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RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Freshman Jamie Houston is ready and willing to learn how to be successful at the Division-I level.

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Houston hits Hawaii

The freshman hitter credits an
Olympic silver medalist
with molding her into
Rainbow Wahine material

She's gone from the kid who couldn't pass a volleyball to a two-time state player of the year to someone who spent time with the U.S. Junior National Team this summer, all in a matter of four years.

When the No. 4 University of Hawaii volleyball team begins practice tomorrow, Jamie Houston enters as the lone freshman recruit. A 6-foot-2 outside hitter, Houston is athletic, has a great vertical and, perhaps more importantly, is willing to learn what it will take to compete at the Division-I level.

"(She's) 6-2, great body type, fast jump, fast arm and great lateral movement," Rainbow Wahine associate coach Charlie Wade said of the first time he saw Houston play. "She competed hard and played with great passion. She's the type our fans love to see."

"I like it a lot (here)," said Houston, who has been in Hawaii for a week. "I like the atmosphere out here. The people are nice and the girls on the team are nice. I just feel like it's a second home."

Home for Houston is Huntsville, Ala., where a former Olympian turned the tall, skinny girl with glasses into a player who was recruited by nationally ranked programs. Before she even took the floor for her club volleyball team in the ninth grade, her middle school coach, Sue Marshall, brought her to the home of Rose Magers-Powell. Magers-Powell, a 1984 volleyball Olympic silver medalist and coach of the Rocket City Volleyball Club, was the mentor Houston needed to build her game and confidence.

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RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Freshman Jamie Houston doesn't have a long history in volleyball, but she has excelled a great deal since taking up the sport in middle school.

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"The coach had called and said, 'Rose, I need you to talk to this lady. She needs a mentor, someone to talk to about being a bold, strong lady' " said Magers-Powell, who coaches at Rocket City in Huntsville and Martin Methodist University in Pulaski, Tenn. "She came over with her coach and we talked for 4 hours."

Magers-Powell convinced Houston, who started playing volleyball and basketball during middle school, to come out for volleyball. She recalled Houston as a "tall, skinny little thing that could not pass. She had arms long as ever and couldn't do anything." At Houston's first practice, she jumped, missed the ball, but managed to hit it anyway. Magers-Powell's eyes got really big and she instantly knew she had someone special on her court.

"You can tell she was a good athlete by the way she walked and presented herself," Magers-Powell said. "After the first practice, I told my husband, 'this kid is going be really good.' She has potential that oozes out of her that people wished they had."

"I was pretty bad," Houston said of her first practice. "It was different."

With Houston under Magers-Powell's wing, her potential only grew on the court and off. Outside of practices, Magers-Powell trained Houston individually, putting in extra time in the gym. During the summer, Magers-Powell would even take her family down to the gym with her so she could train with Houston.

"We would come into the gym and she wanted it," Magers-Powell said. "She wanted to do the extra work, the extra camp. That was easiest thing because she wanted to do these things. Because of my background, I knew the things to teach her because I've been playing and coaching a long time."

"I wanted to work and I think being better is better for me," Houston said. "They (practices) were tough. We practiced three-to-four times a week."

By her sophomore season, Houston grew from 5-9 to 6-2. Colleges were beginning to notice her. Houston led her high school to three state titles, winning two state player of the year awards, and was named to Volleyball Magazine's Fab 50 list of top high school seniors.

"It was overwhelming," Houston said. "I didn't think at volleyball, I would be that good to play at Division I."

"She asked a lot of questions. She wanted to know what good athletes do," Magers-Powell said of Houston. "She started to believe she could really be somebody and these things could happen to her. To play on the national team, play professionally or play at the next level. If she didn't straighten up her act, those things could be far away from her. She became a pleasant and supportive young lady, not only on the court but off the court."

Houston credits her club coach for teaching her everything she knows and for keeping her head straight. The two even went on recruiting trips together, except for Houston's journey to UH.

"When things were going bad, she was always there," Houston said. "She's like a second mom."

Last summer, the Rainbow Wahine coaching staff found out about Houston. They corresponded with her and Magers-Powell, who told Wade "she'll be a good player." Houston took her recruiting trip to UH in October.

"On the trip, I had the mind-set that I wanted to come," said Houston, who had already visited other campuses before coming to UH. "But I had to talk it over with my parents."

"She came back and said 'Rose, I love it' " Magers-Powell said. "I asked 'did it have everything you wanted?' and she said 'it has everything I wanted.' "

Wade saw Houston play again this past March in Atlanta. Houston signed her letter of intent on April 13 and spent two weeks with the junior national team over the summer.

"She's not someone who has played the long storied club career as everybody else, like most of the players that come to us," Wade said. "(The junior national team) allowed her an opportunity to play with and against some good players and opened her eyes to see there are some good players out there and how hard she has to work to become one of the best in the country."

"We just knew she was relatively inexperienced but had a lot of physical ability," Rainbow Wahine coach Dave Shoji said. "That's the kind of player we've done well with. That got our interest. Maybe she was not on everybody's recruiting list but here's someone we knew we had something to work with. We think she can be a good player."

The coaching staff will get a better idea about Houston once practices start.

"She had to do everything (in club volleyball)," Magers-Powell said. "She had to pass, hit, play back row. I think with the quality of players and quality of coaching that I know Dave and Charlie are going to present to her, she will get better as soon as she gets on the court. She won't have to worry about everybody else's jobs."

"Physically, she's really gifted," Wade said. "She needs to enhance her skill levels. She's pretty well-skilled but needs to make both her passing and hitting more consistent. She can pass and hit at a high level. It's the consistency that will determine whether she's going to be a dominant player at college."