Ten years ago, if you had told Katie Clark she was going to be a TCU athlete, she would have believed you.
Because of course she was going to be a TCU athlete — a Horned Frogs soccer star.
That was her plan from age 4.
Everything was in place. She was good and getting better, and she was nearby in Arlington. It wouldn’t be long.
Then, one problem.
“In junior high, they didn’t have a soccer team,” she said.
Now what?
“I said I’ll try out for the volleyball team.”
Just like that, a new plan was born. Not necessarily to play volleyball at TCU, but to get going in another sport. Before she knew it, the middle schooler became a high school star and a Division I recruit. For volleyball. By TCU.
“I grew up watching TCU soccer. I wanted to play soccer at TCU,” she said. “When the opportunity came to play volleyball here, I just couldn’t pass it up.”
In 2018, the Arlington High School product debuted with 194 kills for the Frogs, third on the team. In July, she became the first TCU player to earn a roster spot for USA Volleyball’s Junior National Team, competing at the FIVB Women’s U20 World Championships in Mexico.
The 6-foot-3 outside hitter is one of the reasons the league coaches voted TCU third in the Big 12 preseason poll, the school’s highest showing, and received votes in the preseason AVCA national coaches poll for the first time.
If you had told Clark she’d one day be competing at these levels in something besides soccer, she might have looked at you like you had three eyes.
“The beginning of my sophomore year, I was still thinking about soccer,” she said. “When I was maybe a sophomore in high school, I said maybe I do want to play in college and started getting into the recruiting process.”
College coaches were way ahead of her. They watched her win a junior national championship in club volleyball. At Arlington High, she had a school-record 2,329 kills and left as an Under Armour High School All-American. Simply put, she dominated.
“I knew when she walked into our gym for the first time that she was going to be something special,” Arlington High coach Kim Spencer said. “Normally, it’s very scary putting a freshman on varsity because you’re playing against seniors. And definitely, that first year she was kind of spinning in circles. But she thrived on learning and wanting to get better. She set high expectations for herself. You just don’t see that with any incoming freshman.”
TCU coach Jill Kramer also knew she was seeing something interesting in the spirited hitter.
She tells a story to illustrate: “I’ll never forget, her senior year, I went to her club. I coach at that camp every year. There are 20 or 30 college coaches that go, and the players rotate with their groups, all around the 24 courts. They play with every coach. And she was a senior — she was already committed to TCU. She’s just playing volleyball, right? You can imagine as a senior what they might be mentally. But the level of effort she put forth, and how into it she was for every coach, she was everybody’s favorite. Just because she worked and she wanted to get better and she didn’t care whose court she was on, she didn’t care who she was playing with — she was just going to go out there and try her best at what you were asking her to do. That’s just who she is. That’s what makes her special.”
If you tell Clark that, she might give you another look. She still wonders at times what she’s doing hitting balls over a net instead of into a net.
“I think I’m still growing into a volleyball player today,” she said with TCU on the verge of opening its season on Friday night. “I still think I can continue to grow and get better. I don’t have the mindset that I’m the best player. But I don’t have the mindset that I’m the worst player. But I strive to be the best player.”
Paula Weishoff saw it in person on the Team USA Junior National Team that competed in Mexico. The Concordia University Irvine head coach worked with the middle blockers, where Clark was asked to play for the first time since her high school days, and against top international competition.
“At that level, the middles are that much quicker, so for her, kind of getting back into the blocking aspect of it, at first it was a little hard,” Weishoff said. “You’ve got to read the setter, you’ve got to read their combos, and then you don’t get set a lot, you’re taking the block. You do a lot for your team. You have to be a very good team player.
“And then when she just relaxed and realized, it’s just like riding a bike — you’re back in the middle, it’s OK, you just kind of have your process. And she was fine after that.”
Weishoff smiled. She said she did the same thing when she played for Team USA in four Olympics.
“If I had to play volleyball now and be in the middle, I’d be like, ‘Nope!’” Weishoff said.
But Clark’s talent had again shone through. By the end of the international competition, she looked right at home.
“I can see her going where she wants to go,” Weishoff said. “She can make a lot of USA teams and she can help TCU compete at the top level. Their conference is pretty tough, and she’s pretty solid. I can see her doing some great things.”
For Clark, the experience was another reminder that she does belong on a volleyball court.
“It made me feel very grateful for this sport,” she said. “I was amongst the top 20 athletes in our age group. So it really made me feel like, ‘Wow, I can do this.’ It makes me want to work harder to become the best player I can be.”
If somebody tells you that about Clark, believe it.
(Photo by TCU Athletics)
