Alaskan Connection: Volleyball Pals Carve Paths to Dallas College

By Jim McCurdy

DALLAS – Jersey Glass already had the grades and volleyball going for her. But last summer, she added the unofficial title as salesperson.

A sophomore volleyball player at Dallas College Richland, Glass sold her good friend Lourdes Lester on the Dallas College life.

"I was planning on staying close to home. I was already talking to a couple schools in Washington," Lester said. "I was fully ready to not move too far, but then my friend Jersey was like, 'Why don't you just try to e-mail all the Dallas Colleges?'"

Lester took her advice, connecting with Dallas College Cedar Valley coach Courtney Willis.

"When I got ahold of Coach Courtney, she made me feel comfortable," Lester explained. "She made me feel I was a good player. She also pushed for me to go out of my comfort zone."

That's just it. For both Glass and Lester, the comfort zone is the arctic zone. They both hail from Delta Junction, Alaska.

Glass graduated from Delta Junction High School in a class of 30. Lester was one of 40 from the same school. Both played high school and club, or as they say in Alaska, comp volleyball together. Since Delta Junction's population is less than 1,000, they had to drive an hour each way to comp practice.

"We just became so close with everything," Glass said. "Club is a lot of work. So I knew I put in that time, and I was like, 'Lourdes, we're going to find you a school. I know at least six campuses around me. It would be cool if you're in the same area. Dallas College is great, so you should just give it a shot.' And behold, she's just down the street."

It's almost if Glass laid out the roadmap for her, symbolic of the two driving the open roads in Alaska together.

"Part of me just wanted to not play it safe and go to Washington," Lester said. "I had no idea I was going to go to Texas. Not one part of me was like, 'I'm interested in Texas.' But the fact that the coach, she was just so amazing, both her and (assistant coach) Ariel (DeVault), it really made me want to come."

Seeds of the Alaska Pipeline to Dallas

A year earlier, Glass was in the market for a college to play volleyball. Richland's new coach Grace Wells needed players. New to the area, Wells didn't have a ton of connections to recruit local student-athletes, so she began reaching out across the country. Glass' high school coach told her about the opportunity, and she connected with Wells. Wells asked Glass if coming to Richland was something she was really interested in pursuing?

"She asked me to come here the next week," Glass said.

"I did," Wells said, matter-of-factly.  

"I'm not sure if she knew AK was Alaska, but I talked to my parents, and they were like, 'Let's go,'" Glass said. "Then I went. The transition was definitely very crazy."

Wells took over the program a little more than three months prior to Glass' recruiting visit that June. With the season beginning in August, time to make a decision was running short. Glass visited Richland with her parents, and liked it. Wells asked her again if she was sure becoming a Thunderduck was what she wanted? Glass didn't hesitate, and signed with Richland.

Spreading their Wings

Glass had never been in a city with heavy traffic, let alone extreme heat. Delta Junction doesn't have street lights. Still, she wanted to experience life in Texas, and what comes with the territory.

"It's super different from Alaska, literally the complete opposite of where we're from especially," Lester said. "By her just telling me to try it, that's what I did. When people ask me why I'm coming here, I say, 'for volleyball.' I liked Texas. I mean I do now, but it's just for volleyball."

Alaska and Texas, different? Really?

As temperatures in Dallas linger between the mid-80s and low-90s, in Alaska days range between 40s and 50s. Maybe that explains why Lester still dresses like she's in Delta Junction.

"She always has on some sort of sweater indoors, even when it's probably 80 degrees," Willis said. "She always has on some sort of long sleeve shirt."

Outfits aside, Lester feels at home in Lancaster now because her teammates and others she's met outside Dallas College circles welcomed her quickly.

"Not once when I got here did I feel I was an outcast," she said. "They made sure, my roommates especially, are like, 'Drink your water. Electrolytes.' I've had to push electrolytes down. It has been such a change for my body that it has hit me way harder than I thought it was going to hit me."

When she had to report to Cedar Valley for preseason camp in August, Lester and her mom flew to Washington, picked up her truck, which they had shipped there, and drove to Lancaster. That was the easy part. Making the decision to become a Sun was the big dilemma.

"When my coach asked if I wanted to visit here, and I was already on a trip, so I was in the area, so we took a flight," Lester explained. "I remember thinking there's no way I just made that jump. But then I met the coaches, I met the players. What I'm most proud of myself for doing was just doing it, just saying, 'Yes.' Some part of me, I have no explanation really why I did it, just in the moment, I said, 'Yes.' I just said, 'You're so comfortable with being close to home,' especially in Alaska in my town where I grew up in. Everyone's just comfortable staying there or not leaving."

Glass built a name for herself last year. She became a regular in the rotation, and earned National Junior College Athletic Association First Team All-Academic distinction for her perfect academic work. This year, Wells appointed her team captain. She's become a go-to hitter in the Thunderducks' offense. She leads the team in kills (193) and hitting percentage (.255), and already has more digs (115) than she had all of last year.

"She's very reliable and accountable," Wells said. "She's that kid that you tell her the expectations and the list of things you need her to get done … you don't have to worry about it. She's the type of kid you would describe as an international kid."

Wells grew up in China. She played for the Chinese National Team in 2003. She understands the international student-athlete mentality. They're focused, driven, and have a deep purpose for what they're chasing.

"They're intrinsically motivated to know what they want," Wells said. "You don't have to worry about why they're here. It's a different mental set. It's just a different type of kid."

Glass fits that mold.

