, making sure to celebrate each and every block from Vernon a little extra.
"When Megan does something really well, the whole team over-celebrates, I think, because of how they feel about her. They love seeing her have some success, and, partially, that comes from where she started and where she's at now. To see her being able to have some success and be able to get into more of a playing role, I think her teammates really see that and celebrate that with her."
Vernon gave the credit right back to those teammates and K-State's coaching staff. That highlight tape her Canadian club coach sent? She said there were barely any blocks on it. Now, those clips sit on a USB drive, but Vernon refuses to watch them.
"I can't look at it," she laughed.
She's come so far, it's hard to look that far back. Vernon, however, admitted it's rewarding to reflect on how her first two years at K-State are paying off.
"It feels good," Vernon, who has a solo block in five of the last six matches, said. "I learned to be patient with myself. I think working to this point taught me a lot of about myself and my confidence, too. It was hard the last two years, but it was worth it in the end."
The story of how Suzie Fritz discovered Megan Vernon is easy for K-State volleyball's head coach to remember.
Fritz, while in her office this week as K-State prepared to host Texas Tech on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., recalled the moment vividly. She was in the back seat of a car — "somewhere in Iowa," the 19th-year head coach said — on a recruiting trip with her two assistant coaches, Trent Sorensen and Jeff Grove, when technology turned it into an international excursion.
In the car on the way to watch a recruit play, Fritz received an email from a club coach in Canada. It was about Vernon, then a senior in Ontario and now a redshirt sophomore middle blocker for the Wildcats who ranks second on the team in blocks (46.0) and tied for first in solo blocks (6).
Vernon's highlights were included in this email.
"When the video came through, I think I was in the back seat, the guys were up front and I was on my phone, and you instantly say, 'Oh my gosh. Watch this kid jump,'" Fritz said. "That was really what attracted our attention."
Fritz passed her phone around the car. Sorenson and Grove both raised their eyebrows as they took in Vernon's leaping abilities. They soon learned she could reach a 10-foot-4 high point, something Fritz simply said is "hard to find."
The coaches also saw why Vernon, with this extremely rare athletic ability, was still on the recruiting scene when most volleyball players commit early in high school. She only started playing volleyball as a sophomore. She was named her high school volleyball team's MVP as a junior, however.
"In all honesty, she hasn't played volleyball for very long. She started as a pretty elite high jumper, and picked up volleyball pretty late," Fritz said. "So, it's all still pretty new to Megan. But she's incredibly smart, she's incredibly fast, and she's a very dynamic athlete. Those things kind of lend to some positive things for her."
Those, among other traits, came naturally to Vernon. Others, like patience, took some time to develop when she got to K-State.
Vernon redshirted in 2017 and played in one set last year, both of which she said "humbled" her. In high school, Vernon's pure athleticism helped cover up her lack of experience in the sport. At K-State, not as much.
Her mindset and her teammates, she said, kept her from getting discouraged, however.
"I learned to support the team from the bench and on the court. It's different but it's still the same in the fact that you need to have positive energy regardless of where you are," Vernon said. "We had a lot of middles, and they encouraged me a lot, too. I had a lot of people to look up to and they gave me guidance. They really encouraged me. Not even just the middles; Sarah (Dixon), she would work with me. I felt encouraged and I never felt down because I wasn't playing, but I knew that my opportunity would come, eventually, and I just needed to keep working."
Through her work, Vernon learned to lean on a strength of hers: Blocking. It, more than offense, was something she quickly developed. She could challenge her teammates with it. She knew it would be her way on the court, in time.
"The coaches really wanted me to work on my blocking and reading at the net. It's something I liked to focus on because I wasn't always getting a lot of kills but something that motivated me to keep going was (the fact that) I was a good blocker," Vernon said. "I was, like, 'If I'm good at this, I can be good at other aspects of my game, too.' Even if I was having an off day somewhere else, I would be, like, 'Maybe I'm not going to get a kill right now but if I can get a block or a good touch, then that's something I can feel like I'm being productive with and helping out the team.'"
Blocking has predominantly been how she's helped K-State this season. Rotating in behind senior Peyton Williams, Vernon has more blocks (46.0) than kills (45). While a somewhat odd statistic, Fritz said it's the type of production she wants out of Vernon right now.
"It needs to be her thing. It needs to be her identity. Ideally, every player has one thing that they do great, and I think for Megan, that's her thing," Fritz said. "She takes a lot of pride in it. She gets a lot of opportunities to do it, and I think she understands that's where she helps her team the most."
Like Vernon did against TCU, when she collected a career-high eight blocks. K-State posted a season-high 18 blocks to open Big 12 play on a positive note. It marked K-State's third-highest total in program history in a four-set match (rally scoring) and its highest total since 2014, ironically when Vernon first started playing volleyball.
Five years later, Vernon's progress has been nothing short of "tremendous," Fritz said. Her teammates have taken notice this season, making sure to celebrate each and every block from Vernon a little extra.
"When Megan does something really well, the whole team over-celebrates, I think, because of how they feel about her. They love seeing her have some success, and, partially, that comes from where she started and where she's at now. To see her being able to have some success and be able to get into more of a playing role, I think her teammates really see that and celebrate that with her."
Vernon gave the credit right back to those teammates and K-State's coaching staff. That highlight tape her Canadian club coach sent? She said there were barely any blocks on it. Now, those clips sit on a USB drive, but Vernon refuses to watch them.
"I can't look at it," she laughed.
She's come so far, it's hard to look that far back. Vernon, however, admitted it's rewarding to reflect on how her first two years at K-State are paying off.
"It feels good," Vernon, who has a solo block in five of the last six matches, said. "I learned to be patient with myself. I think working to this point taught me a lot of about myself and my confidence, too. It was hard the last two years, but it was worth it in the end."
Players Mentioned
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