Valparaiso senior Kennedy Wagner remembers how quiet and shy she used to be.
With college approaching, the 6-foot outside hitter also knows she could end up back in the shell from which she emerged during high school.
“I’ve never played with these girls that I’m going to be playing with,” she said. “It’s a big, big step. My first year, I’m going to be completely nervous again. But that’s just going to be another good lesson for me.”
It just won’t be happening where she long thought it would. Wagner, the 2022 Post-Tribune Girls Volleyball Player of the Year, recently changed her college commitment from Mississippi to Clemson.
Wagner had picked Ole Miss during the summer before her junior year, but recent circumstances led her to make the switch.
In mid-October, Ole Miss coach Kayla Banwarth was placed on leave while the athletic department announced it was launching a review of the program. Wagner had already reopened her college recruitment when Banwarth and Ole Miss agreed to part ways just before Halloween.
“That news was a shock to me,” Wagner said. “I talked with my parents and my recruiting coordinator, asking what I should do. I told Ole Miss that they were still an option, but I needed to have more options in case something happened.”
Wagner also talked with her older sister, Serena, a 2019 Valparaiso graduate who committed to Butler early in her high school career but transferred to Southeastern Louisiana after one year and was the freshman coach at Valparaiso this past season.
“I was at work when I got the text that she’d decommitted, and my first text back was, ‘What happened?'” Serena Wagner said. “I told her that this was her shot to look at what these schools are going to give you. She’s a stud. Anybody would take her.”
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That second recruiting period didn’t last long. In the second weekend of November, Kennedy Wagner made trips to Virginia and Clemson.
A few days later, she committed to Clemson.
“It’s where I see myself actually fitting in,” Kennedy Wagner said. “I fell in love with the culture of the program and how close that team is and the dynamic of the coaching staff. The campus is beautiful. They want to build a program, and I want to be part of that.”
Serena Wagner had a feeling that’s where her sister would end up too.
“You could tell that she was happy when she was at Virginia,” Serena Wagner said. “But when she went to Clemson, it brought tears to my eyes because that’s the happiest I’ve ever seen her.”
With her college future settled, Kennedy Wagner said she has had some time to reflect on her Valparaiso career.
“That program has changed me as a person,” she said. “Without it, I wouldn’t have made so many friends or accomplished so much or grown as a player without the support from that program.”
Kennedy Wagner’s career ended with cartoonish numbers — 1,646 kills and 1,136 digs — in four varsity seasons, but Vikings coach Katie Lenard’s memories of her have less to do with any statistics and more to do with daily interactions with her teammates.
“It would’ve been easy for her to not help anybody, to think that she’d done everything she’d needed since she’d secured a spot for college,” Lenard said. “But she put herself in the mindset of those younger kids, figuring out what they’re thinking about right now and what would’ve helped her back then.”
Wagner’s contributions to the team were obvious during a match, but Lenard also said Wagner’s impact could be felt for several seasons in the future as the younger athletes that Wagner mentored continue to take steps forward in their careers.
“We got to see a lot of that this year and also last year because we only had one senior then,” Lenard said. “She’s been really good with the younger kids, leading by example and helping them out with volleyball things, with conditioning, with schoolwork, everything. She’s been a good mentor.”
Wagner was guided by the principle of never wanting to be the person who got in the way of someone else’s development. Right now, there could be a freshman or a sophomore on the Valparaiso roster who is just like Wagner used to be — a quiet, timid underclassman who ends up going to a Division I program.
“When I was younger, I didn’t know how far I was going to go with volleyball,” she said. “And I loved working with people who are so determined to work hard, no matter what. And they shouldn’t give up on their path because they never know what’s going to happen.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.