"For her to be All-Academic, it was not surprising," Wells said. "She does things with passion. So that was expected. She has stepped up tremendously this year. She worked out in the summer without me telling her. She knows what she's coming into. This is her last year here. She needed to get herself together, and go to the next level or she wouldn't have a better option. That self-motivation is the basic foundation for an athlete to succeed. She has all that."

Glass attributes her teammates' commitment to improving as an added push to bettering her game.  

"I've definitely seen hard work from the returners, and that just motivates me to keep going," she said. "Because this is two-year, it's very motivating to get to the next place, especially because our coach does a lot of work to get us there."

Glass has roughly 20 four-year schools interested in her. Wells, a Seward Community College product who finished her career at NCAA Division II Academy of Art, has contacted many schools to find next-level homes for her players.

"There's a lot of opportunities that I feel like people miss out on because of the misconceptions with jucos," Glass said. "We get so many more skills, we get opportunities, we get looked at by other players. We play higher level schools. We're in Dallas. There's a lot of people around us.

"Mainly, why I wanted to come to a juco was to start with the training, and get polished by Grace Wells in this system. To be able to find a new place as a transfer is huge. You have some assets and some knowledge to make contributions at a bigger school."  

Diamonds in Dallas

Having a good friend in a new city – and a much bigger one than the only place they ever knew – is extremely comforting. Glass and Lester talk or text regularly. They've hung out in Dallas. Glass even pushed her pal out of her comfort zone, taking her line dancing.

"I guess that's popular here," Lester said with a laugh. "My teammates knew dances, and we don't do that at all in Alaska. No line dancing, at least where I'm from."

Glass laughs about it.

"I'm not a local, but I was like, 'Let me show you stuff that I've learned about Dallas,'" she said. "I bought some boots off Amazon, and I was like, 'Let's go line dancing. We're going to be all Texas now.'"

It's official. Now they're both Texans. It's not feasible for either of them to go home for Thanksgiving like most student-athletes. This year, they'll have each other to share that time together.

"I've tried to help her, but in the same way, she's done a lot for me," Glass said. "Just knowing there's someone from back home, going through the same process, we both grew up in the same town … it's nice to have some sort of family here."

"I'm just grateful to be here," Lester said. "I'm grateful I have a coach that checks up on us. I'm grateful that I have great players to play with. And I'm grateful that I have Jersey here, too, because she is still my best friend. We are really close."

Alaskan Authenticity

When Lester began shopping for a college, something about her stood out to Willis.

"I thought it was the most amazing thing that a kid from Alaska wanted to come to a small town in Texas," Willis said. "She presented herself in a way where it was like, 'I just want the right person to take the chance on me.' To me, I love kids like that who are able to be vulnerable with coaches in the recruiting process. Something about her just stuck. I always wanted to recruit a kid from another area than my own. I knew that volleyball was different on that side of the water.

"She's been a light in our gym. She's been working her butt off. She's been pushing her teammates. We've been having a lot of fun with her since she's been here. She always has this sort of gift for gab. I tell everybody if Lourdes was from a state closer to here, it would be like a New York or something like that. I don't know if it's Alaskan-type slang, but it's so … gift for gab."

Wells can't pick out anything Alaskan about Glass. The way she sees it, Alaska is just another pin on the map. Wells played overseas, and has been to Alaska, so for her, cultural differences are subtle.

"It probably doesn't make sense to anybody else, but location is just a name," Wells explained. "Geographically, just a name. There's no difference. It's just her, Jersey, herself. She is the one that interested me because the way she's driven. Her commitment, she came all the way down here just for a tryout, and she was serious about it. That right there, shows me a lot. That has a lot to do with it, not just because she's from Alaska."

Glass doesn't hesitate when asks what she misses about Delta Junction. It hit her as soon as she began calling Dallas her second home.

"First thing, night time, and I looked up, and I was like, 'There's no stars,'" she said. "I was like, 'That's crazy,' because of all the lights and everything. I remember we got to go a little West (on a team road trip to Snyder, Texas), and I looked up and saw some stars. Or any time I go back home and I look up, and I'm, 'OK, good. We're not trapped in some smog.'"

Two-Steppin' in Texas

It's one thing to have a player from Alaska attending a Dallas College campus, but two? Simultaneously?

"I think it's super unique, honestly," Willis said. "Not only is it significant for us to show that we can recruit from anywhere, and have some high-level kids coming from all parts of the country, but also, I think it's great for their part of the water just to be able to show that there's opportunities for them to play at the next level."

Glass says it's difficult for Alaskan players to make connections to further their athletic careers. It's not as simple as jumping in the car and driving to see a game – a luxury in the States many take for granted.

 "In Alaska, we don't get that opportunity," Glass said. "Any time, no matter what division you play, juco, four-year, DIII, DI, whatever, just being able to go out there and find a school is super impressive. I want to give a lot of credit to Lourdes for being able to do it. And there's a few other people in Delta that got to do it. It's something we should be proud of, especially coming from a small town."

For the past two seasons, Cedar Valley dubbed a home match "Hawaiian Night," where the gym is decorated in more orange and black, and you'll see Hawaiian leis around even the coaches necks. Next year, the Suns may have to save a date for "Alaskan Night" for Lester.

"I think that we need to do something so special for her for Sophomore Night," Willis said, chuckling. "It has to be something that's very close to home, something that she enjoys. When she first got here, she brought us all moose socks. So maybe something moose-themed for her for Sophomore Night."